trust was not only mutually offered and accepted: subsequent events proved that it was totally justified by the solid gold integrity of both parties. Spies and prostitutes both live in convoluted serpentine worlds where honesty and integrity are rarer than lap-dancers in a monastery. Rahab herself had no difficulty in telling the king of Jericho a yarn that would have done justice to Baron von Munchausen.
Despite the nature of her work, Rahab was undoubtedly deeply devoted to her family. It wasn’t solely her own life she begged for: she wanted to save her parents, brothers, and sisters, as well. And why were the spies so determined to keep their word to her? It’s easy enough under the stresses of war for integrity to be the first casualty. Promises are even more vulnerable than flesh and bone when bloodstained swords are swinging in the desperate heat of battle and the only law is kill or be killed. Yet their promise to Rahab and her family was sacrosanct to the two Hebrew spies? Why?
Is it possible that Rahab was a Jewish girl? The well-known account of Joseph and his coat of many colours is a stark reminder that Canaan was infested with opportunist slave traders of the kind who sold Joseph in Egypt. The Hebrew families who straggled out of Egypt with Moses easily became separated from their main column. It would have been the easiest thing in the world for slave traders to abduct Rahab and her family under cover of darkness.
But how to get the best price for them in Jericho? Beautiful young Rahab is undoubtedly the jewel in the crown, and the slavers know exactly where to take her. The proprietor of the house on the wall begins the long, inevitable haggling. No, he has no interest in the others. They might just be worth a handful of silver as domestic servants…. It is only Rahab who is worth gold because she can earn gold. The others are practically a liability. The parents might just as well be killed now. They will not really justify the price of feeding them. If the girl proves difficult and uncooperative, even she may not be worth anything. The slavers understand the haggling arguments only too well.
Then, to everyone’s surprise, the spirited and intelligent slave girl intervenes. She understands perfectly well what is going on, what their problems are. Perhaps she can help them all?
Rahab and her family captured by slave traders.
The proprietor and the slavers listen attentively. What if she is willing to be totally committed to her work and to making her customers happy? She could earn far more for him than three or four desperately unhappy girls who have to be starved and beaten into reluctant, passive submission. She will attract extra customers for him. In return, will he allow her family to stay, too, as domestic servants, to gather wood, to fetch water, to prepare flax for linen, to spin, to weave, to clean? One price for the whole family and she will be the best harlot in Jericho.
If he doesn’t believe her, would he like to prove it for himself. She will sleep with him here … now … then he can decide if she’s worth what she’s asking. There are nods and smiles.…
The proprietor leads Rahab to his couch…. He is more than satisfied that she can honour her bargain. Money changes hands. She has won. The family who mean more to her than her own life are safe…. Just as importantly, she has kept them together.
As long as they are alive and together there is always hope of rescue. Joshua will conquer this land before long. They will go back to their people. This house on the wall will be like a nightmare that fades when the sun rises.
One day two strangers come in. Something about them makes her wonder. Dare she ask them who they are and where they’re from? Could they possibly be Joshua’s men?
She dare not speak to them in Hebrew. The house is full of local clients and local girls. One wrong word and the strangers — if they are Joshua’s men — will be captured. Her persistent hope of rescue will be disappointed. One of the men beckons and smiles. Money changes hands. She takes him to her room. As they undress she sees that he is circumcized. Now they are alone she dares to whisper in Hebrew. His eyes brighten. He smiles warmly. He answers her in Hebrew. She tells him her story. He tells her why he and his brother are there.
The attack on Jericho will not be long delayed. They talk urgently about the present danger to him and the imminent danger to her and her family when the great attack begins. In the heat of battle, no Israeli soldier will have time to stay his sword stroke at the urgent pleading of a girl dressed as a Jericho harlot.
Rahab is already very concerned that someone will have reported the spies’ presence in the city … even reported that they are in her house on the wall…. It will be best if she hides them among the flax.…
They are no sooner safely hidden than messengers arrive from the king. She plans her story quickly. She’s quick-witted as well as beautiful. That’s what saved her family after the slavers brought them all to Jericho. Yes, of course, the men were here. One of them was her client. They left soon afterward. She’s almost certain that they’ve left the city. If the king’s soldiers pursue them swiftly it should not be difficult to overtake them. It is an honour to be of service to the king.
As soon as it is dark enough, she lowers the men down the same strong red cord that hangs from the window to tell the world what the house on the wall has to offer, the same scarlet cord that is destined to save her life.…
So her integrity is absolute, and so is theirs. It is a life for a life, an infinite trust for an infinite trust.
The collapsing walls leave Jericho totally vulnerable. The invincible Israeli army storms through from all directions. The two spies race for the house on the wall. Rahab’s family are gathered with her. All are safe. Her courage and intelligence have saved them a second time. The spy she spoke with has his arms protectively around her lovely young shoulders — but not for money this time. There is a powerful bond between people who have saved each other’s lives.
So there is a fairy-tale happy ending. They marry. They raise a family.
And at the time when the book of Joshua was written, Rahab’s descendants were thriving among their fellow Israelites. Hopefully, they still are.
4 MYSTERIES OF LAKES, SEAS, AND OCEANS
Matthew Arnold (1822–1888), son of the famous Thomas Arnold, Headmaster of Rugby School, graduated from Balliol College, Oxford, and spent more than thirty years as a school inspector. During those decades he also wrote a great deal of excellent and memorable poetry, and was at one time a professor of poetry at Oxford.
His poem “The Forsaken Merman” tells the poignant story of a merman who had married an Earth-girl, who subsequently — so it seems from Arnold’s version — left him and their children and returned to her humankind on land. Arnold’s poem begins,
Come, dear children, let us away;
Down and away below!
Now my brothers call from the bay,
Now the great winds shoreward blow,
Now the salt tides seaward flow;
Now the wild white horses play,
Champ and chaff and toss in the spray.
Children dear, let us away!
This way, this way …
… Call her once before you go —
Call once yet!
In a voice that she will know:
“Margaret! Margaret!”
In Arnold’s version of the story, however, the faithless Margaret never returns to her Merman and their children. His version ends,
… Singing: “There dwells a loved one,
But cruel is she!
She left lonely forever
The kings of the sea.”
When