Hebrew word · H7343

רָחָב

rachav

Rahab

A personal name from the root r-ḥ-b, "be wide, broad, spacious." It may be short for a name like "(the god) has widened" or "has made room."

Appears 5 times in 5 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

A woman living before Israel's Monarchy, first mentioned at Jos.2.1;

mother of: Boaz (H1162)(?)

§ Rahab = "wide"

a harlot of Jericho who aided the spies to escape; saved from the destruction of Jericho; married Salmon, an ancestor of David and of Christ; commended for her faith in the book of James

Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of Joshua 2:3

Range of meaning

A personal name from the root r-ḥ-b, "be wide, broad, spacious." It may be short for a name like "(the god) has widened" or "has made room."

Against the English

English spells two different Hebrew words "Rahab." This woman is rāḥāv (with the letter ḥet). The sea monster Rahab, a poetic name for chaos and for Egypt (Ps 87:4; 89:10; Isa 51:9; Job 26:12), is rahav (with the letter he) and comes from a root meaning "storm, be arrogant."

How it drifted

English spelling hides the difference between the two Hebrew words, so readers sometimes take Psalm 87:4 or Isaiah 51:9 to be about this woman.

Used elsewhere in the period

Later Jewish and Christian writers remember the Rahab of Joshua: Josephus, Antiquities 5.1.2, which describes her house as a lodging-house; Matt 1:5; Heb 11:31; Jas 2:25. Targum Jonathan renders her title in 2:1 as "innkeeper" (pundeqîtā).

Similar words

Where it appears

Joshua · 5

  1. Joshua 2:1 רָחָ֖ב [was] Rahab

    Then Joshua son of Nun secretly sent two spies from Shittim, saying, “Go, inspect the land, especially Jericho.” So they went and entered the house of a prostitute named Rahab and stayed there.

    Here: 'Broad, wide.' Probably a shortened form of a name like '[a god] has made wide'. It is a different word from Rahab the sea monster (רַהַב, Psalm 89:10; Isaiah 51:9).

  2. Joshua 2:3 רָחָ֖ב Rahab

    So the king of Jericho sent to Rahab and said, “Bring out the men who came to you and entered your house, for they have come to spy out the whole land.”

    Here: The woman's name, from a root meaning "wide, broad." It may be short for a longer name like "(the god) has made wide." Verse 1 has already called her a zonah, a woman who sells sex.

  3. Joshua 6:17 רָחָ֨ב Rahab

    Now the city and everything in it must be devoted to the LORD for destruction. Only Rahab the prostitute and all those with her in her house will live, because she hid the spies we sent.

    Here: Personal name, probably meaning 'broad, wide', perhaps short for a longer name like '[the god] has made wide'. Unrelated to the sea-monster Rahab of Psalms and Isaiah, which is spelled differently in Hebrew.

  4. Joshua 6:23 רָ֠חָב Rahab

    So the young spies went in and brought out Rahab, her father and mother and brothers, and all who belonged to her. They brought out her whole family and settled them outside the camp of Israel.

    Here: Rahab is named first and stands at the head of the list. The whole household is saved through her and is described as hers.

  5. Joshua 6:25 רָחָ֣ב Rahab

    And Joshua spared Rahab the prostitute, with her father’s household and all who belonged to her, because she hid the men Joshua had sent to spy out Jericho. So she has lived among the Israelites to this day.

    Here: A Canaanite woman's name from the root 'to be wide, broad'. She is named, while the king of Jericho never is (2:2–3).

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.