proud; quarrelsome
(applied to Egypt)
(same as Rachab)
large; extended
(name of a woman)
The English word Rahab represents two different Hebrew words:\par 1. RAHAB, a Canaanite woman of Jericho, who gave shelter to the two spies sent in thither by Joshua; and in return was spared, with all her kindred, when the city was taken and destroyed, -21 6:17-25. Her faith, in doing this, is commended in . The Jews and many Christians endeavor to show that Rahab was only an honest innkeeper; but more probably the designation of *harlot* given to her in our Bible is correct. If she had at some time led a dissolute life, she had evidently repented; and she afterwards became a worshipper of Jehovah, and the wife of Salmon, a prince of the tribe of Judah, .\par The penitent publican and sinner are always welcome to Christ; and many such a one, through the renovating power of grace, will shine gloriously in heaven, while the unbelieving moralist will perish in his sins.\par 2. RAHAB, pride, insolence, a symbolical name for Egypt, 89:10 Isa 30:7 51:9. In the last of these passages, Egypt is further symbolized as a ferocious sea-monster; but it is doubtful whether the word Rahab itself is ever used to denote a sea-monster.\par
(Ῥαάβ)
Rahab, the harlot (πόρνη) of Jericho, is the heroine of the romantic story told in Joshua 2. At the risk of her life she sheltered two Hebrew spies and cunningly contrived their escape, receiving as her reward her own safety and that of her whole house. She is accorded a place in a great roll of the faithful (), and her case is cited by James (2:25) in support of his thesis that one is not ‘saved’ by faith alone but by faith and works (cf. F. Weber, Jüd. Theol., ed. F. Delitzsch and G. Schnedermann, Leipzig, 1897, p. 332). These high estimates of her are doubtless based on an edifying speech (-13), in which she acknowledges that Jahweh has given her land to Israel, and that He is God in heaven above and on earth beneath.
The Jewish Rabbis and Christian Fathers alike took much interest in her story. Some of them softened the statement that she was a harlot, Josephus (Ant. V. i. 2), followed by Chrysostom, suggesting that she was merely an innkeeper; others, confessing her evil behaviour, represented her as seeking forgiveness from the God of Israel and pleading the merit of her good works (Mechilta, 64b). The allegorizing of her scarlet thread was begun by St. Clement of Rome, who calls her ‘the hospitable Rahab.’
‘Through faith and hospitality Rahab the harlot was saved.… And they [the spies] proceeded further to give her a sign, that she should hang from her house scarlet, making it manifest beforehand that through the blood of the Lord there should be redemption to all who believe and hope upon God. Behold, beloved, how there was not only faith, but prophecy in the woman’ (Ep. ad Cor. i. 12).
James Strahan.
Operated an inn located in the walls of the city of Jericho. When Joshua sent two spies to survey Jericho in anticipation of the Israelites’ impending invasion of Canaan, they stayed at her inn. When the Canaanites got wind of the spies whereabouts, she hid them on her rooftop and sent the Canaanites on a wild goose chase. In return, the Israelites spared her and her family. According to the Midrash, she later converted to Judaism and married Joshua. [4 related articles; www.chabad.org]
A dragon or sea monster that
people thought controlled the sea. Rahab
is often a symbol for God’s enemies or for
anything evil.
The name Rahab appears in English versions of the Bible as belonging to a woman who features in the book of Joshua, and to a mythical sea monster that features in the poetical books. But in the Hebrew Bible the two do not share the same name. There is a difference in spelling.
A woman in Jericho
Before Joshua opened his attack on Canaan, he sent two men to spy out the first city they would meet, Jericho. In Jericho the men met Rahab, a prostitute whose house was attached to the city wall. Rahab had heard sufficient of Israel’s God to fear his power, but she believed in his mercy to save her. She protected the spies from the local authorities, and in return asked protection for herself and her family when the Israelites attacked Jericho (Jos 2:1-14; Heb 11:31).
Rahab further demonstrated her faith by being obedient to the instructions that the spies gave her. She protected the spies as requested, and did as they had told her in preparation for Israel’s attack. As a result the Israelites preserved her and her family when Jericho fell, and accepted them into Israel as part of the nation (Jos 2:15-24; Jos 6:17; Jos 6:22-25; Jam 2:25). If this Rahab is the person of that name who married Salmon, she was mother of Boaz and an ancestor of Jesus the Messiah (Mat 1:1; Mat 1:5-6).
A mythical sea monster
Rahab the mythical sea monster was considered by people of the Middle East to symbolize the forces of chaos over which God had victory in creating an orderly world (Job 9:13; Job 26:12; Job 38:8-11). Poets at times wrote about God’s overthrow of Egypt in the Red Sea as if it were the overthrow of the sea monster Rahab (Psa 89:9-10; Isa 51:9-10). From this there developed the poetical usage of ‘Rahab’ as another name for Egypt (Psa 87:4; Isa 30:7).
The memorable woman of the city of Jericho, of whose faith the Holy Ghost hath given such honourable testimony, Heb. xi. 31. Her name is derived from Raah, and signifies proud. And if there be aught upon earth to make sinful dust and ashes proud, surely the faith this woman possessed formed the strongest temptation to it; when we consider who she was, what she was; where she lived, and how she acted in the cause of the Lord. Her history is as great and striking, in the illustrious actings of her faith, as any in therecordsof truth. She was one of the inhabitants of Canaan, a Gentile, an alien, and by nature an enemy to the commonwealth of Israel, without hope, and without God in the world.* Moreover, she was, as we say, a publican, and an harlot, not only kept an inn, exposed to numberless temptations, but a woman of ill - fame, notoriously known for such a character. She lived also in the accursed city of Jericho, a city devoted to destruction before the Lord, and of peculiar malignity of evil in the Lord's sight. And yet with all those disadvantages, this Rahab, this harlot, was a believer in the Lord God of Israel! Oh, the wonders of distinguishing grace! And what tends yet more to raise our views of the Lord's peculiar manifestation and love to this poor harlot, is the consideration that from the stock of this woman, after the flesh, the Lord appointed the future advent of his dear Son. By her marriage to Salmon; from whom sprang Boaz; and by the marriage of Boaz with Ruth, sprang Obed; and from Obed, Jesse; and from Jesse, David; and from David, aftertwice fourteen generations after the flesh, sprang Christ. (See Matt. i. 1 - 17.) What subjects of wonder the glorious redemption by the Lord Jesus Christ involves in it! Here, as in a thou sand instances beside, we learn that the Lord's ways are not our ways, nor his thoughts as our thoughts!* I pray the reader to give a diligent attention to her history, Josh. 2: throughout. We meet with the mention of another Rahab, Ps. l37. 4. And in Ps. lx29. 10, Rahab is said to be broken in pieces: by which is meant most probably, Pharaoh and his host. We find, and not unfrequently, names figuratively used to denote the Lord's enemies. Thus the Psalmist elsewhere saith, Thou brakest the heads of Leviathan in pieces, and gavest him to be meat to the people inhabiting the wilderness.* (Ps. l24. 13, 14.) Here is an evident allusion to the destruction of Pharaoh; and his host in the Red Sea; and afterwords causing the people, when at any time in their wilderness - state, to meet with difficulties, that the recollection of this mighty deliverance might becomefood to their faith, to help them through any present trouble.
Rahab, 1
Ra´hab, a name signifying 'sea-monster,' which is applied as an appellation to Egypt in -14; ; ; (and sometimes to its king, ; , comp. ); which metaphorical designation probably involves an allusion to the crocodiles, hippopotami, and other aquatic creatures of the Nile.
Rahab, 2
Ra´hab, properly Rachab (large) a woman of Jericho who received into her house the two spies who were sent by Joshua into that city; concealed them under the flax laid out upon the house-top, when they were sought after; and, having given them important information, which showed that the inhabitants were much disheartened at the miracles which had attended the march of the Israelites, enabled them to escape over the wall of the town, upon which her dwelling was situated. For this important service Rahab and her kindred were saved by the Hebrews from the general massacre which followed the taking of Jericho (-21; ; comp. ).
In the narrative of these transactions Rahab is called zonah, which our own, after the ancient versions, renders 'harlot.' The Jewish writers, however, being unwilling to entertain the idea of their ancestors being involved in a disreputable association at the commencement of their great undertaking, chose to interpret the word 'hostess,' one who keeps a public house. But the word signifies harlot in every other text where it occurs, the idea of 'hostess' not being represented by this or any other word in Hebrew, as the function represented by it did not exist. There were no inns; and when certain substitutes for inns eventually came into use, they were never, in any Eastern country, kept by women. On the other hand, strangers from beyond the river might have repaired to the house of a harlot without suspicion or remark. The house of such a woman was also the only one to which they, as perfect strangers, could have had access, and certainly the only one in which they could calculate on obtaining the information they required without danger from male inmates. If we are concerned for the morality of Rahab, the best proof of her reformation is found in the fact of her subsequent marriage to Salmon: this implies her previous conversion to Judaism, for which indeed her discourse with the spies evinces that she was prepared.
(Matt 1)
- Listed in Matthew 1 and Luke 3 as one of the four female ancestors of Jesus, a Canaanite and a prostitute, she is also referred to in James 2. She lived in Jericho, and helped Joshua's spies before the attack on the city in c 1,200BC (Joshua 2 and 6) at the start of his campaign to conquer *the promised land* of Canaan.
Ra'hab. (wide).
1. A celebrated woman of Jericho, who received the spies sent by Joshua, to spy out the land, hid them in her house from the pursuit of her countrymen, was saved with all her family when the Israelites sacked the city, and became the wife of Salmon, and the ancestress of the Messiah. ; . (B.C. 1450).
She was a *harlot*, and probably combined the trade of lodging-keeper for wayfaring men. Her reception of the spies, the artifice by which she concealed them from the king: their escape, and the saving of Rahab and her family at the capture of the city in accordance with their promise, are told in the narrative of . As regards Rahab herself, she probably repented, and we learn from , that she became the wife of Salmon, the son of Naasson, and the mother of Boaz, Jesse's grandfather.
The author of the Epistle to the Hebrews tells us that *by faith the harlot Rahab perished not with them that believed not, when she had received the spies with peace,* , and St. James fortifies his doctrine of justification by works by asking, *Was not Rahab the harlot justified by works, when she had received the messengers, and had sent them out another way?* .
2. A poetical name of Egypt, ; , signifying *fierceness, insolence, pride.* Rahab, as a name of Egypt, occurs once only, without reference to the Exodus: this is in . In , the name is alluded to.
The memorable woman of the city of Jericho, of whose faith the Holy Ghost hath given such honourable testimony, Heb 11:31. Her name is derived from Raah, and signifies proud. And if there be aught upon earth to make sinful dust and ashes proud, surely the faith this woman possessed formed the strongest temptation to it; when we consider who she was, what she was; where she lived, and how she acted in the cause of the Lord. Her history is as great and striking, in the illustrious actings of her faith, as any in the records of truth.
She was one of the inhabitants of Canaan, a Gentile, an alien, and by nature an enemy to the commonwealth of Israel, *without hope, and without God in the world.* Moreover, she was, as we say, a publican, and an harlot, not only kept an inn, exposed to numberless temptations, but a woman of ill-fame, notoriously known for such a character. She lived also in the accursed city of Jericho, a city devoted to destruction before the Lord, and of peculiar malignity of evil in the Lord's sight. And yet with all those disadvantages, this Rahab, this harlot, was a believer in the Lord God of Israel! Oh, the wonders of distinguishing grace! And what tends yet more to raise our views of the Lord's peculiar manifestation and love to this poor harlot, is the consideration that from the stock of this woman, after the flesh, the Lord appointed the future advent of his dear Son. By her marriage to Salmon; from whom sprang Boaz; and by the marriage of Boaz with Ruth, sprang Obed; and from Obed, Jesse; and from Jesse, David; and from David, after twice fourteen generations after the flesh, sprang Christ. (See Mat 1:1-17) What subjects of wonder the glorious redemption by the Lord Jesus Christ involves in it! Here, as in a thousand instances beside, we learn that the Lord's ways are not our ways, nor his thoughts as our thoughts! I pray the reader to give a diligent attention to her history, Jos 2:1-24 throughout.
We meet with the mention of another Rahab, Psa 87:4. And in Psa 89:10, Rahab is said to be broken in pieces: by which is meant most probably, Pharaoh and his host. We find, and not unfrequently, names figuratively used to denote the Lord's enemies. Thus the Psalmist elsewhere saith, *Thou brakest the heads of Leviathan in pieces, and gavest him to be meat to the people inhabiting the wilderness.* (Psa 74:13-14) Here is an evident allusion to the destruction of Pharaoh; and his host in the Red Sea; and afterwords causing the people, when at any time in their wilderness-state, to meet with difficulties, that the recollection of this mighty deliverance might become food to their faith, to help them through any present trouble.
of Jericho, receives the spies
Jos 2:1; Jos 6:17; Heb 11:31; Jam 2:25
was a hostess of the city of Jericho, who received and concealed the spies sent by Joshua. The Hebrew calls her Zona, Jos 2:1, which Jerom and many others understand of a prostitute. Others think she was only a hostess or innkeeper, and that this is the true signification of the original word. Had she been a woman of ill fame, would Salmon, a prince of the tribe of Judah, have taken her to wife! Or could he have done it by the law? Beside, the spies of Joshua would hardly have gone to lodge with a common harlot, they who were charged with so nice and dangerous a commission. Those who maintain that she was a harlot, pretend that she was perhaps one of those women who prostituted themselves in honour of the Pagan deities; as if this could extenuate her crime, or the scandal of her profession if she was a public woman. It is also observable that such women are called kadeshah, not zona, in the Hebrew. Rahab married Salmon, a prince of Judah, by whom she had Boaz, from whom descended Obed, Jesse, and David. Thus Jesus Christ condescended to reckon this Canaanitish woman among his ancestors. St. Paul magnifies the faith of Rahab, Heb 11:31. Rahab is also a name of Egypt, Isa 30:7; Isa 51:9.