Joshua 2:8

THE COVENANT BETWEEN HER AND THEM. (Jos 2:8-21)

she came up unto them upon the roof and said--Rahab's dialogue is full of interest, as showing the universal panic and consternation of the Canaanites on the one hand (Jos 24:11; Deu 2:25), and her strong convictions on the other, founded on a knowledge of the divine promise, and the stupendous miracles that had opened the way of the Israelites to the confines of the promised land. She was convinced of the supremacy of Jehovah, and her earnest stipulations for the preservation of her relatives amid the perils of the approaching invasion, attest the sincerity and strength of her faith.

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

Jos 2:8 And before they were laid down, she came up unto them upon the roof;

Ver. 8. And before they were laid down,] so., To take their rest, which in this fright they had little list to. "Sleep on now, take your rest," saith our Saviour by an irony to his drowsy disciples; q.d., Do so, if you can at least, now, with so many swords and halberds about your ears. {Mar 14:41}

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Jos 2:8-11. Before they were laid down — To sleep, as they intended. She came up unto them — Having got clear of the officers, to the roof of the house, where they lay hid. Here she informs them, 1st, That the report of the great things God had done for them had reached Jericho. Not only that they had had an account of their late victories, obtained over the Amorites in the neighbouring country, on the other side the river; but that their miraculous deliverance out of Egypt, and passage through the Red sea, which had taken place at a great distance, and forty years ago, were remembered and spoken of afresh in Jericho, to the amazement of every body. 2d, She tells them what impressions the tidings of these things had made upon the Canaanites; your terror is fallen, upon us, Jos 2:9. Our hearts did melt, Jos 2:11. If she kept a public house, that might have given her an opportunity of understanding the sense of various companies, and of travellers from other parts of the country; so that they could not have known this any way better than by her information; and it would greatly encourage Joshua and Israel to hear how their enemies were dispirited and cast down; especially as this was the accomplishment of a promise God had made them, that he would lay the fear and dread of them upon all this land, (Deu 9:25,) and so it would be an earnest of the accomplishment of all his other promises to them. 3d, She hereupon makes profession of her faith in God, and his promise; and perhaps there was not found so great faith, (all things considered,) no, not in Israel, as in this woman of Canaan. First, She believes God’s power and dominion over all the world, Jos 2:11. Jehovah your God — Whom you worship and call upon, is so far above all gods that he is the only true God; for he is God in heaven above, and in earth beneath, and is served by all the hosts of both. Secondly, She believes his promise to his people Israel, Jos 2:9; I know that the Lord hath given you the land — The king of Jericho had heard as much as she had of the great things God had done for Israel, yet he cannot infer from thence that the Lord had given them this land; but resolves to hold it out against them to the last extremity. For the most powerful means of conviction will not avail when despite is done to the Spirit of grace, and his influences are quenched or resisted. But Rahab the harlot, who had only heard of the wonders God had wrought, speaks with more assurance of the truth of the promise made to the fathers than all the elders of Israel had done, who were eye-witnesses of those wonders, many of whom perished through unbelief of this promise. Blessed are they who have not seen and yet have believed: so Rahab did. O woman, great is thy faith! Let those who ask, “On what principle she could receive into her house the known enemies of her country, conceal them from the searchers, and dismiss them in safety?” consider this her faith, and the foundation on which it was built, and they will be at no loss for an answer.

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

CRITICAL NOTES.—

Jos_2:9. Your terror is fallen upon us] As Moses had predicted forty years before; Exo_15:15.

Jos_2:12. Give me a true token] Rahab asks them to enter into solemn covenant with her, and to establish something as the usual token or sign. The sign of the covenant in this case was the scarlet cord named in Jos_2:18.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Jos_2:8-13

PHASES OF HUMAN FAITH AND DIVINE MERCY

Notwithstanding the labours of such writers as Josephus, the Jewish Rabbins, and Adam Clarke, who from worthy motives have tried to shew that Rahab was merely an innkeeper, or hostess, there can be no doubt to most people that she was the abandoned woman which our version declares her to have been. Kitto summarises the argument nearly as follows:—The balance of opinion among scholars supports our translation; the Septuagint renders the Hebrew word by an expression which all agree means “a harlot;” the Epistle to the Hebrews and that of James follow the Septuagint; Rahab, who is so careful about the saving of her relatives, says no word as to her husband or children; after her settlement among the Israelites she married Salmon, a Jewish prince; and, finally, there are no such persons as “hostesses” in the East. Volney says, “There are no inns anywhere, but the cities and commonly the villages have a large building called a khan or caravanserai, which serves as an asylum for all travellers. The keeper of this khan gives the traveller his key and a mat, and he provides himself the rest.” It is important, as it affects the gracious teaching of the Scriptures, that Rahab’s character be taken as it is set before us.

I. Some phases of this woman’s faith.

1. It seems, at the stage where the N. T. commends it, to have been only the faith of fear. It sprang from her terror (Jos_2:9-11). The strange and unprecedented passage of the Red Sea had appalled the Canaanites. The overthrow of Sihon and Og had alarmed them no less. The Amorites were a very powerful and warlike race. They had overcome the Rephaims or giants (Deu_2:20-21); they had driven out the Ammonites and Moabites. A contest with Sihon, therefore, was a terrible thing for Israel; but they had Ebenezers of mercy even then behind them, Moses with them, and God and His word for all the conflicts before them. The Amorites were utterly defeated, and their king slain. The kingdom of Og was even more formidable. The territory was far larger, the people very warlike, their king a giant, and their land crowded with fortified cities. For the armour of those days the very houses must have been as forts; they were built, we are told, of huge basalt rocks, having the walls, in some cases, four feet thick, and thick stone slabs, swinging upon pivots in sockets, for doors. But the battle of Edrei was decisive; Og was slain, as Sihon had been, and his forces were utterly routed. No wonder that the fear of the Lord fell on the Canaanites on the western side of the river. No wonder that the inhabitants of Jericho felt their hearts melting for fear. With Rahab’s fear there came something more; she was convinced that the God of Israel was “God in heaven above, and in earth beneath.” Her fear led her to faith, and her faith to fear still more. Is such faith “saving faith”? Yes, if you follow it up, and no amount of faith will save any one without. See how God has often aimed at the salvation of men by beginning with their fears. What else but leading men to faith through fear was God’s work through Elijah on Carmel, or through Jonah at Nineveh? What else had been God’s work with these Israelites and their fathers in Egypt and the wilderness? The ten plagues, the miracle at the Red Sea, the judgment on Korah and his followers, the fiery serpents, and many other wonders were designed to work awe in the minds of the Israelites, and, with awe, belief. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” in these days of the gospel, as well as in those days of old. It does not matter how we begin to be Christians, if we only go on, and keep on. What men want is to be made to think; thought on God will soon lead to decision, let the thinking begin how it may. If a sleeper awake at night in a burning house, it is of no consequence whether he sees the fire, smells it, tastes the disagreeable smoke, feels the hot air, hears the roaring of the flames within, or earnest voices calling “fire” from without. The one thing for safety is to know that there is fire, and it does not matter at all by which of the senses it was first apprehended. Let no one say, “I am so full of fears; I cannot be saved:” it is just as well for safety that we apprehend God through fear as through any other faculty or power of our being. After all, there may be more faith in fear than many think there is. No man should expect to begin a Christian life in songs of rich experience. If a rich man were to adopt a ragged child from the streets, the joys of childhood would not come at once. At first there would be timidity and pain at all the new grandeur; it could be only when the child got to feel it was really loved that it would gradually come into the child-feeling, and begin to store up filial experiences. The twenty-third Psalm was not written as the beginning of David’s piety. Peter wrote, “Unto you therefore which believe He is precious,” but he had to find all that out by a long, a varied, and often a most humiliating experience. It was only as an old man, who had learned how Christ had prayed that Satan might not “sift him as wheat,” how Christ had often forgiven him, often encouraged him, and always loved him, that Peter could say, “He is precious.” Go on with even the faith of fear; that also leads to an inheritance in the land.

2. Rahab’s faith was mixed with absolute sin. I do not know if she was immoral at the time when the spies came; many good people say she was not, trying to prove the next best thing possible. Why should we go so far about to prove this sinner almost a saint, in order to make her fit to be saved? Perhaps it would be better to take her for just what Scripture calls her. It is much more simple, more encouraging to many, and certainly more sensible. If the Saviour could say to the Pharisees, “The thieves and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you,” we shall do very little, excepting that we shall lower the grace of the gospel, by saying here of Rahab that she “had formerly been of ill fame, the reproach of which stuck to her name, though of late she had repented and reformed.” Any way, Rahab lied. Not a few good men, with laudable motives, doubtless, but with most unwise zeal, have tried to justify or excuse even this. Under no circumstances whatever can a lie be anything but sin. The morality of the great epic poet of the Greeks, call him a heathen though we may, is blessedly better than some of the casuistry which Christian men have written on this. Homer said bluntly,—

“My soul detests him as the gates of hell,

Who knows the truth, and dares a falsehood tell.”

With equal firmness and excellent definition good George Herbert also wrote,—

“Lie not; but let thy heart be true to God;

Thy tongue to it, thy actions to them both.

Dare to be true! nothing can need a lie;

The fault that needs it most grows two thereby.”

Some who begin to serve God are discouraged when they find sin mixed with their faith. Sin cannot make us too much distrust ourselves, but no sin that has penitence should lead to distrust of God.

3. As far as Rahab’s faith had knowledge, it also had works. James seizes on that feature. The woman hid the servants of God. She confessed her faith freely, and her confession is very wonderful. No amount of faith can be of any use without works. We may believe as much as the angel Gabriel, but not to work is to sin against all the additional light which goes with our faith. God garners faith in fruit, not faith in blossom.

4. Rahab believed in God in the midst of unbelief. She alone, in Jericho and all Canaan, seems at this time to have accepted Israel’s God for her God. It is all very well and sufficiently easy to believe what every one else accepts; can we dare to believe God when alone? Can we believe when all the companions of our daily life scoff at us? Can we hold our faith singly about particular truths or principles?

5. Rahab’s faith went with compassion and love. She had thought for the safety of her relatives. If we are doing nothing to save others, let us remember that no one can fill our place. No one else has our particular mind, or temperament, or experiences, or opportunities.

6. Rahab’s faith was only in God. She believed in a living being of great power, who loved the Israelites, and helped them so that none could stand against them. She was absolutely without any systematic creed. Creeds are good so far as we must have them, but we had better leave them to come to us, and not go in search of them. Max Müller has pointed out that though “nature is incapable of progress or improvement,” when men become familiar with any science they begin to classify its features. So the botanist began in time to classify flowers; and when men began to study language, that too entered upon its “classificatory stage.” Classification is the necessary outcome of knowledge. Men accumulate items of knowledge, and then, in order to remember them better, and understand them more thoroughly, they formulate and arrange them. A Christian with much experience and many thoughts of God must have a creed; he cannot help it; it is the necessary outcome of growth. But it is unwise for anxious souls seeking Jesus Christ as their Saviour to burden and perplex themselves with theology. Like Rahab, let them simply believe in Him who has helped so many of His people to such mighty victories.

II. Some forms of Divine mercy.

1. God’s mercy tends to strengthen faith from its very beginnings to its crisis. This woman had heard of the Red Sea, of the overthrow of Sihon and Og, and she believed. After her confession she is strengthened right up to the time of trial. (a) The Jordan divides; while the hearts of her neighbours became still more “as water,” how Rahab must have been confirmed in the choice she had made! (b) Then here was this strange procession of this vast army, marching round Jericho, for six days, once a day Not a shout was to be heard; the only noise was from those seven rams’ horns, which blew out their strange notice just in front of the ark, which was the symbol of religion and of God’s presence. How unlike ordinary fighting it must have seemed! Taken in connection with the circumcision and passover hard by at Gilgal, how superhuman the aspect of the whole campaign must have become! Every movement would be saying to Rahab, “The God of heaven and earth is undertaking all.” Surely the very strangeness of the siege, so terrifying to the Canaanites, would have tended to increase her faith. (c) On the seventh day, at the close of the seventh march round the city, each of the last six of which had been indicating the coming crisis, the people shouted, and the wall fell down flat, and the Israelites went up “every man straight before him into the city.” It seems as though the wall fell down entirely round the city, so that the men who surrounded the city had not to walk some one way and some another to various breaches, but there was an open path before them all. We find, however, that Rahab’s house was upon or against the wall, and yet that fell not; for the spies went in, and brought her and her family out in safety. Here, then, in the very crisis of trial, God gave this woman a sign which seemed to say within her, “Israel has covenanted with me, and, lo, the God of Israel makes the covenant of His people His own bond also!” All the wall, or much of it, had fallen; her house stood firmly. Thus from its beginning to its greatest ordeal does God’s mercy graciously provide means to sustain and strengthen this woman’s faith. Is Divine mercy less careful for us? No; to us all, if we will only look, God gives increasing light. “The path of the just is as the shining light, which shineth more and more unto the perfect day.

2. God’s mercy is very pitiful in its estimate of human surroundings. Only this woman’s faith is spoken of in the N. T.; nothing whatever is said of her lie; and while she is called a harlot, there is no upbraiding of her because of past sin. The good is proclaimed with honour; the evil is recognised, but the very terms in which it is named seem to treat it as forgiven. Thus God “hides His face” from our transgressions, and our sin He “covers.”

3. God’s mercy is seen giving exceptional faith conspicuous honour. (a) This woman marries a prince in Israel; (b) becomes a progenitor of our Lord; (c) and has most honourable mention in the New Testament. Christ comes through all sorts of characters, and through all ranks of society; some ancestors are kings, and some are the poor. He seems to say by the very manner of His coming that He appears on earth for all sorts of sinners, and for all ranks and conditions of men. It is significant, too, that Christ’s parents—the last in the line of genealogy—are poor, as though even the birth of the Saviour should lay its emphasis on the after word, “To the poor the gospel is preached.” When sinful Rahab stands in the line of so much honour, faith in any one may well anticipate “the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him.”

4. God’s mercy is seen saving “all them that believe,” even though faith may be poor and small. Rahab had only the faith of fear, and she and her family were delivered from death; doubtless the wonders of God’s mercy, when Jericho fell, led her into a larger trust and a holier life. We cannot but look on her as in heaven, when we see her so commended in the New Testament. So does God encourage even fear, and so does He teach our feeble faith to hope in His mercy.

SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON THE VERSES

Jos_2:8-12. THE DIFFERING MEASURES OF LIFE’S INFLUENCE ON MEN.

“I know that the Lord” (Jos_2:9); “WE have heard how the Lord” (Jos_2:10). “WE heard, and OUR heart did melt” (Jos_2:11). “Now therefore I pray you” (Jos_2:12). All had heard the same things, and all feared; only one prayed, and only one believed and worked the works of faith.

I. There are multitudes who hear of the Lord, but the voice of the Lord is one voice to them all. Some men hear or see more of the Lord’s deeds than others, but, substantially, the deeds all “speak the same thing.” There are no contradictions; the works and words are all in one direction.

1. The teachings of NATURE are substantially the same everywhere. “The testimony of the rocks” is one testimony to all who read it aright. Each flower and blade of grass and tree alike tells of creative wisdom, power, and love. The voice is the same in all places. So it is of the “great and wide sea, wherein are things creeping innumerable.” “The heavens declare the glory of God.… There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard. Their line [or teaching] is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world;” and the words are the same wherever men will listen to them and search out their meaning. African stars, American heavens, the Asian firmament, and the European sky, all speak in harmony. In the hymn usually attributed to Addison, but recently claimed, and apparently with good reason, as Andrew Marvell’s, we sing—

“The spangled heavens, a shining frame,

Their great Original proclaim;”

and they proclaim Him without contradiction, and, unlike men, without controversy. Law everywhere preaches the same thing about fire and water, about heat and actinism and colour, about chemical properties and mechanical appliances, about obedience to its precepts on the one hand, or our transgression of them on the other.

2. The teachings of Providence have been everywhere similar. In all times the wicked have often been found to “flourish like a green bay tree,” and the true-hearted have often been “an afflicted and poor people;” yet the industrious and the wise have ever had their reward. Sudden accidents and calamities have been the heritage of all the ages. Similar weaknesses, sicknesses, diseases, bereavements, graves, have been, from the first proclaiming one providence for all times and lands.

3. The teachings of Human History are similar. Man’s sins—his wars, murders, lyings, duplicity, mere pleasure-seeking, his pride and selfishness—have always tended to degradation and misery: Man’s virtues—his sympathy, self-denial, generosity, love, meekness—have always worked peace, and brought a goodly heritage.

4. The teachings of the Human Conscience and the Heart have never materially differed. Conscience has brought fear to the wicked and peace to the pure, from the day when Adam hid himself till now. The heart that has lived merely for this world has always had its sense of emptiness. Human desires and yearnings and hopes have ever gone out to things beyond death.

5. The teachings of the Bible have ever been in one direction. The early times had not so much light as these latter days, in which God has spoken unto us by His Son, but the light has ever shewn one path, having but one kind of traveller, and one hope and end for them all.

II. When the mightier works of the Lord and His sterner words have been forced prominently on the thoughts of men, they have always tended to work fear and despondency. Now some divided sea, now the smiting of mighty kings who could have helped them, and now promises of a heritage to some one else which threatened them with dispossession, have, all through human history, made the hearts of men “to melt.” Disastrous earthquakes, the ravages of epidemic disease, appalling accidents, the threatenings of the Scripture against idolatry and all sin, have, when forced suddenly on the attention, made men’s hearts “as water.” Power, when not understood, ever works awe.

III. While the works and word of the Lord bring fear to all men at first, in some fear gives place to faith, and desire, and love. The inhabitants of Jericho all heard and trembled; only Rahab passed out of fear into faith and service. Nothing is more marked in the Bible than this differing measure of influence wrought by the same word. Whether the risen Saviour has revealed Himself to men, or Paul has preached at Athens or in his own lodging at Rome, it has ever had to be written, “And some believed the things which were spoken, and some believed not.” How are we hearing? “He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.”

Jos_2:9 only.

I. The testimony of those who are weak and untaught. “I know,” said Rahab; what witness should we bear? “Much is given” to us;—education, associations, godly parents, Christian teachers, an entire gospel of mighty and merciful works.

II. The confidence of the weak and untaught. “I know,” etc. In all Rahab’s gospel there was not a single promise. She only saw two or three of the mighty acts of the Lord, yet she believed, doubting nothing. Our gospel has the cradle, the promises, the tenderness, and even the tears and the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.

III. The encouragement given by the weak and untaught. “The Lord hath given you the land,” etc. Rahab was with these Israelites “in much assurance;” she might have no promise of her own, she would read and understand and proclaim the blessedness of theirs.

Jos_2:10-11. COMING TO A KNOWLEDGE OF THE TRUTH.

I. The use of religious memories. The miracle of the Red Sea had taken place forty years before. This was a period equal to half a lifetime. If living then, Rahab could have been only a child. Perhaps, to her, the miracle was only a tradition; but she thought on it, and it helped to lead her to a conclusion.

1. We want help from all the faculties of our being when we are seeking to know the Lord. Within, we have much to dim our vision: pride, self-love, and sin in many forms. Without, temptation has a thousand fair disguises, and every time we sin we hide God from our eyes. We might as well try in the same instant to look north and south, to the sky over our heads and the earth at our feet, as to seek sin and see God. To know Him, we need each power of our being for that one purpose.

2. Memory, however, is peculiarly helpful in getting this knowledge. (a) Memory brings to us life’s select teachings. We look through our family albums, and do not find there cartes in general; they are not portraits of Her Majesty’s army or navy; they are select—every face is the face of a friend. We look through our Bibles, and we have in them favourite passages which fill us with peace; and we know far better where to find our twenty-third Psalm, or our fourteenth of John, than some name in the genealogies, or some obscure incident written in the book of Chronicles. So when we look through our minds, many things are hidden by time, only select memories come up, and these, where they are religious, are the most beautiful and the most helpful. (b) Memory often brings delineations of God from the past which are both clearer and purer than our present impressions. They are pictures of our childhood, at once full of realism and full of innocence. (c) Memory might bring up, not only its visions of the past, but its reproof in the present. Rahab, and we not less, might find room to ask, “How am I, compared with my thoughts of God years ago? what has my life been since—alas! what? Have I grown in the knowledge of Him?” Memory helped her to decide in this her last opportunity; destruction soon came, suddenly as at the Sea, and these few moments with the spies were standing for her eternity. What of our moments; are they equally important? what of our memories; are we using them, while yet there is time, to help us to know Him, “whom to know is eternal life”?

II. The blessings of observation and reflection. “The two kings of the Amorites” had fallen but recently. The victories obtained over them made this woman think. Some pass through life seeing but little, and not reflecting on even that. Life is a stream which runs past them; they see its waters shimmer in the sunlight, and hear the cheerful ripple, the soft murmuring, or the ceaseless roar of its progress, but they never stoop to drink. Life carries everything past them, and brings them nothing which they make their own. Who can wonder if danger and death overtake them while yet unprepared?

III. The value of cumulative evidence and repeated emotions. The Red Sea made Rahab do nothing, the death of Sihon does not apparently move her to any works, the overthrow of Og leaves her still in Jericho; but the coming of the spies, and their conversation, added to all that went before, make her covenant for her salvation.

1. The unused evidence of life. No man can destroy this evidence. It is accumulating either to (a) gradually convince us, or to (b) finally overwhelm us.

2. The unimproved feelings of life. Joys, sorrows, fears, etc., are either exhausting and withering our hearts, and leaving them callous, or they are being treasured up and cultivated within us as the beginnings of our eternal hymn of adoration and praise.

IV. The salvation that comes of facing the whole truth, and then confessing it to others.

1. We should never conceal from ourselves our utter helplessness as against God.

2. We should never deny even to our own hearts the glory of God; (a) His sovereignty in heaven above; (b) His sovereignty in earth beneath.

3. What we acknowledge of the glory of God to ourselves, it is best to confess to His people. (a) It is God’s right. (b) His people may be able to help us. (c) Our confession may lead to our salvation.

Jos_2:12-13.

I. Faith looking within.

1. It has self-distrust.

2. It has no rest till it secures covenanted mercy.

3. Though it be faith, it yet needs some help from signs—“Give me a true token.” Those who feel most sincerely how blessed it is to believe when they have not seen, cling, nevertheless, to that sign of the everlasting covenant, the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.

II. Faith looking around. Faith in God, though in a sinner like this, and in days so far back and light so feeble as hers, has ever the same tendencies.

1. It wants others to be in the covenant also.

2. It begins among its own kindred.

3. It places the life first, and makes things subordinate.

4. It not only has compassion for others, but expectation from others: “I pray you, since I have shewed you kindness, that ye will also shew kindness.” Faith is very human in its pity and generous kindness; it is not so superhuman that it can receive harshness for gentleness without feeling wounded. Some people know very well that the faith of Christians should lead to compassion and help; they utterly forget that it is natural for even faith to be pained by ingratitude.

III. Faith looking on high.

1. It has adoration and praise for God’s power (Jos_2:11).

2. It regards that power no longer as a terror, but a joy. Rahab wanted to get with God’s people, in order that Divine power, instead of destroying her and hers, might defend them. The truth which at first made the heart melt, became speedily its “shield and buckler.”

3. Faith has not only praise for God, and a new feeling as to His power, it has regard to the honour of His name: “Swear unto me by the Lord.”

On the passage in Jas_2:25, Manton gives the following very suggestive thoughts concerning the case of Rahab:—

“I. God may choose the worst of sinners. Even in a harlot faith is acceptable. II. The meanest faith must justify itself by works and gracious effects. III. Believers, though they justify their profession, are still monuments of free grace. It is Rahab the harlot, though justified by works. IV. Ordinary acts are gracious, when they flow from faith and are done in obedience. Entertainment, in such a case, is not civility, but religion. A cup of cold water in the name of a prophet is not courtesy, but duty, and shall not lose its reward. A carnal man performs his religious duties for civil ends, and a godly man his civil duties for religious ends. There is no alchemy like that of grace, where brass is turned into gold, and actions of commerce are made worship. V. The great trial of faith is in actions of self-denial. Rahab preferred the will of God to the welfare of her country; Abraham the same will to the life of Isaac. A man is not discovered when God’s way and his own lie together. VI. The actions and duties of God’s children are usually blemished with some notable defect. Rahab’s entertainment was associated with Rahab’s lie; Moses smote the rock twice, and with faith mixed anger. Thus we still plough with an ox and an ass in the best duties. VII. God hideth His eyes from the evil that is in our good actions. He that drew Alexander while he had a scar upon his face, drew him with his finger upon the scar: God putteth the finger of mercy upon our scars. Job curseth the day of his birth; it is simply written, ‘Ye have heard of the patience of Job.’ How unlike are wicked men to the Lord; with them one blemish is enough to stain much glory, but with Him a little faith and a few works are thrown into everlasting honour.”

The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.

The matter is here settled between Rahab and the spies respecting the service she was now to do for them, and the favour they were afterwards to show to her. She secures them on condition that they should secure her.

I. She gives them, and by them sends to Joshua and Israel, all the encouragement that could be desired to make their intended descent upon Canaan. this was what they came for, and it was worth coming for. Having got clear of the officers, she comes up to them to the roof of the house where they lay hid, finds them perhaps somewhat dismayed at the peril they apprehended themselves in from the officers, and scarcely recovered from the fright, but has that to say to them which will give them abundant satisfaction. 1. She lets them know that the report of the great things God had done for them had come to Jericho (v. 10), not only that they had an account of their late victories obtained over the Amorites in the neighbouring country, on the other side of the river, but that their miraculous deliverance out of Egypt, and passage through the Red Sea, a great way off, and forty years ago, were remembered and talked of afresh in Jericho, to the amazement of every body. Thus this Joshua and his fellows were men wondered at, Zac 3:8. See how God makes his wonderful works to be remembered (Psa 111:4), so that men shall speak of the might of his terrible acts, Psa 145:6. 2. She tells them what impressions the tidings of these things had made upon the Canaanites: Your terror has fallen upon us (Jos 2:9); our hearts did melt, Jos 2:11. If she kept a public house, this would give her an opportunity of understanding the sense of various companies and of travellers from other parts of the country, so that they could not know this any way better than by her information; and it would be of great use to Joshua and Israel to know it; it would put courage into the most cowardly Israelite to hear how their enemies were dispirited, and it was easy to conclude that those who now fainted before them would infallibly fall before them, especially because it was the accomplishment of a promise God had made them, that he would lay the fear and dread of them upon all this land (Deu 11:25), and so it would be an earnest of the accomplishment of all the other promises God had made to them. Let not the stout man glory in his courage, any more than the strong man in his strength; for God can weaken both mind and body. Let not God's Israel be afraid of their most powerful enemies; for their God can, when he pleases, make their most powerful enemies afraid of them. Let none think to harden their hearts against God and prosper; for he that made man's soul can at any time make the sword of his terrors approach to it. 3. She hereupon makes profession of her faith in God and his promise; and perhaps there was not found so great faith (all things considered), no, not in Israel, as in this woman of Canaan. (1.) who believes God's power and dominion over all the world (v. 11): "Jehovah your God, whom you worship and call upon, is so far above all gods that he is the only true God; for he is God in heaven above and in earth beneath, and is served by all the hosts of both." A vast distance there is between heaven and earth, yet both are equally under the inspection and government of the great Jehovah. Heaven is not above his power, nor is earth below his cognizance. (2.) She believes his promise to his people Israel (v. 9): I know that the Lord hath given you the land. The king of Jericho had heard as much as she had of the great things God had done for Israel, yet he cannot infer thence that the Lord had given them this land, but resolves to hold it out against them to the last extremity; for the most powerful means of conviction will not of themselves attain the end without divine grace, and by that grace Rahab the harlot, who had only heard of the wonders God had wrought, speaks with more assurance of the truth of the promise made to the fathers than all the elders of Israel had done who were eye-witnesses of those wonders, many of whom perished through unbelief of this promise. Blessed are those that have not seen, and yet have believed; so Rahab did. O woman, great is thy faith!

II. She engaged them to take her and her relations under their protection, that they might not perish in the destruction of Jericho, v. 12, 13. Now, 1. It was an evidence of the sincerity and strength of her faith concerning the approaching revolution in her country that she was so solicitous to make an interest for herself with the Israelites, and courted their kindness. She foresaw the conquest of her country, and in the belief of that bespoke in time the favour of the conquerors. Thus Noah, being moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house, and the condemning of the world, Heb 11:7. Those who truly believe the divine revelation concerning the ruin of sinners, and the grant of the heavenly land to God's Israel, will give diligence to flee from the wrath to come, and to lay hold of eternal life, by joining themselves to God and to his people. 2. The provision she made for the safety of her relations, as well as for her own, is a laudable instance of natural affection, and an intimation to us in like manner to do all we can for the salvation of the souls of those that are dear to us, and, with ourselves, to bring them, if possible, into the bond of the covenant. No mention is made of her husband and children, but only her parents, and brothers, and sisters, for whom, though she was herself a housekeeper, she retained a due concern. 3. Her request that they would swear unto her by Jehovah is an instance of her acquaintance with the only true God, and her faith in him and devotion towards him, one act of which is religiously to swear by his name. 4. Her petition is very just and reasonable, that, since she had protected them, they should protect her, and since her kindness to them extended to their people, for whom they were now negotiating, their kindness to her should take in all hers. It was the least they could do for one that had saved their lives with the hazard of her own. Note, Those that show mercy may expect to find mercy. Observe, She does not demand any preferment by way of reward for her kindness to them, though they lay so much at her mercy that she might have made her own terms, but only indents for her Life, which in a general destruction would be a singular favour. Thus God promised Ebed-Melech, in recompence for his kindness to Jeremiah, that in the worst of times he should have his life for a prey, Jer 39:18. Yet this Rahab was afterwards advanced to be a princess in Israel, the wife of Salmon, and one of the ancestors of Christ, Mat 1:5. Those that faithfully serve Christ and suffer for him he will not only protect, but prefer, and will do for them more than they are able to ask or think.

III. They solemnly engaged for her preservation in the common destruction (Jos 2:14): "Our life for yours. We will take as much care of your lives as of our own, and would as soon hurt ourselves as any of you." Nay, they imprecate God's judgments on themselves if they should violate their promise to her. She had pawned her life for theirs, and now they in requital pawn their lives for hers, and (as public persons) with them they pawn the public faith and the credit of their nation, for they plainly interest all Israel in the engagement in those words, When the Lord has given us the land, meaning not themselves only, but the people whose agents they were. No doubt they knew themselves sufficiently authorized to treat with Rahab concerning this matter, and were confident that Joshua would ratify what they did, else they had not dealt honestly; the general law that they should make no covenant with the Canaanites (Deu 7:2) did not forbid them to take under their protection a particular person, that had heartily come into their interests and had done them real kindnesses. The law of gratitude is one of the laws of nature. Now observe here, 1. The promises they made her. In general, "We will deal kindly and truly with thee, v. 14. We will not only be kind in promising now, but true in performing what we promise; and not only true in performing just what we promise, but kind in out-doing thy demands and expectations." The goodness of God is often expressed by his kindness and truth (Psa 117:2), and in both these we must be followers of him. In particular, "If a hand be upon any in the house with thee, his blood shall be on our head," v. 19. If hurt come through our carelessness to those whom we are obliged to protect, we thereby contract guilt, and blood will be found a heavy load. 2. The provisos and limitations of their promises. Though they were in haste, and it may be in some confusion, yet we find them very cautious in settling this agreement and the terms of it, not to bind themselves to more than was fit for them to perform. Note, Covenants must be made with care, and we must swear in judgment, lest we find ourselves perplexed and entangled when it is too late after vows to make enquiry. Those that will be conscientious in keeping their promises will be cautious in making them, and perhaps may insert conditions which others may think frivolous. Their promise is here accompanied with three provisos, and they were necessary ones. They will protect Rahab, and all her relations always, provided, (1.) That she tie the scarlet cord with which she was now about to let them down in the window of her house, v. 18. This was to be a mark upon the house, which the spies would take care to give notice of to the camp of Israel, that no soldier, how hot and eager soever he was in military executions, might offer any violence to the house that was thus distinguished. This was like the blood sprinkled upon the door-post, which secured the first-born from the destroying angel, and, being of the same colour, some allude to this also to represent the safety of believers under the protection of the blood of Christ sprinkled on the conscience. The same cord that she made use of for the preservation of these Israelites was to be made use of for her preservation. What we serve and honour God with we may expect he will bless and make comfortable to us. (2.) That she should have all those whose safety she had desired in the house with her and keep them there, and that, at the time of taking the town, none of them should dare to stir out of doors, v. 18, 19. This was a necessary proviso, for Rahab's kindred could not be distinguished any other way than by being in her distinguished house; should they mingle with their neighbours, there was no remedy, but the sword would devour one as well as another. It was a reasonable proviso that, since they were saved purely for Rahab's sake, her house should have the honour of being their castle, and that, if they would not perish with those that believed not, they should thus far believe the certainty and severity of the ruin coming upon their city as to retire into a place made safe by promise, as Noah into the ark and Lot into Zoar, and should save themselves from this untoward generation, by separating from them. It was likewise a significant proviso, intimating to us that those who are added to the church that they may be saved must keep close to the society of the faithful, and, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust, must take heed of being again entangled therein. (3.) That she should keep counsel (v. 14, 20): If thou utter this our business, that is, "If thou betray us when we are gone, or if thou make this agreement public, so as that others tie scarlet lines in their windows and so confound us, then we will be clear of thy oath." Those are unworthy of the secret of the Lord that know now how to keep it to themselves when there is occasion.

IV. She then took effectual care to secure her new friends, and sent them out another way, Jam 2:25. Having fully understood the bargain they made with her, and consented to it (Jos 2:21), she then let them down by a cord over the city wall (Jos 2:15), the situation of her house befriending them herein: thus Paul made his escape out of Damascus, Co2 11:33. She also directed them which way to go for their own safety, being better acquainted with the country than they were, Jos 2:16. she directs them to leave the high road, and abscond in the mountains till the pursuers returned, for till then they could not safely venture over Jordan. those that are in the way of God and their duty may expect that Providence will protect them, but this will not excuse them from taking all prudent methods for their own safety. God will keep us, but then we must not wilfully expose ourselves. Providence must be trusted, but not tempted. Calvin thinks that their charge to Rahab to keep this matter secret, and not to utter it, was intended for her safety, lest she, boasting of her security from the sword of Israel, should, before they came to protect her, fall into the hands of the king of Jericho and be put to death for treason: thus do they prudently advise her for her safety, as she advised them for theirs. And it is good advice, which we should at any time be thankful for, to take heed to ourselves.

Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

And before they were laid down,.... Under the stalks of the flax; or rather, since they are said to be hid in them, before they were fallen asleep, so Kimchi and Abarbinel:

she came up unto them upon the roof; to acquaint them how things were, and to converse with them on the following subjects.

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

Asleep. It seems as if the spies had been ignorant of the danger to which they had been just exposed, and had gone to the roof of the house with a design to pass the night in greater security. Rahab perceives, however, that it would be extremely rash for them to continue with her any longer, and therefore she gives them the best advice, to secure their safety by fleeing in the dead of the night, and without further delay. (Haydock)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Before they were laid down to rest or sleep, as they intended, being now, after the departure of their searchers, come from their hiding place to their resting-place.

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

8. Before they were laid down — That is, to sleep. They had been hidden where it was uncomfortable to sleep; but now that their pursuers are put upon the wrong track, they come forth from their hiding places.

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

And before they were laid down, i.e., to sleep on the roof, a common practice in the East in summer.

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

Laid down - To sleep as they intended.

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

The Spies Saved by Rahab

v. 8. And before they were laid down, she came up unto them upon the roof, where they were preparing to pass the night;

v. 9. and she said unto the men, I know that the Lord, Jehovah, of whom she had heard and toward whom she felt a reverential awe, hath given you the land, and that your terror is fallen upon us, namely, the fear that they would be exterminated by Israel, Deu 2:25; Deu 11:25, and that all the inhabitants of the land faint because of you, are terrified and utterly discouraged by the obvious assistance which Jehovah had rendered His people.

v. 10. For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when ye came out of Egypt, Exo 14:21; and what ye did unto the two kings of the Amorites that were on the other side Jordan, Sihon and Og, whom ye utterly destroyed, Num 21:21-35.

v. 11. And as soon as we had heard these things, for Rahab here asserts of all her countrymen what she herself felt, our hearts did melt, said of complete discouragement, neither did there remain any more courage in any man because of you, they found it impossible to raise a bit of spirit, either to think, plan, or act, so great was their terror; for the Lord, your God, He is God in heaven above and in earth beneath. Thus Rahab, in concluding, confessed her faith in Jehovah, the true God. It is strange that the miracles of God’s almighty power, which wrought faith in the heart of this great sinner, caused the unbelieving hearts of the other Canaanites to become hardened and thus to be condemned to the judgment of death, of extermination.

v. 12. Now, therefore, I pray you, swear unto me by the Lord, since I have showed you kindness, in hiding them from the king’s messengers, that ye will also show kindness unto my father’s house and give me a true token, some sign of truth by which they would guarantee immunity to her and her relatives in the general extermination which was sure to come;

v. 13. and that ye will save alive my father, and my mother, and my brethren, and my sisters, and all that they have, her entire relationship, and deliver our lives from death. The sign of truth which she demanded was the solemn oath that they would save the lives of all her kin.

v. 14. And the men answered her, Our life for yours, literally, "our souls instead of yours to die" (they pledged their very souls for the truth of their promise to spare Rahab and her relatives), if ye utter not this our business, that is, if she would not betray them while they were on their way back to the camp of Israel. And it shall be, when the Lord hath given us the land, that we will deal kindly and truly with thee, show her this mercy and faithfulness, and save her life.

v. 15. Then she let them down by a cord, a strong rope, through the window; for her house was upon the town wall, built right against it, and she dwelt upon the wall, her chamber overhung the wall.

v. 16. And she said unto them as they stood below after their escape from the city, Get you to the mountain, a wild cliff north of Jericho, lest the pursuers meet you; and hide yourselves there three days, until the pursuers be returned; and afterward may ye go your way. Being familiar with the distances and all possible roads, she was able to give the spies this shrewd bit of advice.

v. 17. And the men said unto her, in order to obviate the danger of a false interpretation of their promise and oath, We will be blameless of this thine oath which thou hast made us swear, namely, unless she would do as they now directed her to act.

v. 18. Behold, when we come into the land, thou shall bind this line of scarlet thread, a thin, but strong rope, such as surveyors used, probably the one by which they had made their escape, in the window which thou didst let us down by; and thou shalt bring thy father, and thy mother, and thy brethren, and all thy father’s household, who apparently were living in their own homes, home unto thee, thus having them all together in one house.

v. 19. And it shall be that whosoever shall go out of the doors of thy house into the street, anywhere outside, his blood shall be upon his head, it would be his own fault if some soldier of Israel would strike him down, and we will be guiltless; and whosoever shall be with thee in the house, his blood shall be on our head if any hand be upon him, in that case they would assume the blame. That was the second condition.

v. 20. And if thou utter this our business, in betraying them after their departure, then we will be quit of thine oath which thou hast made us to swear. This third condition was really only a repetition of the chief condition made at the time they swore the oath, v. 14.

v. 21. And she said, According unto your words, so be it. She agreed to all the conditions. And she sent them away, and they departed; and she bound the scarlet line in the window, namely, when she found that she needed it for the stipulated purpose.

v. 22. And they went and came unto the mountain, and abode there three days, until the pursuers were returned; and the pursuers sought them throughout all the way, on every road which they could possibly have taken, but found them not.

v. 23. So the two men returned, and descended from the mountain, and passed over, over the river Jordan, and came to Joshua, the son of Nun, by the evening of the third day, and told him all things that befell them, gave him a full report of all that had happened to them;

v. 24. and they said unto Joshua, Truly the Lord hath delivered into our hands all the land; for even all the inhabitants of the country do faint because of us. Rahab, the harlot, is an example of faith, Heb 11:31, for the Lord has His elect in the midst of an unbelieving nation. She forsook the sinful business in which she was engaged, and afterward became an ancestress of Jesus, Mat 1:5. It was an act of faith on her part to shield those representatives of God’s people, Jas 2:25; Heb 11:31. True faith, love toward God, always shows itself in love toward the fellow-believers, in doing good to the members of God’s people and in resisting the enemies of the Lord.

Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

not yet lain down

This refers to going to sleep for the night. (See: Idiom)

I know that Yahweh has given you the land

The word "you" refers to the all the Israelite people. (See: Forms of You)

fear of you has come upon us

Becoming afraid is spoken of as if feat came and attacked them. AT: "we have become afraid of you" (See: Metaphor)

will melt away before you

This compares the fearful people to ice melting and flowing away. Possible meanings are 1) they will be weak in the Israelites' presence or 2) they will be scattered. AT: "will be so afraid that they will not resist you" (See: Metaphor)

translationWords

Yahweh

fear

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.