Joshua 2

¹Then Joshua son of Nun secretly sent two spies from Shittim, saying, “Go, inspect the land, especially Jericho.” So they went and entered the house of a prostitute named Rahab and stayed there.

²And it was reported to the king of Jericho: “Behold, some men of Israel have come here tonight to spy out the land.”

³So the king of Jericho sent to Rahab and said, “Bring out the men who came to you and entered your house, for they have come to spy out the whole land.”

⁴But the woman had taken the two men and hidden them. So she said, “Yes, the men did come to me, but I did not know where they had come from.

⁵At dusk, when the gate was about to close, the men went out, and I do not know which way they went. Pursue them quickly, and you may catch them!”

⁶(But Rahab had taken them up to the roof and hidden them among the stalks of flax that she had laid out there.)

⁷So the king’s men set out in pursuit of the spies along the road to the fords of the Jordan, and as soon as they had gone out, the gate was shut.

⁸Before the spies lay down for the night, Rahab went up on the roof

⁹and said to them, “I know that the LORD has given you this land and that the fear of you has fallen on us, so that all who dwell in the land are melting in fear of you.

¹⁰For we have heard how the LORD dried up the waters of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to Sihon and Og, the two kings of the Amorites across the Jordan, whom you devoted to destruction.

¹¹When we heard this, our hearts melted and everyone’s courage failed because of you, for the LORD your God is God in the heavens above and on the earth below.