Joshua 2:12

12 So then please swear to me by Yahweh, because {I have shown loyalty to you}, and {you will also show loyalty} {to my family}. You must give me a sign of good faith,

Joshua 2:12 Meaning and Commentary

Joshua 2:12

Now therefore, I pray you, swear unto me by the Lord
Which being a religious action, and done by men that feared the Lord, she knew it would be binding upon them: the Targum is,

``swear to me by the Word of the Lord:''

since I have showed you kindness;
by receiving them with peace into her house, and hiding them when inquired for and demanded of her; in doing which she risked her own, life, had this treachery to her country, as it would have been deemed, been discovered;

that you will also show kindness unto my father's house;
she mentions not herself and household, for if this was granted that would be implied and included; and this she presses for by the law of retaliation and friendship, for since she had shown kindness to them, it was but reasonable it should be returned:

and give me a true token;
that she and her father's house would be saved by them when the city should be taken and the inhabitants destroyed; a token that would not deceive her, on which she might depend, and would be firm and sure.

Joshua 2:12 In-Context

10 For we have heard how Yahweh dried up the waters of the {Red Sea} before you when you went out from Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites that [were] beyond the Jordan, Sihon and Og, whom you utterly destroyed.

11 We heard [this], and our hearts melted, and {no courage was left in anyone} because of your presence. For Yahweh your God [is] God in the heavens above and on the earth below.

12 So then please swear to me by Yahweh, because {I have shown loyalty to you}, and {you will also show loyalty} {to my family}. You must give me a sign of good faith,

13 and you will spare my father and mother, my brothers and sisters, and all that belongs to them; you will deliver our lives from death."

14 And the men said to her, "{Our lives for yours}. If you do not report this business of ours, {we will show you loyalty and faithfulness} when Yahweh gives us the land."

Footnotes

• [a] Literally "I have done with you a loyal love"
• [b] Literally "you will do ... loyal love"
• [c] Literally "with the house of my father"
• [d] Or "faithfulness"