Josue 2:6

Filipino Cebuano Bible

6 Apan iyang gidala sila sa atop sa balay, ug gitagoan sila sa mga dagami nga lino, nga iyang gihapnig sa ibabaw sa atop.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

to the roof: Joshua 2:8, Exodus 1:15-21, Deuteronomy 22:8, 2 Samuel 11:2, Matthew 24:17

hid them: Exodus 2:2, 2 Samuel 17:19, 1 Kings 18:4, 1 Kings 18:13, 2 Kings 11:2, Jeremiah 36:26, Colossians 3:3, Hebrews 11:23

Gill's Notes on the Bible

But she had brought them up to the roof of the house,.... Before the messengers came; though Abarbinel thinks it was after they were gone, when she took them from the place of their concealment, and had them to the roof of the house, where she thought they would be safe and secure, should the messengers return, or others come in search of them, who would not, as she imagined, look for them there:

and hid them with the stalks of flax; that is, under them, or "in flax of wood", or "a tree" b; which may with as much propriety, or more, be called a tree than hyssop, 1 Kings 4:33; as it is in the Misnah c. Moreover, there was a sort of flax which grew in the upper part of Egypt towards Arabia, as Pliny says d, which they called "xylon", or wood, of which were made "lina xylina": though the words may be rightly transposed, as by as, "stalks of flax", which are large and strong before the flax is stripped or beaten off of them; the Targum renders it bundles of flax, or handfuls and sheaves of them, as they were when cut down and gathered:

which she had laid in order upon the roof; to be dried, as Kimchi observes; and Pliny e speaks of flax being bound up in bundles, and hung up and dried in the sun; which was done that it might be more easily stripped and beaten off; and the roofs of houses in those countries being flat, were very fit for such a purpose;

1 Kings 4:33- :; and these being now laid there were very suitable and convenient to conceal the men under them. This seems to be in favour of Rahab, as being a virtuous and industrious woman; see

Proverbs 31:13.

b בפשתי העץ "in linis ligni", Montanus; "vel arboris", Vatablus. c Sabbat, c. 2. sect. 3. & Bartenora in ib. d Nat. Hist. l. 19. c. 1. e Nat. Hist. l. 19. c. 1.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Stalks of flax - literally, “the carded fibres of the tree.” The flax in Palestine grew to more than three feet in height, with a stalk as thick as a cane. It was probably with the flax stalks, recently cut (compare Exodus 9:31, note) and laid out on the house roof to dry, that Rahab hid the spies.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Joshua 2:6. Hid then with the stalks of flax — It is a matter of little consequence whether we translate פסתי העיץ pistey haets stalks of flax, or stalks of hemp: the word עץ ets, which signifies wood, serves to show that whether it was hemp or flax, it was in its rough, unmanufactured state; and as this was about the season, viz., the end of March or the beginning of April, in which the flax is ripe in that country, consequently Rahab's flax might have been recently pulled, and was now drying on the roof of her house. The reader may find some useful remarks upon this subject in Harmer's Observations, vol. iv., p. 97, c.

Upon the roof. — We have already seen that all the houses in the east were made flat-roofed for which a law is given Deuteronomy 22:8. On these flat roofs the Asiatics to this day walk, converse, and oftentimes even sleep and pass the night. It is probable that this hiding was after that referred to in the fourth verse.