1. Joshua the son of Nun secretly sent two men out of Shittim as spies, saying, “Go, view the land, including Jericho.” They went and came into the house of a prostitute whose name was Rahab, and slept there.
2. The king of Jericho was told, “Behold, men of the children of Israel came in here tonight to spy out the land.”
3. Jericho’s king sent to Rahab, saying, “Bring out the men who have come to you, who have entered into your house; for they have come to spy out all the land.”
4. The woman took the two men and hid them. Then she said, “Yes, the men came to me, but I didn’t know where they came from.
5. About the time of the shutting of the gate, when it was dark, the men went out. Where the men went, I don’t know. Pursue them quickly. You may catch up with them.”
6. But she had brought them up to the roof, and hidden them under the stalks of flax which she had laid in order on the roof.
7. The men pursued them along the way to the fords of the Jordan River. As soon as those who pursued them had gone out, they shut the gate.
8. Before they had lain down, she came up to them on the roof.
9. She said to the men, “I know that the Lord has given you the land, and that the fear of you has fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land melt away before you.
10. For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Sea of Suf before you, when you came out of Egypt; and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites, who were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon and to Og, whom you utterly destroyed.
11. As soon as we had heard it, our hearts melted, and there wasn’t any more spirit in any man, because of you: for the Lord your God, he is God in heaven above, and on earth beneath.
12. Now therefore, please swear to me by the Lord, since I have dealt kindly with you, that you also will deal kindly with my father’s house, and give me a true sign;
13. and that you will save alive my father, my mother, my brothers, and my sisters, and all that they have, and will deliver our lives from death.”