Rahab of Jericho

An Old Testament character study

One of the women mentioned approvingly in the New Testament as an example of sterling faith is Rahab the harlot of Jericho, the woman who gave shelter to the Israelite spies sent to reconnoitre the city before its destruction. The writer to the Hebrews says "By faith the walls of Jericho fell down, after they were compassed about seven days. By faith the harlot Rahab perished not with them that believed not, when she had received the spies with peace" (Heb.11.30‑31). James, in the course of his homily on the relation between faith and works, asks (2.25) "Was not Rahab the harlot justified by works, when she had received the messengers, and had sent them out another way?" These allusions are based upon the story as we have it in the Book of Joshua. St. Matthew appears to have had access to genealogical records not now surviving when he compiled the first chapter of his Gospel; he indicates that this same Rahab married Salmon, leader of the tribe of Judah, and that from this union came Boaz, who stands in the direct line of descent between Abraham and Christ (Matt.1.5). Thus this otherwise unknown woman of Jericho is an ancestress of our Lord.

Jewish Rabbinic sources many centuries ago propounded the suggestion that the word here rendered "harlot" can also mean "inn‑keeper" and that in reality Rahab was a most respectable custodian of a local hostelry at which the spies booked in for the night. This hypothesis owes its existence to the Rabbis' desire to relieve King David, descended from Rahab, of what they felt to be a stigma on his ancestry. It is perpetuated by some Christian commentators and others with the same intent as respects Jesus Christ. There is no foundation for the idea; the word occurs some ninety times in the Old Testament and never means anything else in Hebrew than the mediaeval English term by which it is always translated. And this little fortress town, only two hundred and fifty yards long by a hundred wide, is most unlikely to have had need of an "inn" of any description. Such places existed only in the country districts, where travellers might be caught after nightfall, and even then only in much later times. It is said by those who should know that at the time of the Exodus and earlier the whole idea of inns and hostelries for travellers was quite unknown; those caught out at night slept under the stars.

The story itself is related in the 2nd and 6th chapters of Joshua. After forty years sojourn in the desert, following the Exodus, Israel was encamped in the plains of Moab east of the Jordan waiting for the word to march. The river lay between them and their goal but they had been assured that God would remove that barrier at the crucial moment. Five miles from the other side of the river, inside Canaan, lay the military frontier fortress of Jericho, a town surrounded by high walls, crammed with defending soldiery, and thought to be impregnable. It probably contained a number of Egyptian troops, for Canaan was still nominally under the sovereignty of Egypt, although for many years now the land had been in a state of turmoil and rebellion, and Egypt had very largely abandoned any attempt to govern. But Jericho was obviously the first strong city to be besieged and captured as soon as the host of Israel invaded. So Joshua sent two trusty men across the river to investigate the defences.

The town was not large; a man could walk right round it in ten minutes. The spies, dressed like people of the land, apparently gained entry at twilight before the gate was closed and explored the little settlement unchallenged. They found it closely packed with small flat‑topped houses and a central solid building which was the abode of the garrison. The defences consisted of two massive walls about thirty feet high, the outer one six feet and the inner one twelve feet thick, with a fifteen feet space between them. In many places the two walls had been bridged by masonry and stout timbers and houses built actually upon the walls, straddling between inner and outer. All this is known because the city lay, just as Joshua left it, concealed under an increasing mound of sand and earth, with little interference, for three thousand years, until in the years 1930‑1936 Prof. John Garstang of Britain excavated and found everything exactly as described in the Book of Joshua, even to the remains of the houses on the wall, one of which must have been Rahab's. Going Round The City, The Spies Discerned That The Inhabitants were terrified of the Israelite menace and were not likely to offer much resistance once the walls had been breached. After all, the population in a town of that size could hardly have exceeded two or three thousand and there were six hundred thousand Israelite warriors threatening them only a few miles away.

By this time it was dark and the city gate closed. The intruders had to find concealment for a few hours and make their escape in the morning when the town opened for normal business. They solved this problem by getting themselves accepted for the night at the house of a harlot named Rahab. Probably they felt that the presence of strange men at such an establishment would be less likely to excite suspicion than anywhere else. They could hardly have known that, despite her profession, Rahab was a woman who exercised belief and faith in the same God as they, and was prepared to run almost certainly a grave risk in protecting them. The hand of God must have been in this thing that they were led to this house in any case, and that Rahab knew them for what they were; they are not likely to have revealed their identity, even to their hostess.

They had not been so fortunate in escaping detection as they had thought. Someone had seen them go in and was suspicious. Before long the representatives of law and order were knocking at Rahab's door with a demand that the men be produced. Rahab was evidently quick‑witted. The house had a flat roof like all in Jericho and on Rahab's roof there was laid out a quantity of freshly cut flax for drying—she evidently had a second source of income, in connection with some aspect of the local textile industry. She quickly hurried the spies up to her roof and concealed them under the flax. Whilst the investigators searched her house she blandly admitted that two men had been with her that night; that as usual she had asked no questions and eventually sent them on their way. Where they went afterwards she had no idea and was not interested, but if, as asserted, they were enemy spies it was not likely they had got very far. If her interviewers would stop wasting time in her house and go after them they might yet overtake and capture the men. The officers appreciated the point of this argument and were apparently out of the house and down the street with considerable promptitude; the city gates closed with a clang after them and they spent the rest of the night in an unavailing search of the countryside between Jericho and the fords of Jordan five miles away.

In the meantime this very practical woman had gone up to the roof and engaged her guests in very serious conversation. "I know" she said "that the LORD hath given you the land, and that your terror (fear) is fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land faint because of you. For we have heard how the LORD dried up the waters of the Red Sea for you, when ye came out of Egypt...our hearts did melt, neither did there remain any more courage in any man, because of you: for the LORD your God, he is God in (the) heaven above and in (the) earth beneath" (Josh.2.9‑11). That is quite a striking testimony from one whose life was lived among idolators and who probably had learned but little of the God of Israel. Perhaps Rahab was already sick of the life she led and looking for the light; like Mary Magdalene of much later times in similar circumstances, she was nearly ready to be cleansed of the "seven demons". Israel had sojourned in the desert not much more than a hundred miles away for forty years past and some knowledge of their laws and standards and the God they worshipped must have filtered into Canaan, carried by wandering nomads and caravans of traders from time to time during that period. The wilderness of Sinai was on the highway between Egypt and Canaan and travellers were constantly passing through. Rahab may very well have heard something of all this and in her heart wanted to know more of this worship so much loftier in its tones and ideals than the sensual religions of Canaan. At any rate, on this night when the men of Israel came to her she took her stand with the people of the Lord, and in so doing, one might hope and reasonably expect, turned away for ever from the old life.

The two men readily agreed to her request that in recognition of her espousal of their cause they would see that she and her family were spared from the doom that was to fall upon the city. "It shall be" they told her "when the LORD hath given us the land, that we will deal kindly and truly with thee" (Ch.2.14). With that assurance she planned their escape. This was, providentially, an easy matter. Her house was upon the two walls and a window gave access to the exterior of the city. "She let them down by a cord through (from) the window: for her house was upon the town wall, and she dwelt upon the wall" (Ch.2.15). Under cover of the friendly darkness they made their way down the rope to the ground, and following Rahab's instructions headed westward away from Jordan and "to the mountain"—Mount Kuruntul, which still rises three thousand feet immediately behind the site of ancient Jericho. There, said she, they must remain hidden three days before venturing back to the lowlands and the river. Evidently she had anticipated several days' search before the hunt was called off. Her judgment appears to have been pretty sound, for "the pursuers sought them throughout all the way, but found them not" (Ch.2.22). Eventually the intrepid pair arrived safe and sound in the camp of Israel and reported to Joshua the result of their mission.

A fortnight later the city fell to the besiegers and was utterly destroyed. Faithful to their promise, and in obedience to the command of Joshua, the two spies went in amidst the turmoil and the fighting to the house now marked with the scarlet thread hanging from the window, the agreed sign that those within were waiting and trusting in the integrity of the promise. So they were brought forth, Rahab the woman of faith, her father and mother and all her family, and conducted to a place of safety away from the fighting. They were the only citizens of Jericho to survive. The ferocity of Joshua's troops saw to it that everyone else was slain, the city levelled with the ground and consumed by fire. Garstang found the evidence of that fire, earthenware pots containing charred and burnt foodstuffs, stonework and brickwork scorched and split by the heat, and layers of ashes six inches thick. Every single detail in the Joshua account has been verified by investigation on the site.

"And" concludes the ancient scribe who compiled the Book of Joshua, speaking still of Rahab, "she dwelleth in Israel unto this day". If the book was completed in that generation this need only mean that she was still alive and amongst them, but it is unlikely that this is the meaning. It was always believed in after ages in Israel that Rahab became the wife of Salmon, and in such case this expression would refer to the perpetuation of her descendants in Israel. No reference to a marriage is found in the Old Testament and in fact Rahab is not mentioned again, but Matthew does state definitely that Boaz was born to Salmon and Rahab; this information he must have taken from a documentary source and not relied upon mere tradition.

The marriage raises the question of Rahab's nationality. It was against the laws of Israel for an Israelite to marry any of the "women of the land" i.e., native Canaanites, Hittites or any other of the Hamitic race (descendants of Ham). There was not, however, the same objection to Semitic women, descendants of Shem through Abraham and others, even though they were not of Israel, through Jacob. Zipporah, the wife of Moses, was of a tribe descended from Abraham through Keturah. There were many such descendants of Abraham's many children scattered through Canaan. Although there is no Scriptural evidence regarding Rahab's racial origin, it is at least possible that she was of Abrahamic stock, and this could account in part for her leaning towards the God of Israel and her faith in him in preference to the Canaanites' gods, besides rendering Salmon's choice of her as wife easier to understand.

A very significant fact is that Rahab's name is included in what has been called the "gallery of faith" in the eleventh chapter of Hebrews. This chapter has long been renowned for immortalising certain "heroes of faith" of Old Testament times, prior to the establishment of the Christian Church, whose sterling faith and whose deeds springing from that faith place them in a special position in God's sight. It has often been suggested that those immortalised in this chapter are destined for inclusion in the company of world rulers in the next Age, administering the Millennial Kingdom in the name of the King, the Lord Christ. The terms "Old Testament Saints" or "Ancient Worthies" have been coined to apply to such. Out of sixteen names selected by the writer to the Hebrews two only are women. One is Sarah the wife of Abraham and the other is Rahab. That the writer was subject to the guidance of the Holy Spirit when making his selection is hardly open to question. The logical and irresistible conclusion therefore is that this woman of ancient Jericho, despite the kind of life attributed to her, was one in the sight of God possessing the character and moral calibre and strength of faith which would make her a fitting choice as one of the "princes in all the earth" (Psa.45.16) who are to exercise functions of rulership "in that day". The one little scrap of history we have concerning Rahab the harlot shows her loyal, far‑seeing, resourceful, courageous, and above all, inflexible in her faith that God is true and the purpose of God will certainly be carried out. If in fact, as appears to be the case, she did indeed marry Salmon prince of the royal tribe of Judah, and so became ancestress of Israel's Messiah and the world's Saviour, then again we have an instance of the wonderful power of God who can make vessels of honour out of weak and common clay. Once more we are reminded of the truth that God looks not at a man or woman's past, only at their present condition of heart and the possibilities that lie in them for their future.

AOH