Women of the Bible
Rahab in the Bible
A woman of Jericho who heard what God had done, acted on it at the risk of her life, and was brought into Israel with her whole household.
Read the passages first
Loading Joshua 2:1-21…
Loading Joshua 6:22-25…
Joshua 2 introduces her by her trade and by her city, and then gives her the longest speech in the chapter. Joshua 2:9-11 is a confession about the LORD: what he did at the Red Sea, what he did to two , and who he is in heaven above and on earth beneath.
She is one of very few Canaanites in the book who speak about God at all, and the only one who acts on what she says.
Where Scripture speaks of her
Every passage in view
- Joshua 2:1
The spies come to her house in Jericho.
- Joshua 2:4-6
She hides them under stalks of flax on the roof and misleads the 's men.
- Joshua 2:9-11
Her confession: she names what God did at the Red Sea and to Sihon and Og, and says the LORD is God in heaven and on earth.
- Joshua 2:12-13
She asks for kindness for her father's house, and names every member of it.
- Joshua 2:18-21
The scarlet line in the window, and the terms that go with it.
- Joshua 6:17
Joshua's instruction that she and all with her be spared.
- Joshua 6:22-25
The spies bring out her whole family, and Joshua 6:25 says she dwelt in Israel.
- Matthew 1:5
Named in the genealogy of Jesus as the mother of Boaz.
- Hebrews 11:31
Listed among those who acted by faith, with her receiving of the spies named as the act.
- James 2:25
Used as evidence that faith which is faith that acts.
Kept apart on purpose
What the text says, what it allows, what it withholds
What Scripture says outright
- Joshua 2:1 names her trade plainly. Scripture does not hide it, and Hebrews 11:31 still calls what she did faith.
- She had heard reports of what God did in Egypt and in Transjordan, Joshua 2:10.
- She confessed the LORD as God of heaven and earth, Joshua 2:11.
- She hid the spies, misdirected the search, and let them down by a cord, Joshua 2:4-6 and Joshua 2:15.
- She asked for her family, not only herself, Joshua 2:13.
- Joshua 6:25 states that she and her father's household lived in Israel from .
- Matthew 1:5 places her in the line that runs to David and to Christ.
What we are drawing from it
- History
A house built into the city wall, Joshua 2:15, fits what is known of casemate wall construction in Canaanite towns, where rooms were built between two wall lines.
Where this comes from
- Debated
Whether the Rahab of Matthew 1:5 is the same woman as in Joshua is not stated by Matthew, but the naming alongside Tamar, Ruth and the wife of Uriah makes the identification the ordinary reading.
- Debated
Readers differ over how to judge her deceiving of the 's men. Scripture commends her faith and her reception of the spies, and it does not comment on the lie itself.
What Scripture does not tell us
- Scripture does not say how she came to hear about Israel's God, only that she had heard.
- It does not describe her life after Joshua 6:25 beyond her living in Israel.
- It never says her past was erased, and it never stops recording it.
- It does not tell us whether the Salmon of Matthew 1:5 was one of the two spies.
Her place in the biblical story
Joshua 2 comes before any battle. Before Israel crosses, before the walls fall, the reader is shown a Canaanite woman who already believes the reports and acts on them, while her spends the chapter hunting for men who are on the roof.
That placing is deliberate. Joshua 2:11 says the hearts of the city melted, and the same verse tells us what she did with her melted heart: she turned toward the LORD.
Joshua 6 then keeps the agreement to the letter. The city is devoted to destruction and one household is carried out alive because of a promise and a scarlet cord.
The heart revealed in the story
Her speech is the evidence, and it is careful. She names events, Joshua 2:10, then draws a conclusion about God, Joshua 2:11, then asks for mercy on the basis of it, Joshua 2:12.
She also asks for her household. Whatever her life had been, the first thing she does with her new confidence is try to save other people.
What God does in the story
God had already acted at the Red Sea and in Transjordan, and the report of it had reached Jericho. Joshua 2 shows that the reputation of God was doing work inside the city before Israel arrived.
Then God spares a household inside a city under judgment. Joshua 6:17 makes the reason plain: because she hid the messengers.
This is mercy inside judgment, which is the same pattern the New Testament keeps returning to.
Why your past does not matter is the wrong summary
Scripture never says her past did not matter. It names it in Joshua 2:1, and it names it again in Hebrews 11:31 and James 2:25. Her past is kept in the record precisely so the mercy is visible.
What Scripture says is stronger than the slogan. A woman with that history heard, , acted, was spared, was brought into Israel, and appears in the genealogy of the . That is not her past being ignored. That is God's mercy running straight through it.
Trace the story
Rahab from Jericho to Matthew 1
Every stop here is a direct statement about her. This is one of the clearest Old Testament to New Testament trails in Scripture, because the New Testament names her three times.
Scripture interprets Scripture
How later passages read her account
Loading Hebrews 11:31…
Hebrews puts her in the same list as Abraham and Moses, and defines her faith by what she did with the spies. Faith here is not a feeling she had about Israel. It is a risk she took on the strength of what she about God.
Loading James 2:25…
James is arguing that faith without works is dead. He chooses two examples, Abraham and Rahab, which tells you how seriously the New Testament takes her.
Loading Matthew 1:5…
Matthew includes four women before Mary, and three of them are connected to the nations or to scandal. The genealogy is making a point about the kind of who is coming.
Not smoothed over
The hard parts of this account
Does Scripture approve of her deception?
Joshua 2 reports what she said to the 's men without evaluating it. Hebrews and James praise her faith and her reception of the spies, not her words at the door.
Christians have long disagreed about how to weigh the . Audela names the disagreement rather than pretending the text settles it.
The scarlet cord and later Christian symbolism
Some early Christian writers read the scarlet cord as a picture of the blood of Christ. Joshua 2 gives it a plain function: a sign in a window so the household would be identified.
The symbolic reading is a later reflection, not a claim of the text, and it should be labelled that way.
Questions the text can answer
Take these back to Scripture
What exactly had she heard, and what conclusion did she draw from it?
Look at Joshua 2:10. Read Joshua 2:9-11 as one sentence. Separate the events she lists from the confession she makes.
What does she ask for, and for whom?
Look at Joshua 2:12. Count the family members named in Joshua 2:13.
How does the New Testament define her faith?
Look at Hebrews 11:31. Note the specific action Hebrews attaches to the word faith, then compare James 2:25.
Pray it back
A prayer from this account
Lord God of heaven above and earth beneath, a woman in a doomed city heard what you had done and turned to you while her was still hunting for spies.
We thank you that you receive people whose history is written down and not hidden, and that your mercy runs through the record rather than around it.
Give us the courage to act on what we about you when it costs something, and give us her instinct to ask mercy for our households and not only for ourselves.
You brought her inside your people and set her name in the line of Christ. Do your work of mercy in us as well. Amen.
Sources consulted
Themes in this account
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