But Joshua had said unto the two men that had spied out the country,.... Whom he had sent on that errand, Jos 2:1; and what follows he had said unto them before the people entered into the city, and perhaps before the walls of it fell; and indeed from Jos 6:16, it appears to have been said at the time he gave the people orders to shout: go into the harlot's house: he does not mention her name but they full well knew who he meant: and bring out thence the woman, and all that she hath; not so much her substance, as her father's household, she had got together there, that they might be saved, as had been promised her: as ye sware unto her; so that this order was partly on account of her kindness to them, Jos 6:17; and partly on account of the oath which they had taken, and which Joshua would have inviolably kept.