The Cord in the Window

Rahab let the two men down by a rope through her window. The house where she lived was built into the city wall. The gate had been shut behind their pursuers, but her house offered another way out of Jericho.

She also told them where to go. “Go to the hill country,” she said, “so that your pursuers will not find you. Hide yourselves there for three days until they have returned; then go on your way.” She had sent the king’s men toward the Jordan; she sent the spies toward the hills.

The men had promised to spare her family, but before they parted they set out the terms of that promise. The window through which she lowered them would have to be marked. When they entered the land, a scarlet cord must be tied there.

Her family would also have to be gathered into the house. The men named her father and mother and brothers, and included all her family. The promise she had asked for on the roof now had a particular place attached to it: the house where she had hidden them.

“If anyone goes out the door of your house into the street, his blood will be on his own head, and we will be innocent.” The boundary was the doorway. Their oath did not promise safety to someone who left the household and went into the city.

“But if a hand is laid on anyone with you in the house, his blood will be on our heads.” For those who remained with her, the men accepted responsibility. They had answered her request with their lives; now they stated where that answer would apply.

“And if you report our mission, we will be released from the oath you made us swear.” Secrecy remained a condition, just as it had been on the roof. A cord in the window and a family inside would not release Rahab from keeping what she knew about the men.

“Let it be as you say,” she replied, and sent them away. When they had gone, she tied the scarlet cord in the window. The account records no further bargaining between them, and no delay between their departure and her fastening the sign they had required.

The window had served to lower two men out of Jericho. Now it held the mark by which their agreement would be kept when they returned with Israel. Rahab remained in the house, with the cord tied and the promise extending to everyone she would bring inside.

The spies went into the hill country as she had directed. They stayed there for three days, while the pursuers searched all along the road without finding them. Only after the king’s men returned did the two begin their journey back.

They came down from the hills and crossed the river. Then they reached Joshua son of Nun and reported everything that had happened to them. The mission that had taken them into Rahab’s house ended with both men back before the leader who had sent them.

“The LORD has surely delivered the entire land into our hands,” they said to Joshua. “Indeed, all who dwell in the land are melting in fear of us.” Their report carried the same fear Rahab had described on the roof, now spoken on the other side of the Jordan.

The two men were back among their own people. Rahab’s family would have to find safety in her house, and the oath would have to be remembered when Israel came to Jericho. At her window, the scarlet cord was already tied.