Who was Rahab?
When they lived The period of Israel’s entry into Canaan, generally placed between the thirteenth and twelfth centuries BC.
In short
Rahab is the woman of Jericho who hid two Israelite spies in her house and lied to the king’s men to protect them. Joshua 2 identifies her by her trade, with no euphemism. She and her family were spared when the city fell, and she appears in the genealogy that opens the Gospel of Matthew.
- Written by
- Raphael Navarro Schmitt
- Reviewed by
- Maria Luisa Navarro Schmitt
- Published on
- Reading time
- 10 min read
Two things about Rahab usually turn up separately, each in its own kind of material. In devotional writing she is the woman of faith who recognised the God of Israel and was saved. In writing that likes to provoke, she is the prostitute in the genealogy of Jesus. Both are true, both are in the same text, and the value of the story depends on their staying together.
Joshua 2 and Joshua 6 tell the whole episode, and the New Testament mentions her three times — always with the same designation the Old Testament gives her. Nowhere in the Bible is there an attempt to soften who she was. The attempt exists, and all of it comes from outside the text.
The house on the wall, and how the text introduces her
Joshua sends two men out of Shittim on a secret survey of the land and of Jericho. They enter the city and end up in the house of a woman named Rahab, and the text identifies her by her trade in the same sentence that gives her name — no circumlocution, no justification, no disapproving comment. That is how she is introduced, and that is how she will go on being named all the way into the New Testament.
The house is built against the city wall, which explains the logistics of the rest of the chapter and says something about her social position: it is the kind of dwelling at the margin, inside the city and on its edge at the same time. A house where strangers come and go without drawing attention is exactly where two spies would end up, and the text does not pretend the choice was accidental.
Word reaches the king of Jericho, who sends for the men. This is the moment the story could have ended in three verses.
1And so Joshua, the son of Nun, sent two men from Shittim to explore in secret. And he said to them, “Go and consider the land and the city of Jericho.” And while traveling, they entered into the house of a harlot woman named Rahab, and they rested with her.
The introductory sentence. Note that the narrator builds no frame around her trade: he states it and carries on. That neutrality is a choice, and it holds through the whole chapter.
The lie the text does not comment on
Rahab hides the two on the roof, under stalks of flax she had up there. Then she receives the king’s messengers and lies to them in detail: she admits the men had been in the house, says she had no idea where the men came from, claims they left as the gate was closing, and suggests a quick pursuit while they can still be caught. The messengers head off along the road to the Jordan.
The narrator assesses none of it. He does not say she acted well or badly, does not open a parenthesis about whether lying is permissible, and never returns to the subject. The story carries on as though the lie were simply what happened — which is, in fact, the standard behaviour of the biblical narrator in front of hard decisions.
That matters for anyone about to cite Rahab as an example. When the New Testament praises her, and it does so twice, what is being praised is stated precisely: in Hebrews, having received the spies in peace; in James, having received the messengers and helped them leave by another way. The lie is mentioned in neither place — not to approve it, and not to condemn it.
3And the king of Jericho sent to Rahab, saying: “Bring out the men who came to you, and who entered into your house. For certainly they are spies, and they have arrived to consider the entire land.”
4And the woman, taking the men, hid them. And she said: “I admit that they came to me, but I did not know where they were from.
5And when the gate was closed, they went out together in the darkness. I do not know where they have gone. Pursue them quickly, and you will overtake them.”
6But she caused the men to ascend to the roof of her house, and she covered them with the stalks of flax that were there.
7But those who had been sent pursued after them along the way that leads to the ford of the Jordan. And as soon as they went out, the gate was closed.
The whole interrogation scene. Worth reading with attention to what the narrator does afterwards: nothing. There is not one line of comment on her conduct anywhere in the chapter.
The confession, and the deal she negotiates
Before the spies fall asleep, Rahab goes up to them and delivers the most theological speech in the chapter. She says she knows the Lord has given that land to Israel, that the terror of them has fallen on the inhabitants, and she recites from memory two things she has heard: the drying of the Red Sea, and what happened to the two Amorite kings beyond the Jordan. She closes with a statement placing the God of Israel over heaven and earth alike, one that no Israelite makes in this stretch of the book.
She is a Canaanite, inside a condemned city, articulating the faith of Israel better than the Israelite characters around her. The book of Joshua puts that speech in her mouth on purpose, and the contrast with the following chapter — where an Israelite steals what had been consecrated and brings defeat on the people — is the narrator’s own construction.
And the speech ends in a negotiation. She points out that she acted with mercy and asks for an oath by the Lord: that they save her father, her mother, her brothers and sisters, and everything that is theirs. She does not ask for her own life first, and she does not ask for free — she asks for a reliable sign. The spies agree on one condition: that she not give the matter away.
8Those who were hiding had not yet fallen asleep, and behold, the woman went up to them, and she said:
9“I know that the Lord has given this land to you. For the terror of you has fallen upon us, and all the inhabitants of the land have languished.
10We have heard that the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea upon your arrival, when you were departing from Egypt, and we heard of the things that you did to the two kings of the Amorites, who were beyond the Jordan, Sihon and Og, whom you put to death.
11And upon hearing these things, we were very afraid, and our heart languished. Neither did there remain in us any spirit at your arrival. For the Lord your God is the very God in heaven above and on earth below.
12Now, therefore, swear to me by the Lord that in the same way that I have acted with mercy toward you, so also shall you act toward the house of my father. And may you give me a true sign
13that you will save my father and mother, my brothers and sisters, and all that is theirs, and that you may rescue our souls from death.”
The confession and the deal, in the same breath. Worth noting that she does not speak of conversion or of leaving her own city: she speaks of what she heard, what she concluded and what she wants in return.
The scarlet cord and what came after
She lets the two of them down by a rope through the window, because the house is on the wall, and tells them to hide in the hills for three days until the pursuers turn back. The agreed sign is a scarlet cord tied at that same window, and the condition is that her whole family be inside the house when the army arrives.
In chapter 6, Jericho falls. Joshua’s order is that the entire city be destroyed, and the only exception named is her house. The two spies go in, bring out Rahab, her father, her mother, her brothers and all her kindred, and settle them outside the camp of Israel. The city is burned.
And the text closes with a line that tends to slip past: she came to live among the Israelites, and the narrator adds that it is so to this day. Whoever wrote that wrote long afterwards, for readers who still knew her descendants. Rahab is not a case closed in chapter 6 — she enters the people and stays.
22But Joshua said to the two men who had been sent to explore, “Enter the house of the harlot woman, and bring her out, and all the things that are hers, just as you assured her by oath.”
23And the youths entered, and they led out Rahab, and her parents, also her brothers, and all her goods and kindred, and they caused them to dwell outside the camp.
24Then they set fire to the city and all the things that were within it, except the gold and silver, and the vessels of brass or of iron, which they consecrated into the treasury of the Lord.
25Yet truly, Joshua caused Rahab the harlot, and her father’s household, and all she had, to survive. And they lived in the midst of Israel, even to the present day. For she hid the messengers, whom he had sent to explore Jericho. At that time, Joshua made an invocation, saying:
The deal carried out. Note that verse 25 names her again exactly as chapter 2 did, in a book that has just described the total destruction of her city.
In the genealogy that opens the New Testament
Matthew opens his Gospel with a list of names and does something unusual for a genealogy of that period: he includes women. There are four before Mary — Tamar, Rahab, Ruth and the wife of Uriah — and none of them is there as an example of conventional virtue. Three are foreigners or tied to foreigners, and all four stories involve situations devotional reading prefers not to detail.
One point of honesty is worth recording: the Old Testament never makes this connection. Ruth 4:21 gives the same genealogical line — Salmon fathered Boaz — without naming the mother, and no Hebrew text links Rahab to Salmon. The information appears for the first time in Matthew 1:5, and that is where it comes from.
And there are the two remaining mentions, both approving and both using the same designation. Hebrews 11 places her in the list of those who acted by faith, saying she was not destroyed along with those who refused to believe. James 2 uses her as an example of faith shown in action. Three books of the New Testament speak well of her, and all three call her what Joshua called her.
5And Salmon conceived Boaz by Rahab. And Boaz conceived Obed by Ruth. And Obed conceived Jesse.
6And Jesse conceived king David. And king David conceived Solomon, by her who had been the wife of Uriah.
Two verses with three women in them, Rahab among them. Compare with Ruth 4:21, which gives the same sequence of names with none of the women — the difference is an editorial choice by Matthew.
31By faith, Rahab, the harlot, did not perish with the unbelievers, after receiving the spies with peace.
The commendation, with the stated reason: having received the spies. Note what is not mentioned here, or in James 2:25 — the lie to the king of Jericho stays outside both texts.
What the text does not say
Biblical figures gather layers of tradition that Scripture does not support. Telling the two apart does not diminish the story — it gives back what is actually written.
What is commonly said
Rahab was an innkeeper, and "prostitute" is a translator’s exaggeration.
What Scripture says
The Hebrew of Joshua uses the ordinary word for a prostitute, and the New Testament, written in Greek, repeats the designation both times it praises her — in Hebrews 11:31 and in James 2:25. The word crosses two languages and two Testaments without being swapped, including in the texts that are speaking well of her.
Where it comes from: The softened reading does not come from the Bible. It was already circulating in antiquity — the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus, in the first century, describes her house as an inn — and it returned in modern commentaries and translations that prefer the gentler term.
What is commonly said
God approved Rahab’s lie, and the story teaches that lying for a good cause is acceptable.
What Scripture says
Joshua 2 narrates the lie in detail and does not comment on it — neither to approve nor to condemn. And the two New Testament texts that praise her are specific about the reason: receiving the spies in peace, receiving the messengers and helping them leave by another way. The lie appears in neither sentence, and anyone presenting it as approved is reading something the text does not say.
What is commonly said
Rahab left her trade and converted before hiding the spies.
What Scripture says
The narrative mentions no conversion, no repentance and no change of life at any point — not before Jericho fell, and not after. She states what she has heard about the God of Israel and what she concluded from it, and negotiates her family’s survival. The text names her the same way in chapter 2 and in chapter 6, after everything has happened.
What is commonly said
The scarlet cord in the window represented the blood of Christ.
What Scripture says
In Joshua, the cord is an agreed sign with a practical function: marking the right house so the army would not destroy it. The text attributes no meaning to it beyond that, and does not comment on the colour.
Where it comes from: The symbolic reading is ancient and appears already in Clement of Rome, at the end of the first century, who reads the cord as a figure of redemption through blood. It is a Christian tradition of interpretation, not content of the book of Joshua.
What is commonly said
The Old Testament says Rahab married Salmon and was the mother of Boaz.
What Scripture says
It does not. The genealogy in Ruth 4 gives the same sequence — Salmon fathered Boaz — without naming the mother, and no Hebrew text links Rahab to that family. The information appears for the first time in Matthew 1:5, in the New Testament, and that is where it comes from.
Where this person appears
1And so Joshua, the son of Nun, sent two men from Shittim to explore in secret. And he said to them, “Go and consider the land and the city of Jericho.” And while traveling, they entered into the house of a harlot woman named Rahab, and they rested with her.
The introduction, with her name and her trade on the same line. It is the verse almost every summary rewrites.
8Those who were hiding had not yet fallen asleep, and behold, the woman went up to them, and she said:
9“I know that the Lord has given this land to you. For the terror of you has fallen upon us, and all the inhabitants of the land have languished.
10We have heard that the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea upon your arrival, when you were departing from Egypt, and we heard of the things that you did to the two kings of the Amorites, who were beyond the Jordan, Sihon and Og, whom you put to death.
11And upon hearing these things, we were very afraid, and our heart languished. Neither did there remain in us any spirit at your arrival. For the Lord your God is the very God in heaven above and on earth below.
12Now, therefore, swear to me by the Lord that in the same way that I have acted with mercy toward you, so also shall you act toward the house of my father. And may you give me a true sign
13that you will save my father and mother, my brothers and sisters, and all that is theirs, and that you may rescue our souls from death.”
The confession of faith and the negotiation for her family. The most theological passage in the chapter is in the mouth of a Canaanite, not an Israelite.
15Therefore, she sent them down from a window with a rope. For her house was joined to the wall.
16And she said to them: “Climb up to the mountains; otherwise, they may meet you as they are returning. And lay hidden there for three days, until they return. And then you will go on your way.”
17And they said to her: “We shall be innocent of this oath, to which you have sworn us,
18if, when we enter into the land, this scarlet cord has been placed as a sign, and you have tied it at the window by which you let us down. And so, gather your father, and mother, and brothers, and all your family into your house.
The escape through the window and the arrangement about the scarlet cord. The practical condition is worth noticing: the protection only works with the whole family inside the house.
22But Joshua said to the two men who had been sent to explore, “Enter the house of the harlot woman, and bring her out, and all the things that are hers, just as you assured her by oath.”
23And the youths entered, and they led out Rahab, and her parents, also her brothers, and all her goods and kindred, and they caused them to dwell outside the camp.
24Then they set fire to the city and all the things that were within it, except the gold and silver, and the vessels of brass or of iron, which they consecrated into the treasury of the Lord.
25Yet truly, Joshua caused Rahab the harlot, and her father’s household, and all she had, to survive. And they lived in the midst of Israel, even to the present day. For she hid the messengers, whom he had sent to explore Jericho. At that time, Joshua made an invocation, saying:
The only exception to the destruction of Jericho, and the closing note that she came to live among the Israelites.
5And Salmon conceived Boaz by Rahab. And Boaz conceived Obed by Ruth. And Obed conceived Jesse.
The mention in the genealogy of Jesus, beside Ruth. It is the only passage in the Bible that links Rahab to Salmon and to Boaz.
25Similarly also, Rahab, the harlot, was she not justified by works, by receiving the messengers and sending them out through another way?
The commendation in James, with the stated reason — receiving the messengers and helping them out. The designation used here is the same as in Joshua 2, in a text presenting her as an example.