The Fallible · Synthetic · Study Bible
Rahab Welcomes the Spies
Joshua 2:1–7 — Rahab Welcomes the Spies. Each verse below carries the full apparatus: the Berean Standard Bible, the vocalized original (tap any word), and a parsed breakdown of every term transcribed from the interlinear. Synthesized commentary, canonical threads, and the reading of Christ gather at the end, over the whole unit.
1Then 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.
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
yə·hō·wō·šu·a‘- bin- nūn ḥe·reš way·yiš·laḥ šə·na·yim- ’ă·nā·šîm mə·rag·gə·lîm min- haš·šiṭ·ṭîm lê·mōr lə·ḵū rə·’ū ’eṯ- hā·’ā·reṣ wə·’eṯ- yə·rî·ḥōw way·yê·lə·ḵū way·yā·ḇō·’ū bêṯ- ’iš·šāh zō·w·nāh ū·šə·māh rā·ḥāḇ way·yiš·kə·ḇū- šām·māh
Literal — word-for-word from the original
“And-Joshua son-of Nun sent secretly / in-silence two men, spies, from Shittim, saying — Go, see the-land, and Jericho. And-they-went and-entered the-house-of a-woman, a-prostitute, and-her-name Rahab, and-they-lay-down there.”
Where the English smooths the original
There are three instances of sending spies in reference to Canaan—viz., (1) the sending of the twelve by Moses from Kadesh-barnea; (2) the instance before us; (3) the sending of men to view Ai. The present instance is the only one in which the measure had a good effect.
Rahab is called a zonah, i.e., a harlot, not an innkeeper, as Josephus, the Chaldee version, and the Rabbins render the word. Their entering the house of such a person would not excite so much suspicion. Moreover, the situation of her house against or upon the town wall was one which facilitated escape. But the Lord so guided the course of the spies, that they found in this sinner the very person who was the most suitable for their purpose
The providence of God directed the spies to the house of Rahab. God knew where there was one that would be true to them, though they did not.Henry’s concise note covers the whole pericope (2:1–7); excerpted here at its head.
Rahab was admitted among the people of God; she intermarried into a chief family of a chief tribe, and found a place among the best remembered ancestors of King David and of Christ; thus receiving the temporal blessings of the covenant in largest measure.
2And it was reported to the king of Jericho: “Behold, some men of Israel have come here tonight to spy out the land.”
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
way·yê·’ā·mar lə·me·leḵ yə·rî·ḥōw lê·mōr hin·nêh ’ă·nā·šîm mib·bə·nê yiś·rā·’êl bā·’ū hên·nāh hal·lay·lāh laḥ·pōr ’eṯ- hā·’ā·reṣ
Literal — word-for-word from the original
“And-it-was-said to-the-king-of Jericho, saying — Behold, men have-come here tonight, from-the-sons-of Israel, to-search-out the-land.”
Where the English smooths the original
Probably Israel had but one friend in all Jericho, and God directed them to her! Thus, what seems to be most accidental is often overruled to serve the great ends of Providence. And those that acknowledge God in their ways, he will guide them with his eye.
it was told the king—by the sentinels who at such a time of threatened invasion would be posted on the eastern frontier and whose duty required them to make a strict report to headquarters of the arrival of all strangers.
Jericho was the residence of a “king” or “chief,” a fenced city, enclosed by walls of considerable breadth, and not only contained sheep and oxen, but abounded in “silver and gold,” and “vessels of brass and iron”
3So 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.”
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
me·leḵ yə·rî·ḥōw way·yiš·laḥ ’el- rā·ḥāḇ lê·mōr hō·w·ṣî·’î hā·’ă·nā·šîm hab·bā·’îm ’ê·la·yiḵ ’ă·šer- bā·’ū lə·ḇê·ṯêḵ kî bā·’ū laḥ·pōr ’eṯ- kāl- hā·’ā·reṣ
Literal — word-for-word from the original
“And-the-king-of Jericho sent to Rahab, saying — Bring-out the-men who-came to-you, who entered your-house; for to-search-out all the-land they-have-come.”
Where the English smooths the original
as now, in the East, the privacy of a woman was respected, even to a degree that might be called superstitious, and no one will enter the house in which she lives, or the part of the house she occupies, until her consent has been obtainedCambridge here quotes Kitto’s Bible Illustrations; the excerpt is verbatim as printed in the commentary.
he sent upon certain information that they were seen to go in there
Though the wicked see the hand of God on them, they do not repent, but seek how they may by their power and policy resist his working.
4But the woman had taken the two men and hidden them. So she said, “Yes, the men did come to me, but I did not know where they had come from.
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
hā·’iš·šāh ’eṯ- wat·tiq·qaḥ šə·nê hā·’ă·nā·šîm wat·tiṣ·pə·nōw wat·tō·mer kên hā·’ă·nā·šîm bā·’ū ’ê·lay wə·lō yā·ḏa‘·tî mê·’a·yin hêm·māh
Literal — word-for-word from the original
“And-the-woman had-taken the-two men and-hidden-him; and-she-said — Yes [it is so], the men came to-me, but I-did-not-know from-where they-were.”
Where the English smooths the original
this is justly mentioned as a great and generous act of faith, Hebrews 11:31 , for she did apparently venture her life upon a stedfast persuasion of the truth of God’s word and promise given to the Israelites.
And hid him, i.e. , each one in a separate place. No doubt the detail comes from an eyewitness, so that if the Book of Joshua he not a contemporary work, the writer must have had access to some contemporary document.
The falsehood to which she had recourse may be excused by the pressure of circumstances and by her own antecedents, but cannot be defended.
5At dusk, when the gate was about to close, the men went out, and I do not know which way they went. Pursue them quickly, and you may catch them!”
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
ba·ḥō·šeḵ haš·ša·‘ar way·hî lis·gō·wr wə·hā·’ă·nā·šîm yā·ṣā·’ū lō yā·ḏa‘·tî ’ā·nāh hā·’ă·nā·šîm hā·lə·ḵū riḏ·p̄ū ’a·ḥă·rê·hem ma·hêr kî ṯaś·śî·ḡūm
Literal — word-for-word from the original
“And-it-was, the-gate [about] to-shut, in-the-dark — and-the-men went-out; I-do-not-know where the-men went. Pursue after-them quickly, for you-will-overtake them.”
Where the English smooths the original
It would be a mistake, an anachronism, to apply to a dweller in one of the old Canaanite cities, amidst the worshippers of false and cruel deities, destitute of one ray either of Law or Gospel light, principles of conduct and character which we owe to the Revelation of all truth and all duty by our Lord Jesus Christ.Cambridge here quotes Dr Vaughan’s Heroes of Faith; verbatim as printed.
Judged by the divine law, her answer was a sinful expedient; but her infirmity being united with faith, she was graciously pardoned and her service accepted
she could discern in the wonderful successes of Israel the hand of a higher power than that of the gods whom she had been brought up to worship.
6(But Rahab had taken them up to the roof and hidden them among the stalks of flax that she had laid out there.)
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
wə·hî he·‘ĕ·lā·ṯam hag·gā·ḡāh wat·tiṭ·mə·nêm hā·‘êṣ bə·p̄iš·tê hā·‘ă·ru·ḵō·wṯ lāh ‘al- hag·gāḡ
Literal — word-for-word from the original
“And-she had-brought-them-up to-the-roof, and-hidden-them in the-stalks-of flax arranged for-her upon the-roof.”
Where the English smooths the original
It is remarked that flax and barley are both early crops ( Exodus 9:31 ), and that the first month (see Joshua 4:19 ) was the time of barley harvest.
Two strangers, Israelites, spies, have a safe harbour provided them, even amongst their enemies, against the proclamation of a king.Pulpit Commentary; the line that follows in the original (“Where cannot the God of heaven … find or raise up friends …”) is Bishop Joseph Hall’s.
This seems to be in favour of Rahab, as being a virtuous and industrious woman; see Proverbs 31:13 .
7So the king’s men set out in pursuit of the spies along the road to the fords of the Jordan, and as soon as they had gone out, the gate was shut.
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
wə·hā·’ă·nā·šîm rā·ḏə·p̄ū ’a·ḥă·rê·hem de·reḵ ‘al ham·ma‘·bə·rō·wṯ hay·yar·dên ka·’ă·šer yā·ṣə·’ū hā·rō·ḏə·p̄îm ’a·ḥă·rê·hem wə·haš·ša·‘ar sā·ḡā·rū ’a·ḥă·rê
Literal — word-for-word from the original
“And-the-men pursued after-them [along] the-road-to the-fords-of the-Jordan; and-as-soon-as the-pursuers had-gone-out, they-shut the-gate after-them.”
Where the English smooths the original
the king's messengers ("the men") pursued the spies by the road to the Jordan which leads across the fords. Both the circumstances themselves and the usage of the language require that we should interpret the words in this way; for המּעבּרות על cannot mean "as far as the fords," and it is very improbable that the officers should have gone across the fords.
They shut the gate of the city, partly for their security against their approaching enemies; and partly to prevent the escape of the spies, if peradventure Rahab was mistaken, and they yet lurked in the city.
These fords were easy to cross save when the Jordan, as was now the case ( Joshua 3:15 ), overflowed its banks. This may have been the reason why the pursuers did not cross the fords, but they pursued the spies to the fords, hoping to find their retreat cut off.
The verse-by-verse work is done. What follows gathers the whole unit. All three layers below are machine-generated (⚙). Weigh them; they have no authority.
AI synthesis — woven from the public-domain voices above and the original text; generated and fallible.
The chapter opens with Joshua acting on his own initiative for the first time — “And Joshua son of Nun sent.” The commission of ch. 1 has landed: the minister (məšārēṯ) has become the commander. Yet the sending is qualified by a single, dense Hebrew word, חֶרֶשׁ (ḥereš) — “secretly, in silence.” Keil & Delitzsch tie it by the Masoretic accents not to the spies’ stealth toward the enemy (that would go without saying) but to a secrecy toward Israel: lest, as under Moses, a discouraging report unnerve the people. Ellicott sets this mission against the other two spy-errands toward Canaan and renders the verdict that this is “the only one in which the measure had a good effect.” Faith and means are not rivals here; Matthew Henry opens his note on the whole passage by insisting that faith in God’s promises ought “to encourage our diligence in the use of proper means.”
The spies “entered the house of a woman, a prostitute, named Rahab” — and the Hebrew זוֹנָה (zōnāh) is unsparing. A long line of interpreters tried to soften it to innkeeper (the Targum, some rabbis); Barnes, Keil & Delitzsch, and the Pulpit Commentary all refuse the evasion, noting that the two apostles who name her (Hebrews 11:31; James 2:25) use the unambiguous Greek πόρνη. K&D’s reading is the theological key: “the Lord so guided the course of the spies, that they found in this sinner the very person who was the most suitable for their purpose.” Henry says the same of the unseen hand — “God knew where there was one that would be true to them, though they did not.” Benson presses it to its sharpest: “Probably Israel had but one friend in all Jericho, and God directed them to her!” When the king sends (wayyišlaḥ, v. 3 — the very verb of Joshua’s sending in v. 1), two senders contend over the same two men, and the providence that placed them wins.
Here the unit refuses to be tidied. Rahab “had taken the two men and hidden him” — the Hebrew singular וַתִּצְפְּנוֹ, “hid him,” which the Pulpit Commentary calls the fingerprint of an eyewitness: each man hidden separately. Then she lies — twice — claiming she did not know whence they came or whither they went. The PD voices are strikingly united in not excusing the words while honoring the faith. Barnes: the falsehood “may be excused by the pressure of circumstances… but cannot be defended.” JFB: “Judged by the divine law, her answer was a sinful expedient; but her infirmity being united with faith, she was graciously pardoned.” Poole names the deeper thing the lie served — that she “did apparently venture her life upon a stedfast persuasion of the truth of God’s word and promise given to the Israelites” (Hebrews 11:31). The Cambridge Bible guards against anachronism: it would be a mistake to demand of a Canaanite, “destitute of one ray either of Law or Gospel light,” the standard we owe to Christ. The synthesis holds both edges: a true faith, a sinful means; God commends the faith, not the falsehood.
The narrator now pulls back the curtain on v. 4’s bare report: she had brought them up (heʻĕlātam) to the flat roof and buried them under “stalks of flax” laid in rows to dry. Ellicott dates the scene by it — flax and barley are early crops, so this is barley harvest, the first month (Joshua 4:19) — a small chronological anchor hidden in a hiding-place. Gill even reads the industrious detail kindly, “in favour of Rahab, as being a virtuous and industrious woman.” Meanwhile the king’s men “pursued… the road to the fords of the Jordan” — exactly where Rahab sent them (the verb rādap̄ of v. 7 is her own imperative from v. 5) — and “they shut the gate.” The Pulpit Commentary lifts the whole movement to its theme with Bishop Hall: “Where cannot the God of heaven either find or raise up friends to His own causes and servants?”
Tested against the rule that Scripture alone is the final authority, three things in this unit ask to be weighed — offered as a reading, not a verdict. First, God saves through, not around, ordinary means. Joshua sends spies; the whole rescue runs on a hidden Canaanite, drying flax, a shut gate, a misdirected patrol. The same chapter that began under the promise “I will not forsake you” (1:5) shows that promise working itself out through human prudence and one woman’s nerve. Second, Scripture is honest about its heroes. The text neither hides Rahab’s trade nor launders her lie; it reports both and lets the later canon (Hebrews 11; James 2) name precisely what was commendable — her faith and her works of welcome, not her words. A study that explains the falsehood away claims more than the text grants; the PD voices, almost to a one, decline to. Third, grace reaches the outermost edge. The spies go out from Shittim — the very ground of Israel’s harlotry with Moab (Numbers 25:1) — to be saved by a Canaanite harlot, who ends in the Messiah’s own line (Matthew 1:5). The God of this book seeks His people where no one would look for them. All of this is fallible synthesis; hold it against the Word and keep only what stands.
Rahab is the first Canaanite to be saved out of Jericho — and the doorway is faith, not pedigree; the scarlet enters the genealogy of grace.
AI-generated connections. Each carries a verification badge with a recorded basis; contested links are flagged.
The narrative opened here is resolved in Joshua 6: the two spies (rāgal) who lodged with the harlot (zānāh) Rahab return to bring her and her house out alive when Jericho is destroyed. The shared vocabulary is not a quotation but the same story’s opening and close — anchored on the rare proper name Rāḥāḇ (in only 5 verses) and the spy-verb rāgal. Barnes reads the arc forward: “Rahab was admitted among the people of God; she intermarried into a chief family of a chief tribe, and found a place among the best remembered ancestors of King David and of Christ.”
Joshua 6:25 · Joshua 6:17 · Joshua 6:23
basis: Verifier-computed shared lexemes H7343 Râchâb (rare — in 5 vv), H7270 râgal (24 vv), H2181 zânâh (83 vv); the rare name Rahab makes the link verbal, but this is one continuous narrative (open at 2:1, close at 6:17–25), so it is recorded as structural/thematic, not a citation.
The spies set out “from Shittim” (haš·šiṭṭîm) — and the same camp is named in Numbers 25:1, where Israel “committed harlotry” (zānāh) with the daughters of Moab. The two threads of this unit — Shittim and zānāh — meet there in a grim mirror: Israel’s sin at Shittim against a Canaanite harlot’s salvation from Shittim. From the same ground Joshua 3:1 marches the nation to the Jordan to cross over. The rare name Shittim (in only 5 verses) makes these genuine verbal anchors.
Numbers 25:1 · Joshua 3:1
basis: Verifier-computed shared lexemes: H7851 Shiṭṭîym (rare — in only 5 vv) with Numbers 25:1 (also sharing H2181 zânâh) and Joshua 3:1; a low-frequency shared place-name is a confirmed verbal link, though the connection is recurrence of a setting, not a quotation of one verse by another.
The Verifier flags one rare shared lexeme that the synthesis must refuse to over-read: חֶרֶשׁ (ḥereš, H2791), which occurs in only two verses — here as Joshua’s “secretly / in silence” and in Isaiah 3:3 as the “skilful enchanter” / “cunning artificer” (BSB: “skilled craftsman”). Same consonants, same Strong’s number, opposite drift: in Joshua the noun is used adverbially of stealth, in Isaiah it names a class of experts God will strip from Judah. A purely mechanical lexeme-match would call this a confirmed verbal tie; honesty downgrades it to a flag — it is a homograph, not a real verbal echo, and no shared idea links the two passages. The Pulpit Commentary catches the very ambiguity in the Joshua word: “Literally, dumbness or craftiness (the noun being used adverbially), implying the silence and skill required for the task.”
Isaiah 3:3
basis: Verifier computes a ‘verbal’ tie on the rare shared lexeme H2791 cheresh (in only 2 vv), but the two occurrences are a homograph with divergent contextual sense — Joshua 2:1 ‘secretly/in silence’ (adverbial) vs. Isaiah 3:3 ‘skilled craftsman/enchanter’ (a noun for a profession). Flagged: the verbal match is lexical coincidence, not a shared idea; do not read it as a quotation or allusion.
Joshua’s sending of spies (rāgal) to Jericho (Yərîḥōw) has a deliberate foil in Joshua 7:2, where spies are sent to Ai. Ellicott draws the comparison explicitly: of the three Canaan spy-missions, “the present instance is the only one in which the measure had a good effect,” for the Ai spies “presumed to instruct Joshua how to proceed against it, with disastrous results.” The shared spy-verb and place-name make the contrast a real verbal echo within the book.
Joshua 7:2
basis: Verifier-computed shared lexemes H7270 râgal (24 vv), H3405 Yᵉrîychôw (53 vv), H3091 Yᵉhôwshûwaʻ (199 vv); the raw Verifier scores this ‘verbal,’ but it is downgraded to structural/thematic on purpose — the shared terms are mid-frequency, there is no rare lexeme and no quotation claim, only a shared motif (two spy-missions, contrasting outcomes), so under-claiming is the honest tier.
The pursuers chase the spies “to the fords of the Jordan” (maʻbərōṯ hayyardēn), and the same rare term for crossing-places reappears as Ehud seizes “the fords of the Jordan” to cut off Moab (Judges 3:28), and where the Gileadites hold them against Ephraim (Judges 12:5–6). Barnes and the Pulpit Commentary both point to Judges 3:28 as the very fords near Jericho. The rare noun maʻăbâr (in only 11 verses) makes this a genuine lexical thread of the Jordan’s strategic crossings.
Judges 3:28 · Judges 12:5 · Judges 12:6
basis: Verifier-computed (anchored on Joshua 2:7): shared lexemes H4569 maʻăbâr (rare — in only 11 vv), H7291 râdaph (135 vv), H3383 Yardên (164 vv); the low-frequency shared term ‘fords’ is a confirmed verbal anchor across these Jordan-crossing episodes, though the link is thematic recurrence, not citation.
The Canaanite harlot of v. 1 reappears in the New Testament as Ῥαχάβ in Matthew’s genealogy of Jesus — wife of Salmon, mother of Boaz — and is twice held up as a paradigm of faith and works (Hebrews 11:31; James 2:25). Because these are Greek texts, no shared Hebrew Strong’s number can verify the tie; it rests on the explicit NT naming of the same person. JFB notes that interpreters who softened zōnāh to “hostess” did so “desirous of removing the stigma of this name from an ancestress of the Saviour (Mt 1:5),” a move the apostles’ own word (πόρνη) forbids.
Matthew 1:5 · Hebrews 11:31 · James 2:25
basis: Cross-Testament (Greek↔Hebrew): the Verifier finds no shared original-language lexeme, so this cannot be tiered ‘verbal.’ The link is the NT’s explicit naming of the same person (Ῥαχάβ / Rahab) and is widely held; flagged because the identification rests on named tradition and onomastics, not on a computable verbal basis.
AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.
The leader who sends the spies is named Yəhōšuaʻ, “the LORD saves” — in Greek Ἰησοῦς, Jesus (Acts 7:45; Hebrews 4:8). The early church read v. 1 as a figure. The Pulpit Commentary preserves the reading verbatim from Origen’s third homily on Joshua: “As the first Jesus sent his spies before him and they were received into the harlot's house, so the second Jesus sent His forerunners, whom the publicans and harlots gladly received.” The Lord Himself sets the pattern — “the tax collectors and prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God before you” (Matthew 21:31). The figure — a saving leader who sends, and whose welcome comes from the city’s outcast — is honored as ancient typology, to be weighed against the text, not asserted as its plain sense.
Joshua 2:1 · Matthew 21:31 · Acts 7:45 · Hebrews 4:8
The fathers, as Barnes records, regarded Rahab “as a type of the Christian Church, which was gathered out of converts from the whole vast circle of pagan nations.” The reading even leans on the name: the Pulpit Commentary reports that Origen “sees in this name, which signifies room (see Rehoboth, Genesis 26:22 ), the type of the Church of Christ which extends throughout the world, and receives sinners.” A Canaanite harlot, by faith, is not merely spared but woven into the genealogy of the Messiah (Matthew 1:5), and named among the great cloud of faith (Hebrews 11:31). She prefigures the gospel’s reach to the Gentile and the sinner: justified by a faith that works (James 2:25), brought inside a covenant she was born outside of. This reading is ancient and widely held; even so, weigh it against the Word.
Joshua 2:1 · Matthew 1:5 · Hebrews 11:31 · James 2:25
This unit opens the Rahab story that climaxes in the scarlet cord she binds in her window (Joshua 2:18, 21), the sign by which her house is passed over at Jericho’s fall. From Clement of Rome onward the church read that scarlet as a figure of redemption by blood — kin to the Passover’s blood on the doorpost (Exodus 12) and pointing to the blood of Christ. The link belongs to the verses just beyond this passage, so it is offered here as the trajectory the chapter is already on, an ancient reading to be tested rather than imposed.
Joshua 2:18 · Exodus 12:13 · Hebrews 9:22
The biblical text is the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain (CC0). Hebrew/Greek text, transliteration, morphology and Strong’s are transcribed from the Berean interlinear (CC0) + Strong’s lexicons (PD); the literal renderings, divergence notes, word notes and all synthesis are this tool’s own work (⚙) — fallible; verify them.
Named voices, quoted verbatim from public-domain works:
The biblical text is the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain (CC0). The named voices are quoted verbatim from public-domain commentaries as printed at Biblehub (Ellicott, Benson, Matthew Henry’s Concise, Barnes, Jamieson-Fausset-Brown, Gill, Geneva, Cambridge Bible, Pulpit Commentary, Keil & Delitzsch, Poole). Where a commentary itself quotes an older author — Cambridge citing Kitto and Vaughan, the Pulpit Commentary citing Bishop Hall — that nested quotation is reproduced exactly as the public-domain editor printed it, and the inner source is named in an editorial note.
The Hebrew is the Masoretic tradition; transliterations, the literal renderings, and the “where the English smooths the Hebrew” notes are this tool’s own work (⚙) — careful but fallible; check against a lexicon (BDB, HALOT) and grammar. On the lie of vv. 4–5: the synthesis follows the unanimous PD witness in honoring Rahab’s faith (Hebrews 11:31; James 2:25) while declining to defend her falsehood — Scripture commends the faith, not the words, and this tool does not soften what the text leaves plain.
On the cross-references: within-Joshua links (chs. 3, 6, 7) and the Jordan-fords links (Judges 3; 12) are anchored on Verifier-computed shared Hebrew lexemes, several of them rare (Rahab, Shittim, maʻăbâr). Two threads are left flagged on purpose. The Rahab→Matthew/Hebrews/James thread is a Greek↔Hebrew tie with no computable shared lexeme, resting instead on the New Testament’s explicit naming of the same woman — a real and widely-held link, but one to be argued, not asserted by the verifier. The Joshua 2:1→Isaiah 3:3 thread is the opposite failure mode: the Verifier does compute a ‘verbal’ tie on the rare word ḥereš (H2791, in only 2 vv), yet the two occurrences are a homograph whose senses split — ‘secretly’ here, ‘skilled craftsman’ there — so the synthesis flags it rather than letting a lexical coincidence masquerade as an allusion. A confirmed lexeme is a clue, not a conclusion. “Search the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” (Acts 17:11)
✦ = human, public-domain source, quoted and named. ⚙ = machine synthesis, to be verified. Flagged cross-references are left visible on purpose — the verifier working in the open. “Search the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” (Acts 17:11)