The Significance of Rahab's Multiethnic Marriage in Joshua 2

            Joshua 2 relates that, during the period of the Conquest, Israel’s spies received assistance from an unexpected source when Rahab the harlot hid them among the stalks of flax that were drying on her roof. She convinced Jericho’s search party that the two spies already had escaped and were headed toward the Jordan River (Josh. 2:3-7). Rahab’s confession that God rules both Heaven and earth (Josh. 2:9-11) amounted to a rejection of her Canaanite idols and an unwavering commitment to the God of Israel.[i] The result of Rahab’s courageous actions and her newfound faith was a treaty with the covenant people that saved her and her entire family from the Israelite extermination of Jericho’s population (Josh. 2:12-14, 17-20).
            After their deliverance, Rahab and her relatives resided “outside the camp of Israel” for a time (Josh. 6:23b), but assimilation into the covenant people soon occurred. Their conversion from paganism to the worship of Yahweh wove them into the fabric of Israelite society. While in a genetic sense Rahab remained a Gentile, her future husband Salmon was free to marry her because in a religious sense she was an Israelite. For this reason the book of Joshua does not condemn the spies’ treaty with her as it does in the case of the nation’s spurious associations with the pagan Gibeonites (cf. Josh. 9:1-27).[ii]  The New Testament’s favorable portrayal of Rahab (Heb. 11:31; Jas. 2:25) also serves to demonstrate that Scripture depicts her multiethnic marriage to an Israelite in a positive manner.


[i]David M. Howard Jr., “Rahab’s Faith: An Exposition of Joshua 2:1-14,” Review & Expositor 95.2 (Spring: 1998): 276. Howard rightly noted that the spies’ treaty with Rahab was not sinful because she had rejected the religion of the Canaanites.

[ii]In reality, Rahab typifies the grafting of Gentile believers (represented as wild branches) into the olive tree that symbolizes Israel (cf. Rom. 11:1-36).

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