How Rahab helped the Israeli spies
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1 Then Joshua chose two men from their camp at Acacia. He told them, “Go across the Jordan River and secretly find out all that you can about the land on that side of the river, especially about the city of Jericho.” So the two men crossed the river and entered Jericho. They entered the house of a prostitute whose name was Rahab. They stayed in her house that night. 2 But someone saw them and told the king of Jericho, “Some Israeli men have come here tonight to spy out the land!” 3 So the king sent some messengers to tell Rahab, “Bring out the men who came and entered your house, so that we can kill them, because they have come here to find out all they can about this land!” 4 But she had hidden the two men there. So when the messengers came to her house, she told them, “Two men came here, but I did not know where they had come from. 5 At dusk, just before the city gates were closed, the two men left. I do not know where they went. So go quickly and search for them! Perhaps you can catch them!” 6 But she was lying; she had taken the two men up to the flat roof of her house and had hidden them under the piles of flax that she had laid on the roof. 7 So the messengers went out of the city to search for the two men. Immediately the guards shut the city gate. The messengers went along the road that leads down to the place where people can walk across the Jordan River, but they did not find the two men.8 Before the two men lay down to sleep that night, Rahab went up to the roof 9 and said to them, “We know that Yahweh is about to give this land to you Israelis, and as a result all the people living in this land are terrified because of you. 10 We have heard about how Yahweh dried up the water of the Red Sea for you to cross it when you left Egypt. And we have heard how you killed Sihon and Og, the two kings of the tribe of Amor who lived east of the Jordan River. You Israelis totally destroyed everyone and everything in their kingdom. 11 When we heard about those things, we were very dismayed. We no longer have courage to fight against you, because we know that Yahweh, the God whom you worship, is helping