Verse 9
9. I know that the Lord hath given you the land Mark the strength of her affirmation: not 1 believe, but I know. Rahab now discloses unto them the cause of her hospitality, her firm conviction that the Hebrews were destined to overthrow her people. This belief arose from the miraculous passage of the Red Sea, and the easy conquest of Eastern Palestine. With characteristic womanly penetration she had read the secret fears of her countrymen, and had interpreted them as tokens of coming defeat to her people. Thus the very knowledge which Joshua was most desirous of attaining, namely, the state of feeling among the Canaanites, is freely communicated to the spies. To dishearten a nation is to conquer it.
Your terror Fear of you has paralyzed us. Moses, in his last discourse, had predicted this result. Deuteronomy 2:25; Deuteronomy 11:25.
All the inhabitants of the land faint For faint, the Hebrew reads, are melted; an expression showing the utter prostration of their confidence and resolution. This despair of the people, whether natural or supernatural, prevented them from making any combination to resist the invading host at the best place for such resistance the passage of the Jordan.
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