Joshua 2:15-21, King James Version
Italic words were supplied in the English translation for clarity.
Joshua 2:15-21
The Scarlet Cord Marks the Rescue Agreement
A wall-window becomes the way out
Her house is on the town wall. She lets the men down by a cord through the window and tells them to go to the mountain, hide three days, and wait until the pursuers return. She is not only a host. She directs their escape.
The scarlet cord is an oath protocol
The spies set conditions. They will be free of the oath unless she binds the scarlet line in the window through which she let them down, gathers her father's household into the house, and keeps their business secret. Anyone who goes into the street dies at that person's own risk. Anyone who strikes those inside the marked house brings blood on the spies' heads. If she tells, they are quit of the oath.
Rahab answers, 'According unto your words, so be it,' sends them away, and binds the scarlet line in the window. The cord marks a negotiated house, not a magic charm, not a guaranteed ritual for later households, and not a secret picture of a later doctrine hidden in the color. Protection here is as wide as the people she can gather and as narrow as the door they must not leave.
How this should shape us
Keep a costly promise with conditions both sides can actually keep. Do not turn a visible sign into a lucky object, a sales ritual, or a code that erases the woman who tied it.
Teach it back
Explain Joshua 2:15-21 in your own words. Include its movement, relation to Deuteronomy and the rest of Joshua, one material uncertainty or ethical cost, and one modern use the context rules out.
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Go deeper
The explanation above is meant to stand on its own. Open these notes only if you want language, history, disagreements, or source locations.
Where careful interpreters disagreeThe strongest options and their difficulties
Where do careful interpreters disagree?
Best judgment: Interpreters differ over the composition, historical value, textual form, geography, and theological judgment of “The Scarlet Cord Marks the Rescue Agreement.” Confidence is strongest in the final-form movement summarized here; reconstructions beyond it remain labeled and limited.
How certain? probableResearch trail and exact locationsThe source record behind this section
Supports: Exact reader-facing KJV wording, paragraph markers, supplied-word markup, and complete verse coverage.
Joshua 2:15-21, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording, morphology, clauses, names, repeated roots, boundary formulas, covenant terms, and the base text behind translation discussion.
Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Josh.xml, 2:15–21
Supports: Verse-level Hebrew, textual, translation, list, number, geographical, historical, and cross-reference notes.
NET Bible Joshua PDF, printed pp. 422-423, translation and translator notes on 2:15–21
Supports: Whole-book movement, literary boundaries, composition, history and archaeology limits, geography, theology, and material interpretive alternatives.
Nelson, 'Joshua,' Oxford Bible Commentary, printed pp. 160-161, discussion of 2:15–21
Supports: Modern research plurality across textual criticism, composition, history, archaeology, geography, violence, ideology, and reception.
Dozeman, 'The Book of Joshua in Recent Research,' Currents in Biblical Research 15.3 (2017), printed pp. 270–288; research categories and bibliography applied cautiously to 2:15–21
Supports: War-memory, outsider belonging, negotiated rescue, Gibeonite survival and subordination, and identity-construction alternatives.
Wright, War, Memory, and National Identity in the Hebrew Bible (Cambridge, 2020), printed pp. 140–166, especially pp. 140–151 on Rahab and pp. 152–166 on Rahab, Gibeonites, treaty, labor, belonging, and composition; applied to 2:15–21
Supports: Masoretic, Old Greek, Qumran, and revision evidence plus a focused case study showing why ancient textual differences require visible limits.
De Troyer, 'The Battle against Ai and the Textual History of the Book of Joshua,' JSCS 48 (2015), printed pp. 39–53, especially pp. 39–43 on book-wide MT-OG differences and pp. 43–53 on Joshua 8; applied to 2:15–21
Sources for This Section
These records identify the source, the claim it supports, and the exact location used. A source remains evidence to evaluate; it does not replace the biblical text.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact reader-facing KJV wording, paragraph markers, supplied-word markup, and complete verse coverage.
Exact location: Joshua 2:15-21, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Joshua
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording, morphology, clauses, names, repeated roots, boundary formulas, covenant terms, and the base text behind translation discussion.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Josh.xml, 2:15–21
Open source ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible: Joshua with translators' notes
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press, 2006
Supports: Verse-level Hebrew, textual, translation, list, number, geographical, historical, and cross-reference notes.
Exact location: NET Bible Joshua PDF, printed pp. 422-423, translation and translator notes on 2:15–21
Open source ↗scholarly commentary article
Joshua
Richard D. Nelson
Oxford University Press, in The Oxford Bible Commentary, edited by John Barton and John Muddiman, 2001
Supports: Whole-book movement, literary boundaries, composition, history and archaeology limits, geography, theology, and material interpretive alternatives.
Exact location: Nelson, 'Joshua,' Oxford Bible Commentary, printed pp. 160-161, discussion of 2:15–21
Open source ↗peer reviewed research review
The Book of Joshua in Recent Research
Thomas B. Dozeman
Currents in Biblical Research 15.3, 2017
Supports: Modern research plurality across textual criticism, composition, history, archaeology, geography, violence, ideology, and reception.
Exact location: Dozeman, 'The Book of Joshua in Recent Research,' Currents in Biblical Research 15.3 (2017), printed pp. 270–288; research categories and bibliography applied cautiously to 2:15–21
Open source ↗open access scholarly monograph
War, Memory, and National Identity in the Hebrew Bible
Jacob L. Wright
Cambridge University Press, 2020
Supports: War-memory, outsider belonging, negotiated rescue, Gibeonite survival and subordination, and identity-construction alternatives.
Exact location: Wright, War, Memory, and National Identity in the Hebrew Bible (Cambridge, 2020), printed pp. 140–166, especially pp. 140–151 on Rahab and pp. 152–166 on Rahab, Gibeonites, treaty, labor, belonging, and composition; applied to 2:15–21
Open source ↗peer reviewed open access textual study
The Battle against Ai and the Textual History of the Book of Joshua
Kristin De Troyer
Journal of Septuagint and Cognate Studies 48, 2015
Supports: Masoretic, Old Greek, Qumran, and revision evidence plus a focused case study showing why ancient textual differences require visible limits.
Exact location: De Troyer, 'The Battle against Ai and the Textual History of the Book of Joshua,' JSCS 48 (2015), printed pp. 39–53, especially pp. 39–43 on book-wide MT-OG differences and pp. 43–53 on Joshua 8; applied to 2:15–21
Open source ↗