Bible Strands
Joshua 2:6
(But Rahab had taken them up to the roof and hidden them among the stalks of flax that she had laid out there.)
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The narrator describes Rahab’s actions at dusk, immediately after she tells the king’s men the spies have fled and before the city gate shuts.
The words — הֶעֱלָתָם (he'elatom) translates as she had taken up, and תִּטְמְנֵם (titmene/m) means she had hidden them. These verbs specify the physical mechanics of concealing the men on the roof.
The thread — The pattern of hiding messengers under agricultural cover reappears in 2 Samuel 17:19, while James 2:25 later cites this event to demonstrate justification by concrete action.
Why it lands — The text records the physical concealment before any theological evaluation, requiring the reader to note that obedience to God’s agents involved immediate, tangible risk. It demands acknowledgment that faith operates through specific, verifiable deeds.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
But she had brought them up to the roof of the house, and hid them with the stalks of flax, which she had laid in order upon the roof.
Cross-references
- Hebrews 11:23 By faith Moses’ parents hid him for three months after his birth, because they saw that he was a beautiful child, and they were unafraid of the king’s edict.
- James 2:25 In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute justified by her actions when she welcomed the spies and sent them off on another route?
- 2 Samuel 17:19 Then the man’s wife took a covering, spread it over the mouth of the well, and scattered grain over it so nobody would know a thing.
- Colossians 3:3 For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.
- Exodus 1:15 Then the king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, whose names were Shiphrah and Puah,
- Exodus 2:2 and she conceived and gave birth to a son. When she saw that he was a beautiful child, she hid him for three months.
- Deuteronomy 22:8 If you build a new house, you are to construct a railing around your roof, so that you do not bring bloodguilt on your house if someone falls from it.
- Joshua 2:8 Before the spies lay down for the night, Rahab went up on the roof
- 2 Samuel 11:2 One evening David got up from his bed and strolled around on the roof of the palace. And from the roof he saw a woman bathing—a very beautiful woman.
- 1 Kings 18:4 for when Jezebel had slaughtered the prophets of the LORD, Obadiah had taken a hundred prophets and hidden them, fifty men per cave, providing them with food and water.)