A house built into the city wall: archaeological excavations reveal that at one time Jericho had two city walls, an inner one and an outer one, separated by a space of some 3.5 to 4.5 meters. Houses were built on heavy timbers laid from one wall to the other: the window through which Rahab let the men down looked out from the outer wall (see Bright). The phrase a house built into the city wall could possibly be unclear; it may be more satisfactory to translate “a section of the city wall formed the outside wall of Rahab’s house.” Moreover, it may even be necessary to include a footnote, indicating more precisely the relation between the house and the city wall. Finally, to restructure so she let … by a rope as an explanation rather than as the next event in a sequence may help to resolve the flashback problem of verses 17-21. That is, one may translate either “that is why Rahab was able to let the men down…” or “so Rahab was able to let the men down….” Such restructuring does not do harm to the text, and it will benefit the reader.

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 .