Joshua 2:23

So the two men returned, and descended from the mountain, and passed over, and came to Joshua the son of Nun, and told him all things that befell them:

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

2:22-24 The report the spies brought was encouraging. All the people of the country faint because of Israel; they have neither wisdom to yield, nor courage to fight. Those terrors of conscience, and that sense of Divine wrath, which dismay the ungodly, but bring not to repentance, are fearful forebodings of approaching destruction. But grace yet abounds to the chief of sinners. Let them, without delay, flee to Christ, and all shall be well.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Unto the mountain - Probably the mountains to the west and north of Jericho, called afterward, from the belief that the 40 days of our Lord's temptation were passed among them, the Quarantania. The spies avoided at the first the neighhourhood of the Jordan, where the pursuers sought them: and amidst the grottoes of the limestone rocks, which in later ages were the abode of numerous hermits, they could readily shelter themselves for three days.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

21. she bound the scarlet line in the window—probably soon after the departure of the spies. It was not formed, as some suppose, into network, as a lattice, but simply to hang down the wall. Its red color made it conspicuous, and it was thus a sign and pledge of safety to Rahab's house, as the bloody mark on the lintels of the houses of the Israelites in Egypt to that people.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

And passed over, to wit, Jordan unto Joshua. Him alone, not the people, as they did Num 13.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

So the two men returned, and descended from the mountain,.... Or came down from it again, by which, it seems, they went to the top of it, and hid themselves in some cave there: this descent, Kimchi says, was,"on the third day of their being sent, which was the second day of the three days Joshua made mention of when he said, "within three days";''See Gill on Joshua 1:11,

and passed over; that is, the river Jordan, at the fords of it:

and came to Joshua the son of Nun; at Shittim, where he still continued, and from whence he sent them, Joshua 2:1,

and told him all things that befell them; what house they went into when come to Jericho, what reception they met with, the report of them to the king of Jericho, how messengers were sent by him to demand them, and by what means they were preserved and made their escape.

Geneva Study Bible

So the two men returned, and descended from the mountain, and passed over, and came to Joshua the son of Nun, and told him all things that befell them:

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

23. and passed over] Probably by swimming, for the water at this season was too high to allow them to ford; compare the coming to David of the eleven mighty men from the uplands of Gad, who swam the river when it had overflowed all its banks (1 Chronicles 12:15).

all things that befell them] Compare the words of the sons of Jacob to their father, Genesis 42:29; of Moses to his father-in-law, Exodus 18:8.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 23. - And passed over. The sacred historian does not say how. But it is improbable (see ver. 7) that they forded the river. They probably swam across, as they were no doubt unarmed (cf. 1 Chronicles 12:15). That befel them. Literally, "that found them." Joshua 2:23

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

After this they returned to the camp across the Jordan, and informed Joshua of all that had befallen them, and all that they had heard. On Joshua 2:24, see Joshua 2:9.