Joshua 2

1Then Joshua son of Nun secretly sent two men from Shittim to spy. “Go and look over the land,” he told them, “and Jericho above all.” So they set off and came to the house of a prostitute named Rahab, and they stayed the night there. 2The king of Jericho was told, “Some men from the Israelites have come here tonight to search out the land.” 3So the king of Jericho sent word to Rahab: “Bring out the visitors who came to you and went into your house. They have come to spy out the whole land.” 4But the woman had taken the two men and hidden them. “It is true, the men did come to me,” she said, “but I did not know where they came from. 5When the gate was about to be shut at dark, the men left. I do not know where they went. Go after them quickly. You will catch them.” 6In fact she had brought them up to the roof and covered them with the flax stalks she had spread out there. 7So the men set out after them along the road to the Jordan, as far as the river crossings, and as soon as the pursuers had gone out, the gate was shut. 8Before the men lay down to sleep, she came up to them on the roof 9and told them, “I know the LORD has given this land to you. Terror of you has fallen on us, and everyone who lives in the land is melting in fear before you. 10We have heard how the LORD made the water of the Red Sea dry up before you as you left Egypt. And we have heard how you dealt with the two Amorite kings across the Jordan, Sihon and Og: you devoted them to destruction. 11When we heard it, our hearts melted, and no one had any courage left because of you, for the LORD your God is God in heaven above and on earth below. 12So now, swear to me by the LORD: since I have shown you faithful love, you too will show faithful love to my father’s family. Give me a sign I can trust 13that you will keep my father and mother alive, with my brothers and sisters and all their people, and rescue us from death.” 14The men answered her, “We stake our lives on yours, even to death, so long as you do not tell anyone about our mission. When the LORD gives us the land, we will treat you with faithful love and keep our word.” 15Then she let them down by a rope through the window, because her house was built into the city wall; she lived in the wall itself. 16She told them, “Go to the hills, so that the men chasing you will not find you. Hide there for three days until they come back, and after that you can go on your way.” 17The men told her, “This oath you have made us swear will not bind us 18unless, when we come into the land, you tie this scarlet cord in the window you let us down through, and bring your father and mother, your brothers and all your father’s family into your house with you. 19Anyone who goes out through the doors of your house into the street will be responsible for their own death, and we will be free of blame. But if anyone who is with you in the house is harmed, the blame for their death will be on us. 20And if you tell anyone about our mission, we will not be bound by the oath you made us swear.” 21“Agreed,” she replied. “Let it be as you say.” She sent them on their way, and they left. Then she tied the scarlet cord in the window. 22So they went into the hills and stayed there three days, until the men chasing them had gone back. The pursuers had searched all along the road without finding them. 23Then the two men came back down from the hills, crossed the river and came to Joshua son of Nun. They told him everything that had happened to them. 24“The LORD has surely handed the whole land over to us,” they told Joshua. “Everyone who lives there is melting in fear because of us.”