And the woman taking the men, hid them, and said: I confess they came to me, but I knew not whence they were:

“"By faith Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient, having received the spies, but she directed their departure by another road." And pay attention to how much wisdom she blended with her prudence. When those sent by the king came and requested the spies, they ask her, "Did men enter in here and come near you?" She answers them, "Yes, they entered in." First she builds the truth, and then she applies the lie on top. For no lie like this becomes believable unless it first reveals the truth. For this reason all who tell lies probably to be believed, first speak of truths and reveal confessions and later add the lies and things which are questionable. "Spies entered in here and came near you?" "Yes," she says. If she had said "no" from the beginning, she would have challenged the messengers to investigate. However, "they entered in," she says, "and they came out and escaped by such and such a road. Pursue them and you will capture them." O this good lie! O this good fraud, which does not betray the divine but safeguards the sacred! When the mouths of saints preach the repentance that made Rahab worthy of such salvation, for example, Joshua the son of Nun, who shouts in the desert, "Let Rahab the prostitute live"; and Paul, who says, "By faith Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient," will we not receive salvation even more so when we offer to God our repentance?”

“Therefore, no lie is just. Accordingly, when examples of lying are proposed to us from the sacred Scriptures, either they are not lies but are thought so for not being understood, or, if they are lies, they are not to be imitated because they cannot be just.As for its being written that God dealt well with the Hebrew midwives and with Rahab the harlot of Jericho, he did not deal well with them because they lied but because they were merciful to the men of God. And so, it was not their deception that was rewarded, but their benevolence; the benignity of their intention, not the iniquity of their invention.”

“This was the case with Rahab. Scripture not only recalls nothing virtuous about her but even speaks of her immorality. Yet for her lie alone, whereby she chose to conceal the spies rather than betray them, she deserved to share an eternal blessing with the people of God. If she had chosen to speak the truth or to be concerned for the safety of her people, there is no doubt that she and her whole household would not have escaped the approaching destruction and that she would not have deserved to be included among those responsible for the Lord's birth, to be numbered on the roll of the patriarchs, and, through her offspring, to beget the Savior of all.”

“And she hid them. There are scriptural verses that speak of the plural as if it were singular. Since she was in a hurry to hide them and she hid them in a narrow place it was as though they were one person. The Midrash of Rabbi Tanchuma states ‘That these two men were Pinchos and Caleiv, and Pinchos stood before them but they did not see him because he was [invisible] like an angel.’ Another interpretation: She hid each of them separately. We find a similar verse: ‘Oil and incense gladden the heart’ and it does not say יְשַׂמְחוּ לֵב, in the plural.”

“And the woman took the two men,.... Or "she had taken" them (z) before the messengers came, upon a rumour she understood was gone abroad, that she had got Israelitish spies in her house, and so might expect to be visited and searched by the king's officers, and therefore took this precaution: and hid them; the Hebrew word is singular, "him" (a): hence the Jews, who take these two spies to be Caleb and Phinehas, say, that only Caleb was hid, and Phinehas, though he was before them, was not seen, being an angel, Mal 2:7; but the sense is, that she hid each of them, and very probably singly and apart, that if one was found, the other might escape, as Ben Gersom observes; and Abarbinel is of opinion that she hid them twice, now in the middle of her house, one in one place, and the other in another, for the reason before given, and after this hid them in the roof of her house, as afterwards related: and said thus, there came men unto me; that is, into her house, this she owned: but I wist not whence they were; of what country they were, whether Israelites or not; which whether she knew or not is not certain; it is probable she did, and told an untruth, as she also did in Jos 2:5. (z) "duxerat, tulerat"; so Syr. Ar. Kimchi, & Ben Melech. (a) "et abscondit eum", Montanus; "abdiderat eum", Vatablus.”

“Hid, or “had hidden,” as (ver. 6,) she had made the men retire before she spoke to the messengers, and probably before they came to demand them. As soon as she was informed of their design, she took all prudent precautions both for her own and their safety, as she could not have escaped death, if she had been discovered affording shelter to the enemies of her country. She felt herself authorized by God on this occasion, to abandon those upon whom he had declared war, and who could have derived no benefit from the spies being betrayed to them. (Haydock)”

“the woman took the two men, and hid them--literally, "him," that is, each of them in separate places, of course previous to the appearance of the royal messengers and in anticipation of a speedy search after her guests. According to Eastern manners, which pay an almost superstitious respect to a woman's apartment, the royal messengers did not demand admittance to search but asked her to bring the foreigners out.”