Joshua 2 · a question people ask
Rahab told the king's men what wasn't so (2:5-6). Was that right?
She said, "Yes, the men came to me, but I didn’t know where they came from" (2:4), and "Where the men went, I don’t know. Pursue them quickly" (2:5). The next verse sets her words beside what she had done: "But she had brought them up to the roof, and hidden them under the stalks of flax" (2:6). Joshua 2 tells it without comment. Hebrews and James name what she did, "having received the spies in peace" (Hebrews 11:31) and "she received the messengers and sent them out another way" (James 2:25); they don't mention her words either way. Christians read her answer in two main ways, as they do the Hebrew midwives' answer to Pharaoh (Exodus 1:19). Both views agree that the New Testament commends her.
How Christians read it
Where Christians differ, Favor sets out the main views side by side and doesn't pick one.
An untrue answer, and still wrong
Those who hold this view take her words as untrue and hold that deceiving was still wrong, since God's law says, "You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor" (Exodus 20:16), and "Lying lips are an abomination to the LORD" (Proverbs 12:22). They note that Hebrews commends her faith and her receiving the spies (Hebrews 11:31), and James her receiving and sending them (James 2:25). On this reading, what the Bible commends is her faith and what she did for the men, not what she told the king's men.
Exodus 20:16 · Proverbs 12:22 · Hebrews 11:31 · James 2:25
Deceiving to save life was right here
Those who hold this view read her words as part of hiding the men, which is what the Bible praises. Joshua gives it as the reason she was spared: "because she hid the messengers that we sent" (6:17), and James counts it that "she received the messengers and sent them out another way" (James 2:25). They read the Hebrew midwives the same way: they "didn’t do what the king of Egypt commanded them, but saved the baby boys alive" (Exodus 1:17), answered him (Exodus 1:19), and "God dealt well with the midwives" (Exodus 1:20).
Joshua 6:17 · James 2:25 · Exodus 1:17-20
The verses
“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 gate, 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.”
“By faith Rahab the prostitute didn’t perish with those who were disobedient, having received the spies in peace.”
“In the same way, wasn’t Rahab the prostitute also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out another way?”
“The midwives said to Pharaoh, “Because the Hebrew women aren’t like the Egyptian women; for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife comes to them.””