Joshua 2:16

16 And she said to them: Get ye up to the mountains, lest perhaps they meet you as they return: and there lie ye hid three days, till they come back, and so you shall go on your way.

Joshua 2:16 Meaning and Commentary

Joshua 2:16

And she said unto them, get ye unto the mountain
Which was near to the city, and is supposed to be the same which is now called Quarantania: Dr. Shaw, a late traveller in those parts, says {m}, from the mountain Quarantania, the very same perhaps where the two spies concealed themselves, ( Joshua 2:16 ) , we have a distinct view of the land of the Amorites, of Gilead, and of Bashan, the inheritance of the tribes of Reuben and Gad, and of the half tribe of Manasseh--to it joins the mountain of Adummim, and through it the road is cut that leads from Jerusalem to Jericho, where probably it was from the very nature of the situation that the man fell among thieves, ( Luke 10:30 ) ; which very probably is the same mountain which Josephus F14 says hung over the city, and was a very barren one; though the singular may be put for the plural, since, as Strabo says F15, it was surrounded with mountains:

lest the pursuers meet you;
on their return from the fords of Jordan, being disappointed:

and hide yourselves there three days:
some of the Jewish Rabbins, as Jarchi and Kimchi, observe that she had this by the revelation of the Holy Ghost, that the pursuers would return at the end of three days; but the latter more truly remarks, that this was said by conjecture; that Jericho being, as he says, one day from Jordan, and a little more, by going, returning, and searching for the spies, they would be three days in doing it:

until the pursuers be returned;
into the city; for until they were they could not be in safety, but must be in danger of being met by them and taken up:

and afterward may ye go your way:
to Jordan, and so to the camp of Israel, and that without fear.


FOOTNOTES:

F13 Travels, p. 276. Ed. 2.
F14 De Bello Jud. l. 4. c. 8. sect. 2.
F15 Geograph. l. 16. p. 525.

Joshua 2:16 In-Context

14 They answered her: Be our lives for you unto death, only if thou betray us not. And when the Lord shall have delivered us the land, we will shew thee mercy and truth.
15 Then she let them down with a cord out of a window: for her house joined close to the wall.
16 And she said to them: Get ye up to the mountains, lest perhaps they meet you as they return: and there lie ye hid three days, till they come back, and so you shall go on your way.
17 And they said to her: We shall be blameless of this oath, which thou hast made us swear,
18 If, when we come into the land, this scarlet cord be a sign, and thou tie it in the window, by which thou hast let us down: and gather together thy father and mother, and brethren, and all thy kindred into thy house.
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