Joshua 2 · a question people ask
Why did the spies go to a prostitute's house?
The text doesn't say why. It says only, "They went and came into the house of a prostitute whose name was Rahab, and slept there" (2:1). Slept is the Hebrew verb for lying down; Brown-Driver-Briggs lists among its uses "lie down = lodge (for night)". The chapter uses it again a few verses on: "Before they had lain down, she came up to them on the roof" (2:8), where she had hidden them (2:6). The chapter says nothing more about the men's reasons. What it does say is where the house was: "her house was on the side of the wall, and she lived on the wall" (2:15).
The verses
“Joshua the son of Nun secretly sent two men out of Shittim as spies, saying, “Go, view the land, including Jericho.” They went and came into the house of a prostitute whose name was Rahab, and slept there.”
“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.”
“Before they had lain down, she came up to them on the roof.”
“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.”