The coming of these spies, it seems, was quickly known, and the king of Jericho, having received information of it while at supper, according to Josephus, sent that very evening to require her to deliver them up. It is very likely that, her house being a public one, some one who resorted there may have seen and recognized the spies, and at once reported the matter to the authorities. But not without awakening Rahab’s suspicions, and she was courageous enough to hide them under the flax on the roof, and throw the officers off their suspicion, while she let the Hebrews down over the wall and hurried them away to the mountains, to stay till the hunt was given up and the guards had come back from the fords of the Jordan, thus allowing them to escape across the river to their camp. For her kindness to them she had asked that when the city should be taken, her life and the lives of all that belonged to her should be spared, and it was agreed that she should hang out her scarlet line at the window from which the spies had escaped. The event proved the wisdom of her precautions. The pursuers returned to Jericho after a fruitless search, and the spies reached the encampment of Israel in safety. The news they brought of the terror of the king and citizens of Jericho doubtless inspired the Israelitish host with fresh courage, and, within three days of their return, the passage of the Jordan was effected. No one could have been more interested than Rahab during those eventful days. Perhaps, from the window of her dwelling on the city wall, she saw the waters of the Jordan piled on each other, and stretching back over the plain as far as the eye could see--a sight she had never seen, and equal to the dividing of the Red Sea. Toward evening she saw the advance guards of Joshua’s host, and then the white-robed priests bearing the ark, followed by the army and people, and encamping at Gilgal, within two miles of Jericho, and in full view of the city. After having carefully reviewed her household to assure herself that her father and mother, brothers and sisters, were all there--for this was the covenant she had made with the spies--she probably seated herself at the window from which hung the scarlet cord, to watch the strange procession that marched around the city seven days. Each morning it came filing up from Gilgal in solemn silence, except as the white-robed priests blew their trumpet-blasts.