(א) וַיִּשְׁלַ֣ח יְהוֹשֻֽׁעַ־בִּן־נ֠וּן מִֽן־הַשִּׁטִּ֞ים שְׁנַֽיִם־אֲנָשִׁ֤ים מְרַגְּלִים֙ חֶ֣רֶשׁ לֵאמֹ֔ר לְכ֛וּ רְא֥וּ אֶת־הָאָ֖רֶץ וְאֶת־יְרִיח֑וֹ וַיֵּ֨לְכ֜וּ וַ֠יָּבֹ֠אוּ בֵּית־אִשָּׁ֥ה זוֹנָ֛ה וּשְׁמָ֥הּ רָחָ֖ב וַיִּשְׁכְּבוּ־שָֽׁמָּה׃
(יז) וַיִּשְׁלַ֤ח אֹתָם֙ מֹשֶׁ֔ה לָת֖וּר אֶת־אֶ֣רֶץ כְּנָ֑עַן וַיֹּ֣אמֶר אֲלֵהֶ֗ם עֲל֥וּ זֶה֙ בַּנֶּ֔גֶב וַעֲלִיתֶ֖ם אֶת־הָהָֽר׃ (יח) וּרְאִיתֶ֥ם אֶת־הָאָ֖רֶץ מַה־הִ֑וא וְאֶת־הָעָם֙ הַיֹּשֵׁ֣ב עָלֶ֔יהָ הֶחָזָ֥ק הוּא֙ הֲרָפֶ֔ה הַמְעַ֥ט ה֖וּא אִם־רָֽב׃ (יט) וּמָ֣ה הָאָ֗רֶץ אֲשֶׁר־הוּא֙ יֹשֵׁ֣ב בָּ֔הּ הֲטוֹבָ֥ה הִ֖וא אִם־רָעָ֑ה וּמָ֣ה הֶֽעָרִ֗ים אֲשֶׁר־הוּא֙ יוֹשֵׁ֣ב בָּהֵ֔נָּה הַבְּמַֽחֲנִ֖ים אִ֥ם בְּמִבְצָרִֽים׃ (כ) וּמָ֣ה הָ֠אָ֠רֶץ הַשְּׁמֵנָ֨ה הִ֜וא אִם־רָזָ֗ה הֲיֵֽשׁ־בָּ֥הּ עֵץ֙ אִם־אַ֔יִן וְהִ֨תְחַזַּקְתֶּ֔ם וּלְקַחְתֶּ֖ם מִפְּרִ֣י הָאָ֑רֶץ וְהַ֨יָּמִ֔ים יְמֵ֖י בִּכּוּרֵ֥י עֲנָבִֽים׃
The repetition of the word to see or to spy (re'u) is instructive. In this week's Torah portion, the Israelites were sent to spy on the land. While that mission failed, our Haftarah portion, set 39 years later, marks Joshua's second attempt. This time Joshua sends in two spies.
Megillah 15a:8
The Sages taught in a baraita: Rahab aroused impure thoughts by her name, i.e., the mere mention of her name would inspire lust for her; Yael, by her voice; Abigail, by remembering her; Michal, the daughter of Saul, by her appearance. Similarly, Rabbi Yitzḥak said: Anyone who says Rahab, Rahab, at once has an issue. Rav Naḥman said to him: I say: Rahab, Rahab, and it does not affect me. Rabbi Yitzchak said to Rav Naḥman: When I said this, I specifically referred to one who knows her personally and recognizes her beauty. Only for one who has met Rahab in person is the mere mention of her name capable of arousing lust.
Why do you think the spies went to Rahab's for safety? What do we know about her?
מלבים:
מפורסמת בשמה אצל גדולי הארץ, נגלו לה סתרי גדולי הארץ וסודותיהם. ואצלה יחקורו כל הנעשה בארץ, ולכן לא הלכו לשום מקום רק "וישכבו שמה":
Malbim:
Her name was known to all of the great men in the land. They would reveal the secrets of the land to her. If the spies stayed there they would be able to find out about all of the aspects going on around the land. Therefore, the spies did not go to any other place, they just "slept there"
(6) Now she had taken them up to the roof and hidden them under some stalks of flax that she had lying on the roof.— (7) So the men pursued them in the direction of the Jordan down to the fords; and no sooner had the pursuers gone out than the gate was shut behind them.
Why do you think Rahab takes the spies in? Why does she hide them? What kind of a person is she? What are her intentions?
Agony grips the dwellers in Philistia.
(15) Now are the clans of Edom dismayed;
The tribes of Moab—trembling grips them;
All the dwellers in Canaan are aghast.
(16) Terror and dread descend upon them;
Through the might of Your arm they are still as stone—
Till Your people cross over, יהוה,
Till Your people cross whom You have ransomed.
Why do you think Rahab references this events in her words to the spies?
פסיקתא רבתי מ"ג
דבר אחר בחדש השביעי פתח והוא ישפוט תבל בצדק ידין לאומים במישרים (תהלים ט' ט') מהו במישרים אמר ר' אלכסנדרי דן את האומות במישרים שלהם ברחב ביתרו ברות כיצד אומר לאומות העולם למה לא קרבת אצלי והוא אומר שהייתי רשע מוחלט והייתי מתבייש והוא אומר לו וכי יותר היית מרחב שהיה ביתה בקיר החומה והייתה מקבלת את הליסטים ומזנה מבפנים וכשנתקרבה אצלי לא קיבלתיה והעמדתי ממנה נביאים וצדיקים
Pesikta Rabbati 40:3
"And He will judge the world in righteousness, He will minister judgment to the peoples with uprightness." [Psalms 9:9] What is the meaning of "uprightness"? Rabbi Alexsandri said: He judged the nations with the uprightness they [possessed]. [For example] Rahab, Jethro and Ruth. How will He speak to the nations of the world? [He will say]: "Why did you not bring yourself closer to me?" And he will say: "I was a utterly evil person and I was embarrassed." And He said to him: "You were no more so than Rahab whose house was in the city wall and she received robbers and prostituted with them within. Nevertheless, she drew close to me and did I not welcome her and raise up prophets and righteous people from her?"
The Gemara adds that the Sages said with regard to Rahab: She was ten years old when the Jewish people left Egypt, and she engaged in prostitution all forty years that the Jewish people were in the wilderness. After that, when she was fifty years old, she converted when the two spies visited her. She said: May all of my sins of prostitution be forgiven me as a reward for having endangered myself with the rope, window, and flax.
Furthermore, Rav Naḥman said: Huldah was a descendant of Joshua....Rav Eina the Elder raised an objection from a baraita to Rav Naḥman’s teaching. The baraita indicates that Huldah was in fact a descendant of Rahab, and seemingly not of Joshua: Eight prophets, who were also priests, descended from Rahab the prostitute, and they are: Neriah; his son Baruch; Seraiah; Mahseiah; Jeremiah; his father, Hilkiah; Jeremiah’s cousin Hanamel; and Hanamel’s father, Shallum. Rabbi Yehuda said: So too, Huldah the prophetess was a descendant of Rahab the prostitute.
Rav Naḥman responded to Eina the Elder and said to him: Eina the Elder...from me and from you the matter may be concluded, i.e., the explanation lies in a combination of our two statements. For Rahab converted and married Joshua, and therefore Huldah descended from both Joshua and Rahab.
She sent them on their way, and they left; and she tied the crimson cord to the window. (22) They went straight to the hills and stayed there three days, until the pursuers turned back. And so the pursuers, searching all along the road, did not find them. (23) Then the two men came down again from the hills and crossed over. They came to Joshua son of Nun and reported to him all that had happened to them. (24) They said to Joshua, “GOD has delivered the whole land into our power; in fact, all the inhabitants of the land are quaking before us.”
Rabbi Justin Kerber, "Rahab and the Spies," Prophetic Voices: Renewing and Reimagining Haftarah, p.257-258
There's many a story where someone fleeing for their life, is offered a hiding place by an unlikely hero who comes to their aid at a critical moment: a white American hides a fugitive slave from pursuers; a Pole or a German looks the other way when a feeling Jewish family hides in their barn or cellar.
The story of Rahab, the harlot who hides the Israelite spies sent by Joshua to reconnoiter the Promised Land before the invasion, is such a story. At great personal risk, she hides them from the authorities and then bets on their side's victory in the conflict she knows is coming.
I imagine myself on different sides of this story, depending on the circumstances under which we live. At times, I identify with the desperate one in need of a hiding place. At other times, I see myself as the one who quietly provides it...
In our story, Joshua will soon order the sounding of the shofar at Jericho and win the crucial battle. The sound of the shofar reverberates within me as I write this in an unexpected way. Awake! Prop up your own walls of equal justice under the law! Value the democratic institutions that have kept you safe! If you must flee you cannot assume there will be Rahab to hide you.
Rabbi Pamela Wax, The Women's Haftarah Commentary . Turner Publishing Company.
We need not second-guess Rahab’s motives, for there are clues to the mystery in the text itself. First is her name, for the meaning of a name is always significant in the Bible. Rahab means “broad” or “wide.” Her profession gave her the opportunity to meet a lot of people, and Rahab’s ability to see broadly, to be open to possibility, and to entertain the unknown in her thinking may be what enabled her to see the merit of the spies’ mission. Thus she, like Ruth the Moabite, throws her lot in with theirs, accepts their God, and ultimately saves her own family. Interestingly, Rahab lives directly inside the city walls. Rather than making her a true insider, however, one suspects that by profession and by residence, Rahab is, in fact, an outsider even in her own community, thereby making her alliance with Israel a bit less surprising.
and abide in the protection of Shaddai— (2) I say of the LORD, my refuge and stronghold,
my God in whom I trust, (3) that He will save you from the fowler’s trap,
from the destructive plague. (4) He will cover you with His pinions;
you will find refuge under His wings;
His fidelity is an encircling shield. (5) You need not fear the terror by night,
or the arrow that flies by day, (6) the plague that stalks in the darkness,
or the scourge that ravages at noon. (7) A thousand may fall at your left side,
ten thousand at your right,
but it shall not reach you. (8) You will see it with your eyes,
you will witness the punishment of the wicked. (9) Because you took the LORD—my refuge,
the Most High—as your haven, (10) no harm will befall you,
no disease touch your tent. (11) For He will order His angels
to guard you wherever you go. (12) They will carry you in their hands
lest you hurt your foot on a stone. (13) You will tread on cubs and vipers;
you will trample lions and asps.
(14) “Because he is devoted to Me I will deliver him;
I will keep him safe, for he knows My name. (15) When he calls on Me, I will answer him;
I will be with him in distress;
I will rescue him and make him honored; (16) I will let him live to a ripe old age,
and show him My salvation.”
Rabbi Ruth Adar, "Human Angel-Messenger," in Prophetic Voices: Renewing and Reimagining Haftarah, p.259
[After their failed attempt to convince the Israelites to enter Israel, in this week's Torah portion], Psalm 91 is a song that Joshua and Caleb may have sung, in an attempt to reassure the Israelites not to fear, because God woudl protect them in the conquest of the Land. It is filled with vivid images that seek to express the tender love God has for the faithful of Israel: God is their shelter, their fortress, who will save them from harm. The avain imagery for both the people and God in verses 3-4 is striking: the people fear "the fowler's trap," but God will shelter them "under God's wings." No matter how terrible the situation, God will protect the faithful. Then in verses 11-12, God orders angels "to guard you wherever you go," an imae that would inspire the idea of a guardian angel.
A modern reader might scott: How can anyone take this psalm seriously? Where are the protecting angels? Rabbi Richard N. Levy, in his commentary on the Book of Psalms, reminds us that the Hebrew word for "angel" also means "messenger." Is it possible for us to see the people who have helped us in times of need as the angel-messengers of a loving God?
When we are in trouble, this psalm encourages us to pray that we will recognize the human helpers through whom the love of God is made manifest.