1. Joshua son of Nun and all the people were camped at Acacia. Joshua sent out two spies. No one knew that Joshua sent out these men. Joshua said to them, “Go and look at the land, especially the city of Jericho.” So the men went to the city of Jericho and stayed at the house of a prostitute named Rahab.
2. But someone told the king of Jericho, “Last night some men from Israel came to look for weaknesses in our country.”
3. So the king of Jericho sent this message to Rahab: “Do not hide the men who came and stayed in your house. Bring them out. They have come to spy on our country.”
4. Rahab had hidden the two men, but she said, “They did come here, but I didn’t know where they came from.
5. In the evening, when it was time to close the city gate, the men left. I don’t know where they went. But if you go quickly, maybe you can catch them.”
6. (Rahab said this, but really she had taken the men up to the roof and had hidden them in the flax that she had piled up there.)
7. So the king’s men went out of the city, and the people closed the city gates. The king’s men went to look for the two men from Israel. They went to the Jordan River and looked at all the places where people cross the river.
8. The two men were ready to sleep for the night, but Rahab went to the roof to talk to them.
9. She said, “I know that the Lord has given this land to your people. You frighten us. Everyone living in this country is afraid of you.
10. We are afraid because we have heard about the ways that the Lord helped you. We heard that he dried up the Red Sea when you came out of Egypt. We also heard what you did to the two Amorite kings, Sihon and Og. We heard how you destroyed those kings living east of the Jordan River.
11. When we heard about this, we were very afraid. And now, not one of our men is brave enough to fight you, because the Lord your God rules the heavens above and the earth below!