1Joshua 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.
2The king of Jericho was told, “Behold, men of the children of Israel came in here tonight to spy out the land.”
3Jericho’s king sent to Rahab, saying, “Bring out the men who have come to you, who have entered into your house; for they have come to spy out all the land.”
4The woman took the two men and hid them. Then she said, “Yes, the men came to me, but I didn’t know where they came from. 5About the time of the shutting of the gate, when it was dark, the men went out. Where the men went, I don’t know. Pursue them quickly. You may catch up with them.” 6But 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. 7The men pursued them along the way to the fords of the Jordan River. As soon as those who pursued them had gone out, they shut the gate. 8Before they had lain down, she came up to them on the roof. 9She said to the men, “I know that Yahweh has given you the land, and that the fear of you has fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land melt away before you. 10For we have heard how Yahweh dried up the water of the Red Sea before you, when you came out of Egypt; and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites, who were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon and to Og, whom you utterly destroyed. 11As soon as we had heard it, our hearts melted, and there wasn’t any more spirit in any man, because of you: for Yahweh your God, he is God in heaven above, and on earth beneath. 12Now therefore, please swear to me by Yahweh, since I have dealt kindly with you, that you also will deal kindly with my father’s house, and give me a true sign; 13and that you will save alive my father, my mother, my brothers, and my sisters, and all that they have, and will deliver our lives from death.”
14The men said to her, “Our life for yours, if you don’t talk about this business of ours; and it shall be, when Yahweh gives us the land, that we will deal kindly and truly with you.”
15Then 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. 16She said to them, “Go to the mountain, lest the pursuers find you. Hide yourselves there three days, until the pursuers have returned. Afterward, you may go your way.”
17The men said to her, “We will be guiltless of this your oath which you’ve made us to swear. 18Behold, when we come into the land, tie this line of scarlet thread in the window which you used to let us down. Gather to yourself into the house your father, your mother, your brothers, and all your father’s household. 19It shall be that whoever goes out of the doors of your house into the street, his blood will be on his head, and we will be guiltless. Whoever is with you in the house, his blood shall be on our head, if any hand is on him. 20But if you talk about this business of ours, then we shall be guiltless of your oath which you’ve made us to swear.”
21She said, “Let it be as you have said.” She sent them away, and they departed. Then she tied the scarlet line in the window.
22They went and came to the mountain, and stayed there three days, until the pursuers had returned. The pursuers sought them all along the way, but didn’t find them. 23Then the two men returned, descended from the mountain, crossed the river, and came to Joshua the son of Nun. They told him all that had happened to them. 24They said to Joshua, “Truly Yahweh has delivered all the land into our hands. Moreover, all the inhabitants of the land melt away before us.”
The genealogy of Matthew departs from the standard recording of the history of a Jewish family line, in that it contains women within the genealogy. Additionally significant is that each of the women has a problematic past, and a couple of the women, even a sordid past. Let us look at each woman in the order in which she appears in the Bible.
Tamar had a number of marriages to the sons of Judah, who each died, and she married another son, based on the levirate law, in which surviving sons must marry a widowed daughter-in-law. When Judah was willing to violate this law, and he denied her right to marry another son, Tamar acted as a prostitute to trick him into bearing two sons to her (Gen 38:27-30), one whose name was Perez, an ancestor of Jesus.
The next woman mentioned is more familiar to the average reader of the Bible. Rahab was the prostitute who hid the two spies when they were inside the city of Jericho (Josh 2:1-21; 6:22-25). Due to her faith (Heb 11:30-31), she was preserved when Jericho was destroyed. What is most significant in the story of Rahab is that she was the mother of Boaz, the person who later married Ruth.
Ruth was not an Israelite, but was rather a woman of Moab, with no claim to an inheritance in Israel, even though she married one of the sons of Elimelech (God is my king) and Naomi (pleasant), and accompanied Naomi back to Bethlehem. Boaz fulfilled his duty as a kinsman redeemer, taking Ruth as his wife. From them comes Obed, who begat Jesse, the father of David the king (Ruth 4:17-22).
Bathsheba is not mentioned by name in the genealogy, but identified as the wife of Uriah the Hittite, who was a faithful soldier in the army of David the King (2 Sam 11:1-27), who died in battle at David's design (2 Sam 11:14-18). One cannot be sure why Matthew chose not to mention her by name, but it may be that this emphasizes that David the king had unlawful sex with another man's wife, and so had not married her before she became pregnant with a son who died as a baby (2 Sam 12: 13-19), even though afterwards she bore king Solomon (2 Sam 12:24-25).
The last woman to be mentioned is Mary (Matt 1:18-25), the virgin who was especially blessed to become the mother of Jesus, God in the flesh. The author is careful to indicate that Joseph was the husband of Mary, but he was not the Father of Jesus, whose physical beginning came through the Holy Spirit.
All of these women were special in the plan of God, and though each were outcasts by human standards they were women of faith according to the Bible, important to the coming of the King Messiah Jesus.