And before they were laid down, she came up unto them upon the roof;
And before they were laid down, she came up unto them upon the roof;
And--before they lie down--she hath gone up unto them on the roof,
And before they had lain down, she went up to them upon the roof;
Joshua — The entry narrative — Israel crosses the Jordan, takes the Land through three conquest campaigns, and renews covenant at Shechem. The hinge between Torah's promises and the historical record of those promises unfolding.
Rare words are the text's own signal of a deliberate thread — the fewer the occurrences, the more the places it appears belong together.
Voices2
And before they were laid down,.... Under the stalks of the flax; or rather, since they are said to be hid in them, before they were fallen asleep, so Kimchi and Abarbinel: she came up unto them upon the roof; to acquaint them how things were, and to converse with them on the following subjects.
John Gill· Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763)reformed
She was convinced of the supremacy of Jehovah, and her earnest stipulations for the preservation of her relatives amid the perils of the approaching invasion, attest the sincerity and strength of her faith.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871reformed
The verses this one reaches2
(But Rahab had taken them up to the roof and hidden them among the stalks of flax that she had laid out there.)
Now the temple was full of men and women; all the lords of the Philistines were there, and about three thousand men and women were on the roof watching Samson entertain them.
