Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Dave Washburn <dwashbur AT nyx.net>]

On Friday 11 July 2003 18:41, CS Bartholomew wrote:
> On 7/11/03 11:16 AM, "Trevor Peterson" <06PETERSON AT cua.edu> wrote:
> > What interests me is the way the question is worded in the preceding
> > verse. Did they add "who entered your house," as NET suggests, to mask
> > the sense, or was it really intended to clarify the question, since they
> > knew it could be taken more than one way? In other words, I wonder if the
> > men were trying to avoid a sexual implication and simply wanted to
> > question her about whether the men had been there. The additional phrase
> > could have been used to clear up possible confusion. But I'm not certain
> > that this is in fact the case. It makes me wonder, though.
>
> Trevor,
>
> After some more thought I think we have two perspectives in this narrative
> that need to be kept separate. There is the point of view of the narrator
> and there is the story Rahab tells the "special ops team" from the King.
>
> From the narrators perspective we are being told that the spies came into
> her house and she gave the lodging for the night. But when hit squad
> arrives she lies through her teeth feeding them a very plausible story
> which is designed to get rid of them.
>
> I could be wrong of course, but that is they way I read if at the moment.

Along these lines, I've seen it suggested in more than one place (I can't 
remember where, but could look it up if the discussion seems to call for it) 
that the word used to describe Rahab might mean "innkeeper" as well as 
"harlot."  I don't know how plausible that suggestion is, so I'll just toss 
it out as fodder for conversation.

-- 
Dave Washburn
http://www.nyx.net/~dwashbur
"God does a lot of things in the Psalms
that He can't get away with in systematic theology."