Joshua 2:7-14

Assuming the spies had fled back to the Israelite camp, the men of Jericho searched all along the road from their city to the place where travelers forded the Jordan (Joshua 2:7), about five miles.

Rahab’s reference to the fear of the Israelites that God had put in the Canaanites’ hearts (Joshua 2:9-11) shows that the Lord had fulfilled His promise to make the Israelites’ enemies fear them (Exodus 23:27; Deuteronomy 2:25; Deuteronomy 11:25). This is one of the longest uninterrupted statements by a woman in a biblical narrative. [Note: Hess, p. 88.]

"Yahweh had proved himself more powerful than any other claimants to deity. The irony of the situation existed in the fact that Israel’s enemies recognized this when Israel did not." [Note: Butler, p. 33.]

"Utterly destroyed" translates the Hebrew herem, a technical term for the practice of completely destroying the spoils of war as a way of consecrating them to a deity (cf. Joshua 6:17). [Note: Madvig, p. 262.]

"The people who in Rahab’s time most frequently used such houses of prostitution were the traveling merchants. From them she had repeatedly heard of the marvelous nation which was approaching from Egypt, and of the God of Israel who had perfected such striking miracles." [Note: Abraham Kuyper, Women of the Old Testament, p. 69.]

The melting of the heart (Joshua 2:11) pictures utter despair. We must be careful not to overestimate Rahab’s confession of faith in this verse. She had come to place her faith in Yahweh (cf. Hebrews 11:31; James 2:25), but she did not become a mature believer immediately. No one does.