1Then Joshua son of Nun secretly sent two spies from Shittim, saying, “Go, inspect the land, especially Jericho.” So they went and entered the house of a prostitute named Rahab and stayed there.
2And it was reported to the king of Jericho: “Behold, some men of Israel have come here tonight to spy out the land.”
3So the king of Jericho sent to Rahab and said, “Bring out the men who came to you and entered your house, for they have come to spy out the whole land.”
4But the woman had taken the two men and hidden them. So she said, “Yes, the men did come to me, but I did not know where they had come from.
5At dusk, when the gate was about to close, the men went out, and I do not know which way they went. Pursue them quickly, and you may catch them!”
6(But Rahab had taken them up to the roof and hidden them among the stalks of flax that she had laid out there.)
7So the king’s men set out in pursuit of the spies along the road to the fords of the Jordan, and as soon as they had gone out, the gate was shut.