Joshua 2:21

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

She said, According to your words, so be it. She sent them away, and they departed: and she bound the scarlet line in the window.

World English Bible · Public Domain

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בַּחַלּֽוֹן

challôwn

H2474

“in/at the · window”

Preposition, Determined + Noun, Common, Both, Singular, Absolute

Appears 32× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears at Genesis 8:6

Full BDB Definition

Origin: unknown derivation

TWOT: 660c

window (piercing of the wall)

About this verse

These counts appear in no published source. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged text and Lemma’s own curated glosses. What Lemma adds →

11: words
11: distinct lemmas
Historical: section

Shared distinctive vocabulary

בַּחַלּֽוֹן window H2474 occurs in 27 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:

Grammatical profile

4 verbs
4 nouns
1 pronoun
1 adverb
1 particle

Verb forms

וַתֹּ֨אמֶר֙ Qal · Sequential Imperfect
וַֽתְּשַׁלְּחֵ֖ם Piel · Sequential Imperfect
וַיֵּלֵ֑כוּ Qal · Sequential Imperfect
וַתִּקְשֹׁ֛ר Qal · Sequential Imperfect

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 25 words from the Hebrew and 20 from the Septuagint (LXX English) — closely comparable.

A rough comparison of the two English renderings, which tokenize alike — not a word-level alignment.

Word counts can differ between the Hebrew and the Greek without any difference in meaning — e.g. the Hebrew direct-object marker אֵת has no separate Greek word, and Greek often adds the article ὁ.

In the original languages it is 11 Hebrew tokens and 13 Greek tokens — but the two are counted differently (Hebrew bundles its prefixes and suffixes into one token; the Greek is in lemma form), so that isn’t a like-for-like length.

Cross-references

Topical passages linked to Joshua 2:21 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

Joshua 2:18 Behold, when we come into the land, you shall bind this line of scarlet thread in the window which you did let us down by: and you shall gather to you into the house your father, and your mother, and your brothers, and all your father's household.
Matthew 7:24 "Everyone therefore who hears these words of mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man, who built his house on a rock.
John 2:5 His mother said to the servants, "Whatever he says to you, do it."

Cross-references courtesy of OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0).

Hebrew and Greek witnesses Masoretic Hebrew ↔ Greek Septuagint

The same verse in the two great witnesses to the Old Testament, shown verse-for-verse.

These are two independent witnesses, not word-aligned to each other, and the Septuagint is shown in lemma (dictionary) form.

Hebrew Joshua 2:21 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

וַתֹּ֨אמֶר֙ כְּדִבְרֵיכֶ֣ם כֶּן ה֔וּא וַֽתְּשַׁלְּחֵ֖ם וַיֵּלֵ֑כוּ וַתִּקְשֹׁ֛ר אֶת תִּקְוַ֥ת הַשָּׁנִ֖י בַּחַלּֽוֹן

She said, According to your words, so be it. She sent them away, and they departed: and she bound the scarlet line in the window.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX Joshua 2:21 Septuagint · lemma form

καί εἶπον αὐτός κατά ὁ ῥῆμα σύ οὕτως εἰμί καί ἐκ ἀποστέλλω αὐτός

And she said to them, Let it be according to your word; and she sent them out, and they departed.

LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) · Public Domain

Hebrew: Westminster Leningrad Codex (CC BY 4.0). Greek: Septuagint (public domain); English from LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) (Public Domain). How the Septuagint differs from the Hebrew →

Targum (Aramaic paraphrase)

The Targum is the ancient Jewish Aramaic paraphrase of the Hebrew Scriptures — an interpretive translation, not the Hebrew text itself. Onkelos (literal) and Pseudo-Jonathan (expansive) render the Torah, and Jonathan the Prophets. Coverage is partial: where no permissively-licensed English translation exists for a verse, only the Aramaic is shown. This is verse-level text, not a word-by-word alignment to the Hebrew.

Targum Jonathan Prophets (Joshua–Malachi)

וַאֲמָרַת כְּפִתְגָמֵיכוֹן כָּן הוּא וּשְׁלַחַתְנוּן וַאֲזָלוּ וְקִטְרַת יַת תּוֹרָא דִזְהוֹרִיתָא בַּחֲרַכָּא:

(no public-domain English translation for this verse)

Targum Jonathan — Aramaic: “Mikraot Gedolot” (public domain). English: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “London "Chaldee Paraphrase," 1871” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.

Commentary

Notes on Joshua 2:21 from classic Christian and Jewish commentators (each source and its license shown beneath its notes). The classic Christian expositions comment on the surrounding passage and are grouped to its opening verse, so a note may address several verses; the Jewish commentaries on the Tanakh (Rashi and others) are per-verse, so they appear only where the commentator wrote on this verse.

Lemma curates 59 commentaries, every one of them public domain or Creative Commons licensed, each selected and text-cleaned for this edition rather than reprinted as found. About our sources →

Joseph Benson's Commentary

Jos 2:21. In the window — Forthwith, partly that the spies might see it hung out before their departure, and so the better know it at some distance; partly lest some accident might occasion a neglect about it.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Geneva Bible (1599)

Geneva Bible translators

Or, scarlet colored.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown

she bound the scarlet line in the window--probably soon after the departure of the spies. It was not formed, as some suppose, into network, as a lattice, but simply to hang down the wall. Its red color made it conspicuous, and it was thus a sign and pledge of safety to Rahab's house, as the bloody mark on the lintels of the houses of the Israelites in Egypt to that people.

Next: Joshua Chapter 3

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

John Gill's Exposition

And she said, according to your words, so be it,.... She agreed, that if the conditions required were not performed, they would be quit of their oath, but if they were, she expected it would be fulfilled:

and she sent them away, and they departed; took their leave of each other:

and she bound the scarlet line in the window; immediately, as Abarbinel thinks, and in the sight of the spies, that they might see that she conformed to their direction, and that they might take notice where she fastened it; and that she herself might, at the sight of it, be put in mind of the design of it, and be an encouragement to her faith as to the safety of her and her father's house; and it being a thing so trifling and insignificant in itself, would not be taken notice of by the inhabitants, or be thought to be done with any design; though, according to the instruction of the spies, it seems as if it was to be done when they came into the land, and into the city, and which seems most likely that it was then done.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations

Forthwith, partly, that the spies might see it hung out before their departure, and so the better know it at some distance; partly, lest some accident might occasion a mistake or neglect about it; and partly, for her own comfort, it being pleasant and encouraging to her to have in her eye the pledge of her deliverance.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Whedon's Commentary on the Bible

Daniel D. Whedon

21. And she bound the scarlet line in the window — This statement is here made to complete the account, not to indicate that she bound the line in the window as soon as the spies were gone. She did this on the approach of the Hebrew host, in season to secure the deliverance of which this was the token. To have displayed it immediately would have been unnecessary, and would have incurred the suspicions of her watchful countrymen.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The Pulpit Commentary

And she bound the scarlet cord in the window. Not necessarily at once, but when the time for the precaution arrived.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

John Wesley's Explanatory Notes

In the window - Forthwith, partly that the spies might see it hung out before their departure, and so the better know it at some distance; partly lest some accident might occasion a neglect about it.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

Keil & Delitzsch

C. F. Keil & F. Delitzsch

When Rahab had accepted all these conditions, she let the men go, and bound the red cord in the window. It is not to be supposed that she did this at once, but merely as soon as it was necessary. It is mentioned here for the purpose of bringing the subject to a close.

Keil & Delitzsch — Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1861–1891) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API. (Old Testament only.)

Scofield Reference Notes

C. I. Scofield

scarlet line

The scarlet line of Rahab speaks, by its color, of safety through sacrifice. Heb 9:19; Heb 9:22.

The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Lesson kit

Teaching starters — assembled from the data on this page, not authored interpretation. Every prompt links to the verse data it draws on. Edit before teaching.

Joshua, in the Historical, opens this verse with 11 words (11 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is challôwn (“window”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

The word challôwn carries the sense “window.” How does it shape the verse?
How does Genesis 8:6, which shares the word «window», read alongside this verse?
These translations render this verse differently. What is at stake in choosing one wording over another?
«וַתֹּ֨אמֶר֙» is a Qal Sequential Imperfect verb. How does that grammatical form shape the action described?
Compare how Joseph Benson's Commentary and Geneva Bible (1599) read this verse. Where do they agree or differ?

Things to notice

This verse counts 11 Hebrew ↔ 13 Greek words.
These translations choose different wording for 6 words in this verse.
11 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 11 words in this verse.