Joshua 2:5-19

⁵At dusk, just before ◄guards closed the city gate/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 may catch them!”

⁶But 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.

⁷The 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.

⁸Before the two men lay down to sleep that night, Rahab went up to the roof

⁹and 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.

¹⁰We 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.

¹¹When we heard about those things, we were very dismayed. We no longer have enough courage to fight against you, because we know that Yahweh, the God whom you worship, is helping you. And we know that he rules everything in heaven and here on earth.

¹²So now I want you to solemnly promise me, and ask Yahweh to punish you if you do not do what you promise. Solemnly promise me that you will act kindly to me and my family, because I have acted kindly to you.

¹³Do something to prove that you will ◄spare the lives of/not kill► my father and my mother, my brothers and sisters, and all of their families. Promise me that you Israelis will not kill us when you destroy this city.”

¹⁴The two men replied, “We desire that God will cause us to die if we do not do as we say! If you do not tell others what we are planning to do, we will act kindly toward you all when Yahweh enables us to possess the land.”

¹⁵One of the outside walls of the house where Rahab lived was part of the wall that was around the city. So she fastened a rope outside the window that was in that wall, by which the men could climb down the wall.

¹⁶Then she said to them, “When you leave the city, go up into the hills so that the men who are searching for you will not find you. Hide in caves in the hills for three days, until the men who are searching for you return to the city. Then you can return safely to your camp.”

¹⁷The two men gave her a red cord, and said to her, “This is what you must do; if you do not do this, we will not be required to do what we have vowed to do.

¹⁸You must tie this red cord in the window that has the rope by which we will climb down. You must let the cord hang there. And you must bring your father and your mother and your brothers and all the others in your family inside the house. Then, when our army enters your land, we will see the cord, and we will not kill the people in your house.

¹⁹If anyone in your family goes outside this house into the street, our soldiers will kill them, and we will not be guilty MTY for doing that. But if anyone who is in this house with you is injured, we will be guilty for causing that.