The reason of this secrecy lay probably both in the nature of their errand, and in the sad remembrance of the

discouragement which evil report by the spies had formerly wrought among the people (Numbers 14:1). As

the two spies stealthily crept up the eight miles of country from the western bank of the Jordan to "the city

of palm trees," they must have been struck with the extraordinary "beauty and luxuriance of the district.

Even now there is a bright green oasis of several miles square which marks the more rich and populous

groves of Jericho." 62

Its vegetation is most rich and rare; almost every tree is tenanted by the bulbul or Palestinian nightingale,

with the "hopping thrush," "the gorgeous Indian blue kingfisher, the Egyptian turtle -dove, and other

singing birds of Indian or Abyssinian affinity." "On the plain above are the desert larks and chats, while half

an hour's walk takes us to the Mount of Temptation, the home of the griffon, where beautifully plumed

partridges, rock-swallows, rock-doves, and other birds abound. But, beyond all others, Jericho is the home

of the lovely sun-bird,.... resplendent with all the colors of the humming-bird" - its back brilliant green, its

throat blue, and its breast purple, "with a tuft of rich red, orange, and yellow feathers at each shoulder." The

little streams - which Elisha healed from its after curse - swarms with fish, while climate and prospect are

equally delicious in that early summer-like spring, when the spies visited it. And what the wealth and beauty

of this plain must have been when it was crowded with feathery palms, and scented balsam gardens, we

learn from the descriptions of Josephus (Ant. xv. 4, 2). This paradise of Canaan was guarded by the fortress

of Jericho - one of the strongest in the whole land.63 Behind its walls and battlements immense wealth was

store d, partly natural and partly the result of civilization and luxury. This appears even from the character

and value of the spoil which one individual - Achan - could secrete from it (Joshua 7:21).

As the spies neared the city, the setting sun was casting his rays in richest variegated coloring on the

limestone mountains which surrounded the ancient Jericho like an amphitheater, rising closest, and to the

height of from 1200 to 1500 feet, in the north, where they bear the name of Quarantania, marking the

traditional site of the forty days of our Lord's temptation; and thence stretching with widening sweep

towards the south. Friend or ally there was none in that city, whose hospitality the two Israelites might have

sought. To have resorted to a khan or inn would have been to court the publicity which most of all they

wished to avoid. Under these circumstances, the choice of the house of Rahab, the harlot, was certainly the

wisest for their purpose. But even so, in the excited state of the public mind, when, as we know (Joshua

2:11), the terror of Israel had fallen upon all, the arrival of two suspicious-looking strangers could not remain

a secret. So soon as the gates were shut, and escape seemed impossible, the king sent to make captives of

what he rightly judged to be Israelitish spies. But Rahab had anticipated him. Arriving at the same

conclusion as the king, and expecting what would happen, she had "hid them" - perhaps hastily - "with the

stalks of flax which she had laid in order upon the roof," after the common Eastern fashion of drying flax on

the flat roofs of houses. By the adroit admission of the fact that two men, previously unknown to her, had

indeed come, to which she added the false statement that they had with equal abruptness left just before the

closing of the gates, she succeeded in misleading the messengers of the king. The story of Rahab sounded

likely enough; she had seemingly been frank, nor was there any apparent motive for untruthfulness on her

part, but quite the opposite, as the same danger threatened all the inhabitants of Jericho. As Rahab had

suggested, the messengers "pursued quickly" in the supposed wake of the Jewish emissaries, which would

have been "the way to Jordan, unto the fords," by which they must return to the camp of Israel, and the

gates were again shut, to make escape from Jericho impossible, if, after all, they had not quitted the city.

Thus far the device of Rahab had succeeded. So soon as night settled upon the city, she repaired to the

roof, and acquainted the spies , who were ignorant of any danger, with what had taken place. At the same

time she explained the motives of her conduct. They must indeed have listened with wonder, not unmingled

with adoring gratitude, as she told them how they, in Canaan, had heard what Jehovah had done for Israel at

the Red Sea, and that, by His help, the two powerful kings of the Amorites had been "utterly destroyed."

The very language, in which Rahab described the terror that had fallen upon her countrymen, was the same

as that uttered prophetically forty years before, when Moses and the children of Israel sang the new song

on the other side of the Red Sea, Exodus 15:14-16 (comp. Exodus 23:27; Deuteronomy 2:25; 11:25). But the

effect of this knowledge of Jehovah's great doings differed according to the state of mind of those who