13. that you will spare the lives of my father and mother, my brothers and sisters, and all who belong to them – and that you will save us from death.’
14. ‘Our lives for your lives!’ the men assured her. ‘If you don’t tell what we are doing, we will treat you kindly and faithfully when the Lord gives us the land.’
15. So she let them down by a rope through the window, for the house she lived in was part of the city wall.
16. She said to them, ‘Go to the hills so that the pursuers will not find you. Hide yourselves there for three days until they return, and then go on your way.’
17. Now the men had said to her, ‘This oath you made us swear will not be binding on us
18. unless, when we enter the land, you have tied this scarlet cord in the window through which you let us down, and unless you have brought your father and mother, your brothers and all your family into your house.
19. If any of them go outside your house into the street, their blood will be on their own heads; we will not be responsible. As for those who are in the house with you, their blood will be on our head if a hand is laid on them.
20. But if you tell what we are doing, we will be released from the oath you made us swear.’
21. ‘Agreed,’ she replied. ‘Let it be as you say.’So she sent them away, and they departed. And she tied the scarlet cord in the window.
22. When they left, they went into the hills and stayed there three days, until the pursuers had searched all along the road and returned without finding them.
23. Then the two men started back. They went down out of the hills, forded the river and came to Joshua son of Nun and told him everything that had happened to them.
24. They said to Joshua, ‘The Lord has surely given the whole land into our hands; all the people are melting in fear because of us.’