Joshua 2:1-7

Rahab and the Spies

1 Then Joshua son of Nun secretly sent two spies from Shittim. “Go, look over the land,” he said, “especially Jericho.” So they went and entered the house of a prostitute named Rahab and stayed there.

2 The king of Jericho was told, “Look, some of the Israelites have come here tonight to spy out the land.”

3 So the king of Jericho sent this message to Rahab: “Bring out the men who came to you and entered your house, because they have come to spy out the whole land.”

4 But the woman had taken the two men and hidden them. She said, “Yes, the men came to me, but I did not know where they had come from.

5 At dusk, when it was time to close the city gate, they left. I don’t know which way they went. Go after them quickly. You may catch up with them.”

6 (But she had taken them up to the roof and hidden them under the stalks of flax she had laid out on the roof.)

7 So the men set out in pursuit of the spies on the road that leads to the fords of the Jordan, and as soon as the pursuers had gone out, the gate was shut.

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Joshua 2:1-7 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO JOSHUA 2

This chapter gives an account of the spies sent by Joshua to Jericho, and of their entrance into the house of Rahab, who hid them from the king's messengers, Jos 2:1-7; of the relation she gave them of the fear and dread of Israel, which were fallen upon the Canaanites, Jos 2:8-11; and of the request she made to them, to save her and her father's house, when the city should be taken, and to have a sure sign of it given her, Jos 2:12,13; which the spies solemnly promised, and gave her a sign of it, with a charge not to discover the matter to any, Jos 2:14-20; and being let down by a cord through the window of her house, they made their escape to a mountain, where they lay three days, and then returned to Joshua, and made their report, Jos 2:21-24.

Taken from John Gill's Exposition of the Bible

Cross References 14

1. S ver 4; S Genesis 42:9; James 2:25
2. S Numbers 25:1; Joshua 3:1; Joel 3:18
3. S Numbers 21:32; Judges 18:2
4. S Numbers 33:48
5. Joshua 6:17,25; S Hebrews 11:31
6. Joshua 6:23
7. ver 1; Joshua 6:22
8. Joshua 6:17; 2 Samuel 17:19-20
9. Judges 5:8; Judges 9:35; Judges 16:2
10. S Hebrews 11:31
11. Judges 15:14; Proverbs 31:13; Isaiah 19:9; James 2:25
12. S Exodus 1:17,19; Joshua 6:25; 2 Samuel 17:19
13. Numbers 22:1; Judges 3:28; Judges 7:24; Judges 12:5,6; Isaiah 16:2
14. ver 16,22