Joshua 2:5

shutting of the gate A necessary precaution owing to the absence of all artificial light from the streets of Oriental towns.

when it was dark In the East, night comes on soon after sundown, and the evening twilight is of very short duration.

I wot not Strict truth was a virtue but little known or practised in ancient times, and Rahab must not be judged by the same standard of morality as we should apply to our own days. "By faith the harlot Rahab perished not with them that believed not" (Hebrews 11:31). "It would be a mistake, an anachronism, to apply to a dweller in one of the old Canaanite cities, amidst the worshippers of false and cruel deities, destitute of one ray either of Law or Gospel light, principles of conduct and character which we owe to the Revelation of all truth and all duty by our Lord Jesus Christ. The Epistle is content to say only this, Behold in the example of this woman the working of that faith which grasps the unseen. Behold the action of faith upon evidence presented and upon an alternative of conduct. Behold the inference of truth honestly drawn, and the preference, on the strength of it, of the future to the present. Behold, St James adds (James 2:25), how faith differs from opinion, and evidences its existence by the sign of work. The hearts of other inhabitants of Jericho were melting, she tells us, with the terror of Israel, she alone acted upon the conviction, and added another element to the -great cloud of witnesses." " Dr Vaughan's Heroes of Faith, pp. 263, 264.