Joshua 2:15
She let them down by a cord through the window
The rope is a practical object first. Her house is on the wall, which is why the escape works and why the mark can be seen from outside.
Objects of the Bible
The scarlet cord
The rope she used to let them out became the mark that let her live, and it stayed in the window.
The spies are let down by a cord through a window, because her house is upon the town wall and she dwelt upon the wall. The same object then does a second job. The men attach a condition to their oath: thou shalt bind this line of scarlet thread in the window which thou didst let us down by, and thou shalt bring thy father and thy mother and thy brethren and all thy father’s household home unto thee.
Scroll down to the story
The movements, in the order the text gives them.
The story of The scarlet cord
- 01
- 02
Joshua 2:17-20
Bind this line of scarlet thread in the window
The oath is made conditional on one visible sign and one rule about staying indoors, and the men state plainly what voids it.
- 03
Joshua 2:21
She bound the scarlet line in the window
She ties it immediately, before the army is anywhere near, which means the mark hangs there through everything that follows.
- 04
Joshua 6:22-25
Bring out thence the woman
The two spies are sent to keep the promise in person, and the account says she dwelleth in Israel even unto this day.
Why it matters
The terms are unusually precise about responsibility. Whoever goes out of the doors of the house into the street, his blood shall be upon his head, and we will be guiltless. The safety is the house, marked, with everyone inside it. It is the Passover arrangement in a different city: a red mark on the outside of a dwelling, seen by the people who are coming, not by the people sheltering. When the wall falls, the two young men that were spies go in and fetch out Rahab and all she has.
5 songs
The music
Every song in the catalogue whose passage falls inside these chapters.
