Joshua 6:23 (LSB)

Passage

So the young men who were spies went in and brought out Rahab and her father and her mother and her brothers and all she had; they also brought out all her relatives and placed them outside the camp of Israel.

Nearby Context

Joshua 6:21 And they devoted to destruction everything in the city, both man and woman, young and old, and ox and sheep and donkey, with the edge of the sword.

Joshua 6:22 Now to the two men who had spied out the land, Joshua said, “Go into the harlot’s house and bring the woman and all she has out of there, as you have sworn to her.”

Joshua 6:23 So the young men who were spies went in and brought out Rahab and her father and her mother and her brothers and all she had; they also brought out all her relatives and placed them outside the camp of Israel.

Joshua 6:24 But they burned the city with fire, and all that was in it. Only the silver and gold, and articles of bronze and iron, they put into the treasury of the house of Yahweh.

Joshua 6:25 However, Rahab the harlot and her father’s household and all she had, Joshua preserved alive; and she has lived in the midst of Israel to this day, for she hid the messengers whom Joshua sent to spy out Jericho.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "young", "spies", "went", "brought", "rahab", "father", "mother", and "brothers". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "young" and "spies", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 22's "Now to the two men who had..." into verse 24's "But they burned the city with fire...", so "young" and "spies" belong inside that flow. In Joshua context, the local focus is covenant, worship, and faithfulness.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "young" and "spies" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.