sent: or, had sent
Shittim: Numbers 25:1, Numbers 33:49
to spy secretly: Numbers 13:2, Numbers 13:17-21; Judges 18:2, Judges 18:14, Judges 18:17; Matthew 10:16; Ephesians 5:5
even Jericho: Joshua 5:10, Joshua 6:1-24
harlot's house: Though the word zonah: generally denotes a prostitute, yet many very learned men are of opinion that it should be here rendered an innkeeper or hostess, from zoon:, to furnish or provide food. In this sense it was understood by the Targumist, who renders it, ittetha pundekeetha:, "a woman, a tavern-keeper," and so St. Chrysostome, in his second sermon on Repentance, calls her πανδοκευτρια:. The Greek πορνη:, by which the LXX render it, and which is adopted by the Apostles, is derived from περναω:, to sell, and is also supposed to denote a tavern keeper. Among the ancients, women generally kept houses of entertainment. Herodotus says, "Among the Egyptians, the women carry on all commercial concerns, and keep taverns, while the men continue at home and weave." The same custom prevailed among the Greeks. Joshua 6:17, Joshua 6:25; Matthew 1:5, Rachab, Joshua 21:31; Hebrews 11:31; James 2:25
lodged: Heb. lay