Biblical Hebrew Forum

[CS Bartholomew <jacksonpollock AT earthlink.net>]

Was reading in 1Clement 12 this morning which retells the Rahab story from
Joshua 2 based on the LXX and was struck by a couple of details.

So I went and took a look at the MT to see what was going on. Rahab's
response to the king's swat team doesn't come across very clearly in the
English translations.

The LXX of Josh 2:4

KAI EIPEN AUTOIS LEGOUSA EISELHLUQASIN PROS ME hOI ANDRES

Here Rahab appears to be saying that the spies were "Johns" and that she had
provided her normal services and then they had left.

Well I checked the MT and sure enough, Rahab's expression ba¹u ¹elai is the
same one used by Judah propositioning Tamar ¹avo¹ ¹elayikh Gen. 38:16.

Anyway, the Net Bible brought this out "these men were clients of mine"
which softens the expression considerably but at least gets the idea across.

Is there really any question about what Rahab means by this?

thanks,
Clay Bartholomew