World English Bible · Entering the land
Joshua 2
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the son of secretly sent two men out of as spies, saying, "Go, view the land, including ." They went and came into the house of a whose name was , and slept there. The king of was told, "Behold, men of the came in here tonight to spy out the land." king sent to , 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." 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. About the time of the shutting of the , 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." 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. The men pursued them along to the fords of . As soon as those who pursued them had gone out, they shut the . 8Before they had lain down, she came up to them on the roof. She said to the men, "I know that 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. For we have heard how dried up the water of before you, when you came out of ; and what you did to the two kings of the , who were beyond , to and to , whom you . As soon as we had heard it, our melted, and there wasn't any more in any man, because of you: for your , he is in above, and on earth beneath. Now therefore, please to me by , since I have dealt kindly with you, that you also will deal kindly with house, and give me a true sign; 13and that you will alive , my mother, my brothers, and my sisters, and all that they have, and will our lives from ." The men said to her, "Our life for yours, if you don't talk about this business of ours; and it shall be, when gives us the land, that we will deal kindly and truly with you." Then she let them down by a cord through the window; for her house was on the side of the wall, and she lived on the wall. She said to them, "Go to the mountain, lest the pursuers find you. Hide yourselves there three days, until the pursuers have returned. Afterward, you may go your way." The men said to her, "We will be guiltless of this your which you've made us to . Behold, when we come into the land, tie this line of scarlet thread in the window which you used to let us down. Gather to yourself into the house your , your mother, your brothers, and all your household. It shall be that whoever goes out of the doors of your house into the street, his will be on his head, and we will be guiltless. Whoever is with you in the house, his shall be on our head, if any hand is on him. But if you talk about this business of ours, then we shall be guiltless of your which you've made us to ." She said, "Let it be as you have said." She sent them away, and they departed. Then she tied the scarlet line in the window. They went and came to the mountain, and stayed there three days, until the pursuers had returned. The pursuers sought them all along , but didn't find them. 23Then the two men returned, descended from the mountain, crossed the river, and came to the son of . They told him all that had happened to them. They said to , "Truly has all the land into our hands. Moreover, all the inhabitants of the land melt away before us."
A public domain modern English translation, free to read and share. Notes and cards are EKLI’s own.
The world at this moment · Entering the land, 1250 BC to 1200 BC ›
Israel crossing into Canaan and contending with fortified city-states, each with its own king, in a land Egypt had recently dominated and was now losing its grip on.
- The collapse
- The whole eastern Mediterranean is coming apart. Within about fifty years the Hittite empire falls, its capital burns, the Mycenaean palaces are destroyed, Ugarit is wiped out mid-correspondence, and Egypt is fighting for its life against seaborne invaders. Nobody fully knows why. Drought, earthquake, migration, and the failure of interlocking trade are all in the explanation.
- Egypt
- Still strong enough to record a victory over a people called Israel on a stone monument around 1207 BC, the earliest mention of the name outside the Bible. But Egyptian control of Canaan is slipping, and within a generation it is gone.
- Canaan
- Not a country but dozens of walled towns, each with its own king, its own god, and its own quarrel with the next valley. This is why the book of Joshua reads as a list of kings rather than a war with a nation.
- Further afield
- Iron is beginning to replace bronze across the region, partly because the tin trade that made bronze possible has broken down. The Olmec are building San Lorenzo. The Zhou are about to overthrow the Shang in China.