Ver. 1. And Joshua—sent—two men to spy, &c.— Or had sent, as the Margin of our Bibles more properly renders it. Joshua had certainly sent the spies to Jericho before he issued in the camp the order mentioned ver. 10, 11 of the former chapter. This supposition removes every difficulty that can arise in this history with respect to the order of time, and clears up the 22nd verse of the present chapter. Moses had succeeded so indifferently in sending spies before to discover the land of Canaan, that it is surprising, at first view, that Joshua should venture to recur to this method. But, not to mention that he might be determined to it of his own mind, or perhaps by the express commands of God, without any solicitation on the part of the people, it appears, that he sent these two spies secretly, and that to him only they reported the success of their commission. As an able general, prudence required that Joshua should gain a knowledge of the place which he purposed to attack: his confidence in the divine promises did not exclude a diligent and judicious employment of such second causes as might favour the success of his enterprize. We would, therefore, translate the beginning of the verse in this manner: And Joshua, the son of Nun, had secretly sent out of Shittim two men to espy, and had said, &c. See Houbigant. By the land which Joshua orders them to go and view, we are not to understand the whole land of Canaan, but the environs of Jericho: the city, its avenues, its situation, its fortifications, the troops defending it; in a word, every obstacle that he would have to surmount in order to make himself master of it. The city of Jericho, situated in a wide plain according to Josephus, was but about seven miles and a half distant from Jordan. Maundrel says, that he came from Jericho to the banks of Jordan in two hours; which answers pretty nearly to the former calculation.
And they went, and came into an harlot's house, named Rahab— The doubtfulness of the term used by the sacred writer, to signify Rahab's mode of life, has divided interpreters. It may equally signify a hostess, and a prostitute. Onkelos takes it in the former sense, making Rahab to be the keeper of a public house, who received, victualled, and lodged strangers. Josephus, and several rabbis, are of the same opinion, which has also its partizans among Christians. St. Chrysostom, in his second sermon upon Repentance, twice calls this woman a hostess. It does not appear by the text, say some, that she followed any other trade; and it is improbable, that Salmon, who was one of the chief heads of the house of Judah, and was one of the ancestors of the Messiah, would have married her had she been a prostitute. And yet it must be owned, the greatest probabilities, in this particular, are against Rahab. The Hebrew word zonah constantly implies a prostitute. Thus the LXX understood it, and two apostles have approved of their version; see Hebrews 11:31. James 2:25 which they would not have done, considering her as a woman whose memory they ought to hold venerable, had they not been constrained by the laws of truth. Besides, it is observable, that, in this relation, Rahab says not a word of her husband or children, when she begs the life of her kinsfolks; which, considering the trade she carried on, must naturally render her suspected. We may add with Serrarius, that, perhaps, Rahab was one of those young women, who, in a religious view, devoted herself to impurity in the idol temples. The same critic supposes the moon to have been the tutelary deity of Jericho. See Calmet, and Leviticus 21:7.
And lodged there— Supposing Rahab to have actually lived in an irreproachable manner, it is nothing surprising to see the spies sent by Joshua on this discovery come by night to lodge at her inn. Whatever were her modes of life, her house was the most favourable place for the execution of their design. And it is sufficiently evident, from reading the sequel of this history, that God himself conducted them thither by a special direction of his providence.