The Bible on Rahab

What the text says

Rahab appears in Joshua 2 and Joshua 6, in Jesus’s genealogy in Matthew 1, and in the New Testament’s two “faith and works” passages — Hebrews 11:31 and James 2:25.

Joshua 2:1. The text introduces her:

Then Joshua son of Nun secretly sent two spies from Shittim, saying, “Go, inspect the land, especially Jericho.” So they went and entered the house of a prostitute named Rahab, and they lodged there.

The Hebrew word translated “prostitute” is zanah (זָנָה). The word can mean prostitute (its most common Hebrew Bible usage, especially in the verbal form zanah, “to commit fornication”) or, secondarily, “innkeeper” — the two trades being closely associated in many ancient societies. Some Jewish commentary (notably Rashi and Josephus) has read Rahab as an innkeeper; the majority of English translations render zanah as “prostitute” here. Both readings have textual defenders.

The location is consistent with either: Rahab’s house is built into the city wall (Joshua 2:15), and travellers arriving in Jericho would plausibly seek lodgings near the gate. The spies’ choice to stay there — whether for cover, anonymity, or because innkeepers/prostitutes were professionally accustomed to questions about overnight guests — is presented without commentary.

Joshua 2:3–7 — the lie. The king of Jericho sends messengers ordering Rahab to surrender the spies. She hides them on her roof under stalks of flax and tells the king’s men:

Yes, the men did come to me, but I did not know where they had come from. At nightfall, when the gate was about to close, the men went out, and I do not know which way they went. Pursue them quickly, and you may catch up with them.

The text records this without moral comment.

Joshua 2:9–13 — Rahab’s speech. The longest piece of dialogue in the chapter, and one of the longest speeches the Hebrew Bible gives a woman:

I know that the LORD has given you this land and that the fear of you has fallen on us, so that all who dwell in the land are melting in fear of you. 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 east of the Jordan, whom you devoted to destruction.

When we heard this, our hearts melted and the spirit in every man failed because of you, for the LORD your God is God in the heavens above and on the earth below.

Now therefore, please swear to me by the LORD that, just as I showed kindness to you, you will also show kindness to my father’s household. Give me a sure sign 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 deliver us from death.

The speech contains an explicit confession of YHWH — “the LORD your God is God in the heavens above and on the earth below” — that is theologically richer than what most Israelite figures in the conquest narratives say. She negotiates from this position.

Joshua 2:18 — the red cord. The spies agree, with a condition: she must tie a scarlet cord in the window, and gather her entire family into her house at the time of the attack. “Anyone who leaves your house … will be responsible for his own death.”

Joshua 6:22–25 — the rescue. When Jericho falls, the spies bring Rahab and her family out before the city is destroyed and burned:

Joshua spared Rahab the prostitute, with her father’s household and all who belonged to her. So she lives among the Israelites to this day, because she hid the messengers Joshua had sent to spy out Jericho.

The phrase “to this day” indicates the Joshua narrative was composed at a point when Rahab’s descendants were still identifiable as a community within Israel.

Matthew 1:5. In the genealogy of Jesus:

Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab. Boaz the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth.

Rahab is one of five women named in Matthew’s genealogy (the others: Tamar, Ruth, Bathsheba, Mary). Three of the five have irregular sexual histories — Tamar’s deception of Judah, Bathsheba and David, Rahab’s profession in Joshua 2. The fourth, Ruth, is a Moabite (an outsider). Mary completes the pattern. Whatever Matthew’s compositional intent, the inclusion of Rahab in the line of Jesus is a textual fact.

Hebrews 11:31. “By faith Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient, because she had welcomed the spies in peace.” The Greek word here is pornē (πόρνη), “prostitute” — the standard New Testament term, used without ambiguity. The NT consistently reads the Hebrew zanah of Joshua 2 as pornē, settling the lexical question for the Greek text.

James 2:25. “In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she welcomed the spies and sent them off on another route?” Same word — pornē — and same identification.

What the text doesn’t say

Whether the Hebrew zanah in Joshua 2 means “prostitute” or “innkeeper.” The Hebrew word’s range covers both; the Greek New Testament resolves to “prostitute”; some Jewish commentary reads “innkeeper.” The Hebrew text does not adjudicate.

Whether the lie to the king of Jericho was morally permissible. The Hebrew text records the lie and the rescue that follows without commentary. The Christian tradition has debated the question (Augustine: Rahab’s lie was sinful but God blessed her faith in spite of it; Calvin: the lie was excusable given the circumstances). The text itself is silent.

Why Rahab was included in Jesus’s genealogy. Matthew records the inclusion; he does not comment on it.

Key verse

Joshua 2:11:

When we heard this, our hearts melted and the spirit in every man failed because of you, for the LORD your God is God in the heavens above and on the earth below.

The theological declaration in Rahab’s speech — placing YHWH unambiguously above and below, in heaven and on earth — is striking from a non-Israelite in the conquest narratives. The text gives the confession to her, not to an Israelite character.

Read in other translations

The passages above use the BSB and KJV — both public domain. To read Joshua 2:11 in copyrighted modern translations, follow the links to BibleGateway:

• Joshua 2 — full chapter on Bible1.org →
• Joshua 2:11 — NIV →
• Joshua 2:11 — ESV →
• Joshua 2:11 — NLT →
• Joshua 2:11 — NASB →
• Joshua 2:11 — CSB →

Original language note

Zanah (זָנָה). The verbal root means “to commit fornication,” “to be unfaithful sexually.” As a substantive in noun form, zonah (זוֹנָה — the form used in Joshua 2:1) means “a woman engaged in sexual commerce.” The “innkeeper” reading is not a standard Hebrew Bible lexicon entry; it emerges from rabbinic and some patristic readings that distinguish zonah from qedeshah (קְדֵשָׁה, “cultic prostitute”) and propose secondary occupational meanings for zonah in some narrative contexts. The reading is a minority position; the standard Hebrew lexicons (HALOT, BDB) gloss zonah as “prostitute.”

Porne (πόρνη) in the Greek New Testament — Hebrews 11:31 and James 2:25 — is unambiguous. The Greek translators chose the most direct equivalent of the Hebrew zonah.

Tikvat ha-shani (תִּקְוַת חוּט הַשָּׁנִי, “the cord of scarlet thread”) in Joshua 2:18 — the sign Rahab is told to tie in her window — became, in early Christian typological reading, a foreshadowing of the blood of Christ. The reading is patristic, not in the Joshua text itself. The Hebrew records simply a coloured marker for identification during the assault.

Related reading

• The Bible on Bathsheba — another woman named in Matthew 1’s genealogy
• The Bible on Mary Magdalene — another figure whose canonical record is overlaid by post-biblical sexual identification