Joshua 2:1-6

Joshua Sends Spies into the Land

2:1 Joshua son of Nun sent two spies out from Shittim secretly and instructed them: ¹  “Find out what you can about the land, especially Jericho.” ²  They stopped at the house of a prostitute named Rahab and spent the night there. ³  2:2 The king of Jericho received this report: “Note well! ⁴  Israelite men have come here tonight ⁵  to spy on the land.” 2:3 So the king of Jericho sent this order to Rahab: ⁶  “Turn over ⁷  the men who came to you ⁸  – the ones who came to your house ⁹  – for they have come to spy on the whole land!” 2:4 But the woman hid the two men ¹⁰  and replied, “Yes, these men were clients of mine, ¹¹  but I didn’t know where they came from. 2:5 When it was time to shut the city gate for the night, the men left. ¹²  I don’t know where they were heading. Chase after them quickly, for you have time to catch them!” 2:6 (Now she had taken them up to the roof and had hidden them in the stalks of flax she had spread out ¹³  on the roof.)

[2:1]  ¹ tn Heb “Joshua, son of Nun, sent from Shittim two men, spies, secretly, saying.”

[2:1]  ² tn Heb “go, see the land, and Jericho.”

[2:1]  ³ tn Heb “they went and entered the house of a woman, a prostitute, and her name was Rahab, and they slept there.”

[2:2]  ⁴ tn Or “look.”

[2:2]  ⁵ tn Heb “men have come here tonight from the sons of Israel.”

[2:3]  ⁶ tn Heb “and the king of Jericho sent to Rahab, saying.”

[2:3]  ⁷ tn Heb “bring out.”

[2:3]  ⁸ tn The idiom “come to” (בוֹא אֶל, bo’ ’el) probably has sexual connotations here, as it often does elsewhere when a man “comes to” a woman. If so, the phrase could be translated “your clients.” The instructions reflect Rahab’s perspective as to the identity of the men.

[2:3]  ⁹ tn The words “the ones who came to your house” (Heb “who came to your house”) may be a euphemistic scribal addition designed to blur the sexual connotation of the preceding words.

[2:4]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “The woman took the two men and hid him.” The third masculine singular pronominal suffix on “hid” has to be a scribal error (see GKC §135.p).

[2:4]  ¹¹ tn Heb “the men came to me.” See the note on this phrase in v. 3.

[2:5]  ¹² tn Heb “And the gate was to be shut in the darkness and the men went out.”

[2:6]  ¹³ tn Heb “arranged in rows by her.”