Joshua 2:14

14 The men promised her, "We pledge our lives for your lives. If you don't tell anyone what we're doing here, we'll treat you kindly and honestly when the LORD gives us this land."

Joshua 2:14 Meaning and Commentary

Joshua 2:14

And the men answered her
The two spies:

our life for yours;
or "our souls in your stead to die" ^F9; that is, we engage for the security of your lives, should they be in danger; we promise to die in your room and stead rather than you should: this they said not as though their lives would be required of them for them, but to assure her of the safety of her and her father's house, on the following condition:

if ye utter not this our business;
not their business in searching the land, for the discovery of that would be of little avail after they were gone; for it was known already that there were persons come to search the land; but "this our word" ^F11, what they were going to say to her and bid her do, as a sign of safety to her and hers; which, if she discovered, others would give out the same sign, and then they could not promise her safety; or if she did not take care to bring in her father, mother, brethren, and sisters, and theirs into her house, they could not engage to protect them:

and it shall be, when the Lord hath given us the land;
not the whole land, but Jericho and the laud about it, that when that part of it should be delivered into their hands:

that we will deal kindly and truly with thee;
"kindly", by sparing her and her father's house; "truly", by faithfully performing the promise and oath they made to her.

---

FOOTNOTES:

F9 (twml Mkytxt wnvpn) "anima nostra pro vobis ad moriendum", Pagninus, Montanus.
F11 (hz wnrbd ta) "verbum nostrum hoc", Pagninus, Montanus; "sermonem nostrum hunc", Vatablus, Junius & Tremellius.

Joshua 2:14 In-Context

12 Please swear by the LORD that you'll be as kind to my father's family as I've been to you. Also give me some proof

13 that you'll protect my father, mother, brothers, sisters, and their households, and that you'll save us from death."

14 The men promised her, "We pledge our lives for your lives. If you don't tell anyone what we're doing here, we'll treat you kindly and honestly when the LORD gives us this land."

15 So she let them down by a rope from her window since her house was built into the city wall. (She lived in the city wall.)

16 She told them, "Go to the mountains so that the men who are pursuing you will not find you. Hide there for three days until they return to Jericho. Then you can go on your way."