Commentary - Joshua 6:22-25

Bird's-eye view

In this passage, we come to the great pivot within the destruction of Jericho. Up to this point, the focus has been on the holy war, the ban, the utter devotion of the city to God through destruction. But here, in the midst of the smoke and the tumbling walls, we see the bright scarlet thread of God's electing grace. The story of Rahab is not a sentimental sidenote; it is central to the entire biblical narrative of redemption. It demonstrates that from the very beginning, God's covenant people have never been constituted by blood or ethnicity, but rather by faith. This Gentile harlot is grafted into the line of promise, while a trueborn Israelite, Achan, will shortly be cut out for his unbelief. The Lord, through Joshua, is meticulous in honoring the covenant oath made to this woman, showcasing a faithfulness that Rahab banked on and that God always delivers. This is a story of how God builds His house, not with the polished stones of the self-righteous, but with the broken, redeemed, and believing rubble of the world.

The scene is one of stark contrasts: a city entirely devoted to destruction, yet one family meticulously preserved. The treasures of the city are consecrated to the Lord's treasury, while the true treasure, a believing woman and her household, are brought into the treasury of God's people. This is a living parable of the gospel. Judgment and salvation occur simultaneously. The same event that brings ruin to the unbelieving brings deliverance to the trusting. Joshua, whose name is Hebrew for Jesus, acts as the captain of our salvation, leading the charge against God's enemies while simultaneously rescuing His chosen ones from the wreckage.

Outline

Context In Joshua

This passage is the climax of the Jericho narrative. After seven days of silent marching and a final, thunderous shout, the walls have miraculously fallen. The conquest of Canaan has begun in earnest. But the text immediately shifts from the large scale miracle of the walls to the small scale, personal miracle of Rahab's salvation. This is intentional. The author wants us to see that God's great acts in history are always aimed at the gathering of His people. The destruction of Jericho is not indiscriminate chaos; it is precise, covenantal judgment and covenantal deliverance happening side by side. Rahab's story, which began in chapter 2, finds its resolution here, setting a crucial precedent for the rest of the conquest. It establishes the principle that faith, not lineage, is the ticket into the covenant community. This stands in sharp contrast to the very next chapter, where Achan, a son of the covenant by birth, is excised for his lack of faith. The juxtaposition is everything.

Key Issues

Verse by Verse Commentary

v. 22 Now to the two men who had spied out the land, Joshua said, “Go into the harlot’s house and bring the woman and all she has out of there, as you have sworn to her.”

In the midst of a full blown military operation, with the city collapsing into ruin, Joshua's first recorded command is not about plunder or securing the perimeter. It is about keeping a promise. This is leadership. This is covenantal leadership. Joshua understands that Israel's success is entirely contingent on their faithfulness to their God, and a massive part of that is reflecting God's own character. God is a promise keeper. Therefore, His people must be promise keepers. The oath was sworn to a Canaanite prostitute, someone who would have been at the bottom of any social ladder, but an oath before God is an oath before God. Joshua doesn't delegate this to just anyone; he sends the very two men who made the vow. They are to see it through. This is personal responsibility within the covenant. The command is specific: "bring the woman and all she has." This is not a grudging fulfillment; it is a full and generous salvation. Everything connected to her by faith is to be brought out.

v. 23 So the young men who were spies went in and brought out Rahab and her father and her mother and her brothers and all she had; they also brought out all her relatives and placed them outside the camp of Israel.

The spies obey immediately. They go into the house on the wall, the one marked by the scarlet cord, and they bring everyone out. Notice the scope of this salvation. It extends to her entire family, all who gathered under the protection of her faith. This is a beautiful picture of household salvation, a principle we see running throughout the Scriptures. Her faith was the instrument, and the blessing flowed to her kin. They brought out "all her relatives." The grace shown here is expansive. But there is a crucial step. They are placed "outside the camp of Israel." This was a temporary position. They were saved from the destruction of Jericho, but they were not yet ceremonially clean and incorporated into the covenant body of Israel. They had to be brought out of the world first, separated from the realm of judgment, before they could be brought into the realm of worship and fellowship. This is a necessary transition. You cannot drag the furniture of Jericho into the camp of Yahweh. You must come out and be separate.

v. 24 But they burned the city with fire, and all that was in it. Only the silver and gold, and articles of bronze and iron, they put into the treasury of the house of Yahweh.

Here is the other side of the coin. While one family is saved by grace, the entire city is devoted to God through destruction, what the Bible calls herem. This was not wanton destruction. It was a deeply theological act. Jericho, as the firstfruits of the conquest, was being offered entirely to God. The fire is a symbol of God's purifying judgment. Nothing was to be taken as personal plunder. To do so, as Achan will demonstrate, was to steal from God Himself. The only exceptions were the metals that could be purified by fire. These were not taken for personal enrichment but were consecrated, put "into the treasury of the house of Yahweh." God's holy war has rules, and the central rule is that God is the one glorified. The victory is His, the city is His, and the spoils are His. This guards Israel against avarice and reminds them that they are instruments of God's judgment, not just a conquering horde.

v. 25 However, Rahab the harlot and her father’s household and all she had, Joshua preserved alive; and she has lived in the midst of Israel to this day, for she hid the messengers whom Joshua sent to spy out Jericho.

The contrast is drawn as sharply as possible. "However..." In the face of all that fire and judgment, there is this glorious exception. Joshua, the savior-figure, "preserved alive" Rahab and her house. And the result? "She has lived in the midst of Israel to this day." This is not just about a temporary rescue. This is about full incorporation. She was brought from "outside the camp" into the very middle of it. She became one of them. The text emphasizes that this happened "to this day," meaning at the time of writing, Rahab's family line was a known and accepted part of the nation. The ground for this was her faith, expressed in her works: "for she hid the messengers." As the book of James would later argue, her faith was not a dead, abstract thing; it acted. And because of that living faith, a Gentile harlot from a doomed city became a mother in Israel and, as Matthew's gospel tells us, an ancestor of King David and of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. The scarlet cord hanging from her window was a sign of her faith, but it was also a pointer to another scarlet marker, the blood of the Lamb that truly saves.

Application

The story of Rahab is our story. We are all from Jericho. We are all born outside the covenant, into a world that is under a sentence of judgment. Our only hope is to hear the report of the coming King, to believe it, and to hang the scarlet cord of faith out our window. That cord is faith in the shed blood of Jesus Christ.

This passage teaches us that God's salvation is by faith alone, and this faith is never alone. It acts. It takes risks. It sides with God's people against the world. It also teaches us that when God saves, He saves completely. He doesn't just pull us from the fire; He brings us into the camp, into the very midst of His people. He makes us family. Our past, like Rahab's, is irrelevant to our standing. What matters is our faith in the promise.

Finally, we must see the deep connection between judgment and mercy. The same God who commanded the utter destruction of Jericho is the God who meticulously saved a prostitute and her family. We must not try to play these off against each other. God is holy, and He judges sin. God is gracious, and He saves sinners who trust in Him. The fall of Jericho is a picture of the final judgment. The question for every one of us is simple: when the trumpets sound and the walls fall, will we be inside the house marked by the blood?