¹And Joshua the son of Nun sent out two spies secretly from Shittim, and he said, “Go and look at the land, and Jericho.” And they departed and came to the house of a prostitute woman whose name was Rahab, and they lodged there. ²And it was reported to the king of Jericho, and they said, “Look, some men from the sons of Israel came here tonight, to investigate the land.” ³And the king of Jericho sent men to Rahab, who said, “Bring out the men who came to you – who came to your house – because they came to investigate all the land.” ⁴But the woman had taken the two men and hidden them, and she said this: “The men came to me, but I did not know where they were from. ⁵When the gate was about to close in the dark, the men went out. I do not know where the men went. Pursue them quickly, because you will catch up with them.” ⁶Then she brought them up onto the roof and hid them with flax stalks which had been laid out by her on the roof. ⁷So the men pursued them on the road to the Jordan, at the fords, and the gate was closed after the pursuers had gone out after them. ⁸Then before they lay down, she came up to them on the roof, ⁹and she said to the men, “I know that the Lord has given you the land, and that dread of you has fallen on us, and that all the inhabitants of the land have become disheartened before you. ¹⁰For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea in front of you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were across the Jordan – to Sihon and to Og – whom you obliterated. ¹¹When we heard it, our hearts fainted and no man's spirit held up in him any more because of you, for the Lord your God is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath. ¹²So now, please swear to me by the Lord, since I have acted kindly to you, that you in turn will act kindly to the house of my father, and that you will give me a sign of truth, ¹³and that you will let my father and my mother live, and my brothers and my sister, and all that they have, and that you will save us from death.” ¹⁴And the men said to her, “May our life take the place of yours to die, providing you do not betray this affair of ours, and it will come to pass, when the Lord gives us the land, that we will act kindly and truly to you.” ¹⁵Then she let them down by a rope through the window, for her house was built into the wall of circumvallation, as she lived in the circumvallation. ¹⁶And she said to them, “Go to the mountain, so that those pursuing you do not come across you, and hide there for three days until the pursuers return, and afterwards you can go your way.” ¹⁷Then the men said to her, “We are in the clear with this oath of yours which you had us swear. ¹⁸Look, we are coming into the land. Bind this line of scarlet thread to the window by which you let us down and gather your father and your mother and your brothers, and the whole household of your father with you into the house. ¹⁹And it will be the case that anyone who comes out of the doors of your house to the outside will have his blood on his head, but we will be in the clear, but the blood of anyone who is with you indoors will be on our head if we lay a hand on him. ²⁰But if you inform about this matter of ours, we will be clear from your oath which you had us swear.” ²¹And she said, “As your words are, so shall it be.” And she sent them off, and they departed, and she bound the scarlet line to the window. ²²So they departed and came to the mountain, and they remained there for three days, until the pursuers had returned. And the pursuers searched on all the route, but they did not find them. ²³Then the two men returned and came down from the mountain, and they crossed over, and they came to Joshua the son of Nun, and they recounted to him all the things that had befallen them. ²⁴And they said to Joshua, “Because for his part the Lord has given us the whole land in our hand, so for their part all the inhabitants melted away at our presence.”