# Hebrew construction of Joshua 2



## Eoghan (Jun 6, 2014)

The narrative seems to focus first on the king of Jericho's search for the Israelites "tonight" (v2) then switches back to the expression of faith and agreement between the Israelites and Rahab. 

"Before they lay down" (v8) suggests that this brief _first discussion_ took place before they lay down to hide under the flax.

Their escape down the wall in a basket is then described before the narrative goes back to _a second_ discussion in which the terms of Rahab's safety and that of her family is worked out.

Does the Hebrew support this?


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## Eoghan (Jun 7, 2014)

ṭerem (i.e. before)
teh'-rem
From an unused root apparently meaning to interrupt or suspend; properly non-occurrence; _*used adverbially not yet or before*_


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## Wayne (Jun 7, 2014)

Eoghan said:


> ṭerem (i.e. before)
> teh'-rem
> From an unused root apparently meaning to interrupt or suspend; properly non-occurrence; _*used adverbially not yet or before*_



Brown, Driver, Briggs, p. 382, has this:



> page 382 טרמ:54, once (Ru 3:14 Kt) טרומ, *adv. of time, not yet, ere, before that* (deriv. unknown:not found in cogn. Languages) —construed mostly with the impf. (with the pf. only Gn 24:15 (v:45 impf.), 1 S 3:7 a (v:b impf.), and בטרמ Psalm 90:2 Pr 8:25):— 1. † טרס in an independent sentence, not yet, Gn 2:5 and all the plants of the field טרמ יהיה בארצ were not yet in the earth, etc., 19:4 טרמ ישׁכבו not yet had they lain down, when etc., not yet had they lain down, when etc., 24:15, 24:45, Nu 11:33, *Jos 2:8*, 1 S 3:3, 3:7, 3:7; . . .


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## VictorBravo (Jun 7, 2014)

Eoghan said:


> "Before they lay down" (v8) suggests that this brief first discussion took place before they lay down to hide under the flax.



I think it is more straightforward than this. Before they laid down implies before they went to sleep. The spies may have thought their best bet was to rest among the flax for a while until later in the night.

In any event, it seems she sent them up on the roof, probably telling them to hide themselves under the flax, and then immediately went to the door to deal with the King's men--telling them the story that these strangers had left.

Nobody apparently searched the home, so she went up before the spies had completely settled in. That is when she had her discussion.

I don't see it needing to be any more complicated than that.


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## Eoghan (Jun 9, 2014)

Dale Ralph Davis explains that there is a gathering together of different parts of the narrative for emphasis, hence the repetition of chapter 3. This is a literary device used for the emphasis of certain aspects of the story.

I suppose you assume that the narrative is strictly chronological and that she waits until they are outside Jericho before having a shouted conversation about the finer details. Oh and that the scarlet cord is passed to her from the spies standing at the foot of the wall. Yup it could have happened that way but with the narrator deliberately gathering together bits of the story out of chronological order in the adjacent portion of scripture I think we do well to be a bit more open minded... (The concept of discrete chapters after all is a sixteenth century invention after all)


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## VictorBravo (Jun 9, 2014)

Eoghan said:


> I suppose you assume that the narrative is strictly chronological and that she waits until they are outside Jericho before having a shouted conversation about the finer details. Oh and that the scarlet cord is passed to her from the spies standing at the foot of the wall.



I do not assume it is "strictly chronological." I do assume it to be a straightforward narrative in the Hebrew story-telling sense, and I agree that the Dale Ralph Davis quote is a good way to describe it.

As for the scarlet cord, I think the "this" very easily applies to the cord the spies are hanging on to. I do not want to force their conversation to occur "outside of Jericho" but I suppose I'd allow it was "on the edge" of being outside of Jericho, if Rahab's wall is the boundary.

As I said in the other thread, I was not seeing what you were asking. I think I'm understanding a bit more what the gist of your question was. If it was about strict chronology, I agree, Hebrew narrative is not always strictly sequential, and reading it that way leads to a wooden interpretation that distracts from the narrative.


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## Eoghan (Jun 11, 2014)

What really blows me away is the realisation that God knocked down the wall - except the bit that was Rahab's house! I always assumed the_* whole*_ wall kinda turned to sand or some such.


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