It is pointed out that the dialogue in verses 17-21 must have taken place before Rahab let the men down out of the window of her house (verse 15); it is hardly imaginable that all of this would have been said by the Israelite spies outside the city walls to Rahab in her house. A temporal marker at the beginning of verse 17 may resolve or at least ease the problem of the sequence of events: “Before the men left, they said to Rahab….”

We will keep the promise translates the Hebrew “we (will be) guiltless from this vow of yours,” that is, they would discharge their responsibility and do what they had promised to do. In order to represent the chronological sequence of events, it is possible to invert the order of the two clauses in the sentence, We will keep the promise that you have made us give. It may then be translated, “You made us give you a promise, and we will keep it.” Many languages will have idiomatic ways of saying We will keep the promise, and in some instances a negative form may be stronger: “We will not break the promise….”

Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Newman, Barclay M. A Handbook on Joshua. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1983. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .