1. Then Joshua, son of Nun, secretly sent out two spies from Shittim, saying, “Go, reconnoiter the land and Jericho.” When the two reached Jericho, they went into the house of a prostitute named Rahab, where they lodged.
2. But a report was brought to the king of Jericho: “Some men came here last night, Israelites, to spy out the land.”
3. So the king of Jericho sent Rahab the order, “Bring out the men who have come to you and entered your house, for they have come to spy out the entire land.”
4. The woman had taken the two men and hidden them, so she said, “True, the men you speak of came to me, but I did not know where they came from.
5. At dark, when it was time to close the gate, they left, and I do not know where they went. You will have to pursue them quickly to overtake them.”
6. Now, she had led them to the roof, and hidden them among her stalks of flax spread out there.
7. But the pursuers set out along the way to the fords of the Jordan. As soon as they had left to pursue them, the gate was shut.
8. Before the spies lay down, Rahab went up to them on the roof
9. and said: “I know that the Lord has given you the land, that a dread of you has come upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land tremble with fear because of you.
10. For 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 beyond the Jordan, whom you destroyed under the ban.