Rahab
    insolence; pride, a poetical name applied to Egypt in Ps. 87:4;
    89:10; Isa. 51:9, as "the proud one."

      Rahab, (Heb. Rahab; i.e., "broad," "large"). When the Hebrews
    were encamped at Shittim, in the "Arabah" or Jordan valley
    opposite Jericho, ready to cross the river, Joshua, as a final
    preparation, sent out two spies to "spy the land." After five
    days they returned, having swum across the river, which at this
    season, the month Abib, overflowed its banks from the melting of
    the snow on Lebanon. The spies reported how it had fared with
    them (Josh. 2:1-7). They had been exposed to danger in Jericho,
    and had been saved by the fidelity of Rahab the harlot, to whose
    house they had gone for protection. When the city of Jericho
    fell (6:17-25), Rahab and her whole family were preserved
    according to the promise of the spies, and were incorporated
    among the Jewish people. She afterwards became the wife of
    Salmon, a prince of the tribe of Judah (Ruth 4:21; 1 Chr. 2:11;
    Matt. 1:5). "Rahab's being asked to bring out the spies to the
    soldiers (Josh. 2:3) sent for them, is in strict keeping with
    Eastern manners, which would not permit any man to enter a
    woman's house without her permission. The fact of her covering
    the spies with bundles of flax which lay on her house-roof (2:6)
    is an 'undesigned coincidence' which strictly corroborates the
    narrative. It was the time of the barley harvest, and flax and
    barley are ripe at the same time in the Jordan valley, so that
    the bundles of flax stalks might have been expected to be drying
    just then" (Geikie's Hours, etc., ii., 390).



 Rahab, proud; quarrelsome (applied to Egypt)



 Rahab, large; extended (name of a woman)