Spies

Two spies were sent by Joshua "secretly" i.e., unknown to the people ( Joshua 2:1 ), "to view the land and Jericho" after the death of Moses, and just before the tribes under his leadership were about to cross the Jordan. They learned from Rahab (q.v.), in whose house they found a hiding-place, that terror had fallen on all the inhabitants of the land because of the great things they had heard that Jehovah had done for them (Exodus 15:14-16; comp 23:27; Deuteronomy 2:25; 11:25 ). As the result of their mission they reported: "Truly Jehovah hath delivered into our hands all the land; for even all the inhabitants of the country do faint because of us."