The Crimson Cord: Rahab's Story (35 page)

Salmon heard Othniel moving inside the darkened tent just before dawn. He groaned, rolling onto his side, longing for a few more moments of blessed sleep. But they had carried few tents with them to Mount Ebal, and only Joshua stayed in one alone.

“Did I wake you?” Othniel stepped closer to Salmon’s pallet. “I’m sorry. I meant to keep quiet, but I accidentally kicked my gear in my haste to relieve myself.”

Salmon peeked from beneath hooded eyes. “Is dawn upon us already?” He blinked, wanting desperately to find he was mistaken.

“Almost. Joshua is already at the campfire. I think he wants to get an early start on the reading today.” Othniel knelt beside his mat, rolled it up, and tied it with leather strings. “We will start back toward camp before the noon repast.”

Salmon forced himself awake and ran a hand through his hair. He wasn’t much for excessive talking upon first awakening, but Othniel obviously did not notice that fact. Mishael would have. The thought pained him still.

An hour later, their tent disassembled and readied in one of the baggage carts, Salmon joined the rest of the elders near Joshua’s campfire. Women and children crowded around, all eager to get started. Joshua rose, straightening to his full height, and held the last of the stones before him.

Laws regarding the festivals they were to keep were followed by laws regarding vows of men and women. Salmon listened even as he glanced across the compound to where Joshua’s family stood with Rahab. Confusion and curiosity filled her beautiful face. What thoughts tumbled through her head? Did she realize that Joshua’s prayer was like a betrothal blessing on them, in the midst of seeking forgiveness for their sins?

The thought had troubled him most of the night. He stifled a yawn. Definitely not enough sleep once he had finally succumbed. But he could not change what was past or what had been said. Joshua was Adonai’s spokesman, and Salmon could not lightly throw his words aside.

“When you cross the Jordan into Canaan,” Joshua read, his voice rising, carrying to the farthest reaches of the group, “drive out all the inhabitants of the land before you. Destroy all their carved images and their cast idols, and demolish all their high places. Take possession of the land and settle in it,
for I have given you the land to possess. Distribute the land by lot, according to your clans. To a larger group give a larger inheritance, and to a smaller group a smaller one. Whatever falls to them by lot will be theirs. Distribute it according to your ancestral tribes.”

He paused in the utter silence, taking in each one closest to him with a grim look. “But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land, those you allow to remain will become barbs in your eyes and thorns in your sides. They will give you trouble in the land where you will live. And then I will do to you what I plan to do to them.” He stopped and set the stone on the ground beside the others. Levites came quickly and gathered each one up, carefully placing them in leather sacks for the journey back to Gilgal.

“As the Lord commanded His servant Moses, so He commissions us to fulfill those commands.” Joshua lifted his hands to the sky. “You have all heard the word of the Lord, and we now know exactly what He wants us to do. Let us return to camp and set out to quickly obey all that our God has commanded us to do.”

He dismissed the group then to pack up all that remained. Salmon found his way to Rahab’s side. “I have already packed my gear in one of the carts. Is there anything I can do to help you?”

She glanced at him and shook her head. “Thank you, but no. Eliana and I did the same before dawn.”

The command went down the line of men and women to head out, and Salmon fell into step with Rahab as they began the long walk.

“Am I a barb in your eye and a thorn in your side?” Rahab asked after they had walked too long in silence.

Salmon glanced at her, sensing confusion behind the question. “Despite the sacrifice, you still do not feel worthy?”

“Is anyone worthy of forgiveness and mercy?” She cinched her cloak carefully around the cat, which slept against her heart, and avoided his gaze.

Salmon studied her, drawn to her protectiveness of the small animal. “No,” he said softly. He glanced around. Eliana walked ahead of them, and men and women surrounded them, but thankfully most were engaged in conversations of their own. The buzz of their voices drowned out his own.

“Why did Joshua pray such a prayer over us? Why include the blessing of children? We are not betrothed.” She gave him a surreptitious glance, then looked ahead, picking her way along the uneven path.

“Because he wants us to wed. He has said as much to me more than once.”

“I can’t wed. I am still married to Gamal.” She carefully crossed her arms as though warding off a chill.

Her words sank into him, a knife to his gut. “Gamal abandoned you and was sold into slavery. Do you think you are still bound to him?”

“He did not give me a bill of divorcement. If he still lives, I am his wife. I cannot marry another.” She lifted her chin as though glad of a reason to push him away.

“Does Joshua know this?” If Joshua had prayed such a blessing, surely he knew.

She looked away. “He knows less than you do.”

Salmon searched for something to say, but words would not come.

She looked at him. “Some men in Jericho told me that Gamal was sold to torturers, others told me he was dead. But
I had no proof other than their word, and they were liars.” She turned her gaze to the path ahead.

He could not marry her if she was not free. That thought troubled him more than it should. Why should he care? He was not interested in marriage to her any more than she was to him. But he glanced at her anyway, saw the hint of vulnerability in the way she held on to the cat and seemed to draw into herself.

“Where did they take him when he was sold into slavery?” He stopped walking to look at her. “Tell me everything you can recall.”

She studied him, a hint of worry creasing her brow. “Why? What good will it do?”

“If I can find him, I can either bring him back to you or bring you a writ of divorcement.” He wondered briefly at his own good sense at making such a statement.

Her eyes widened in disbelief, and she started walking again. “All I know is that a merchant from Syria, a man named Qasim of the house of Ratib, paid Dabir a handsome amount for him. What they did with him after that, I do not know. They could have sold him to another kingdom along their travels, or he could be a slave in Damascus somewhere.”

The possibility of finding him did not sit well with Salmon. And the chances of doing so were like looking for a single piece of broken flax among an entire field.

“If Gamal had lived in Jericho, he would be dead.” Couldn’t they just assume such a thing?

“If Gamal had lived in Jericho, I would not have lived as a prostitute. And if by chance you had still found my home and I helped you escape, Gamal would have stayed in our home
and been spared. We would not be faced with any of this.” Her chin held a defiant tilt, and yet he saw how uneasily she clenched and unclenched the fabric holding the cat.

“Well, the truth is, Gamal is not here. We can presume he is dead, or I can go and look for him.”

Silence followed his remark, and he wondered if she would speak again. “I don’t want Gamal,” she whispered. “I don’t want any man ever again.”

“You do not want children?” Every woman wanted children. Didn’t they?

She looked at the crowd surrounding them, eyed him warily, then took a small step closer. “I cannot bear children. So you see, Joshua is wrong to want you to marry me. And he was wrong to pray such a prayer over me.” She clamped her mouth shut, blinked, and looked away from him. Her tears were nearly his undoing.

A sudden urge to protect her from anyone ever hurting her again rose up so strong in him he did not know what to do. His hands were wooden at his sides, and his words seemed to stick in his throat. How could his feelings for her change so quickly, so drastically? She was a prostitute. And yet somehow, hearing her story and seeing her tears as the lamb died to pay for their sins had changed something in him. Childless or not, she mattered.

He breathed deeply. She continued to walk in silence. He swallowed . . . twice. “Rahab.” Her name came out like a soft caress. His arms found their ability to move again, and he placed a hand on her shoulder. “If you will have me, I would marry you.”

She shook her head and would not look at him.

“You won’t have me?”

He could feel her tremble beneath his touch, her tears her only response.

He patted her shoulder and slowly moved his hand away, hating to break the contact. “I will go to Damascus, if Joshua will allow it, and search for Gamal. When I return and can put your mind at ease, then you can answer my question.”

She looked at him but did not speak. At last she nodded and wiped the tears from her flushed cheeks. “If Joshua allows it,” she whispered.

He wondered if she hoped he wouldn’t.

30

L
ife fell into a pattern once they returned to their camp at Gilgal. Rahab welcomed the sameness, even as she chafed for something she could not quite grasp. What was wrong with her? Salmon’s promise to find Gamal, if Joshua thought it wise, had brought all of her past to the forefront of her mind again. She wasn’t the same woman Gamal had married, and only Adonai knew whether slavery had changed him. Besides, if he was still living in slavery, there was no way for her to go to him. Her life would end up worse than it was now living alone in Israel.

She hefted her pallet, carried it out of doors, and draped it over a rope she and Eliana had stretched between two trees. A wide flaxen broom provided the exact tool she needed to beat the dust from the mat.

“Be careful where you swing that.” She startled at the sound of Salmon’s voice, then whirled to face him.

“Be careful you don’t sneak up on unsuspecting women. You might find yourself at the end of this broom.” Her face
heated with her rash words, but his raised brow and quiet chuckle put her strangely at ease.

“Joshua wants to speak to us,” he said, smiling down at her.

“Together?” Her heart picked up an unsteady pace, and she gripped the broom tighter between both hands. “I have work to do.”

Salmon walked closer, extending a hand. “It can wait.”

His commanding tone brooked no argument. She carried the broom to the door of her tent and glanced at her pallet, then at the sky. No sign of rain in the bright blue expanse, so she should be able to finish the job before the noon meal.

She followed Salmon with weighted steps, her fears mounting as they neared Joshua’s tent. Eliana met them at the entrance. “Oh good. He’s been waiting for you.” She ushered them into the receiving room and quickly departed.

Joshua greeted Salmon with a kiss to his cheek, nodded at Rahab, and motioned for them both to sit on cushions along the tent wall. “I will get right to the point.” He smiled slightly, but his expression remained serious.

“Rahab,” he said, giving her his full attention, “I understand that you have some concerns about the state of your first marriage and whether you are free to marry Salmon.”

Rahab folded her hands in her lap, her thoughts whirling like a spindle and distaff. “If it please my lord, I do not believe I have ever suggested that I wish to marry again—ever.” She pinned both men with a look, her frustration with their meddling growing with each word. “I merely mentioned to Salmon”—she glanced at him—“that I was never given a writ of divorcement from Gamal when he was sold into slavery and I into prostitution. So according to your God’s law, am I not still bound to Gamal?”

Joshua shook his head. “Unfortunately, this type of case is not addressed in our law. Priests are not allowed to marry prostitutes or widows or a divorced woman, but that only applies to the tribe of Levi. And we have been commanded by our God to destroy all of the people of the land of Canaan. If we found Gamal living in one of the Canaanite cities God has commanded we destroy, we would be obligated to put him to death.”

“But you spared my family.”

“Our God had mercy on you and anyone who willingly stayed with you. Did Gamal willingly stay with you?” Joshua’s kind voice mirrored the compassion in his eyes, easing some of her worry.

“Gamal had already been sold to Syrian traders the year before you came.”

“And why was he sold?”

She hesitated. The last time he questioned her, Joshua had not pressed her for answers, but now with Salmon requesting permission to find Gamal, of course they would need to understand. Blast their interference! She did not want to revisit those memories.

“I know this is not easy, Rahab. But please, if you can, tell us what happened to your husband.”

She drew in a breath, telling herself it did not matter anymore. “Gamal had incurred an enormous debt for his gambling, which the prince forgave. But Gamal’s grace was short-lived, as he could not give up his desire for the gaming houses. So he found someone who owed him a pittance and dragged him to debtors’ prison to demand payment.” Saying the words brought the memories into clearer focus. “Gamal was not a good man.”