Joshua 2:22

And they went, and came unto the mountain, and abode there three days, until the pursuers were returned: and the pursuers sought them throughout all the way, but found them not.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(22) Three days—i.e., probably until the completion of three days from the commencement of their mission, according to the usual inclusive reckoning of the Old Testament.

Benson Commentary

Joshua 2:22-23. Three days — Supporting themselves there with the provisions which Rahab had furnished them with. The way — That is, in the road to Jordan, and the places near it, but not in the mountains. Passed over — Jordan unto Joshua.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

2:22-24 The report the spies brought was encouraging. All the people of the country faint because of Israel; they have neither wisdom to yield, nor courage to fight. Those terrors of conscience, and that sense of Divine wrath, which dismay the ungodly, but bring not to repentance, are fearful forebodings of approaching destruction. But grace yet abounds to the chief of sinners. Let them, without delay, flee to Christ, and all shall be well.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Unto the mountain - Probably the mountains to the west and north of Jericho, called afterward, from the belief that the 40 days of our Lord's temptation were passed among them, the Quarantania. The spies avoided at the first the neighhourhood of the Jordan, where the pursuers sought them: and amidst the grottoes of the limestone rocks, which in later ages were the abode of numerous hermits, they could readily shelter themselves for three days.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

21. she bound the scarlet line in the window—probably soon after the departure of the spies. It was not formed, as some suppose, into network, as a lattice, but simply to hang down the wall. Its red color made it conspicuous, and it was thus a sign and pledge of safety to Rahab's house, as the bloody mark on the lintels of the houses of the Israelites in Egypt to that people.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Abode there three days; supporting themselves there with the provisions, which after the manner of those times and places they carried with them, which Rahab furnished them with.

Throughout all the way, i.e. in the road to Jordan, and the places near it, but not in the mountains.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And they went, and came unto the mountain,.... Rahab had directed them to, the mountain Quarantania; see Gill on Joshua 2:16,

and abode there three days; being, no doubt, supplied with food by Rahab; and it might not be three wholly, but one whole day and part of the other two:

until the pursuers were returned; to the city of Jericho, as might reasonably be supposed:

and the pursuers sought them throughout all the way; from Jericho to the fords of Jordan, searching every hedge, field, and village as they went and returned:

but found them not; Rahab having hid them in her house, and then sent them to the mountain, there to remain till the return of the pursuers.

Geneva Study Bible

And they went, and came unto the mountain, and abode there three days, until the pursuers were returned: and the pursuers sought them throughout all the way, but found them not.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

22–24. Return of the Spies to Joshua

22. the mountain] See above, Joshua 2:16.

Joshua 2:22

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The spies remained three days in the mountains, till the officers returned to the town, after searching for them the whole way in vain. The mountains referred to are probably the range on the northern side of Jericho, which afterwards received the name of Quarantana (Arab. Kuruntul), a wall of rock rising almost precipitously from the plain to the height of 1200 or 1500 feet, and full of grottoes and caves on the eastern side. These mountains were well adapted for a place of concealment; moreover, they were the nearest to Jericho, as the western range recedes considerably to the south of Wady Kelt (vid., Rob. ii. p. 289).