and neither does it need, to be the same as the rope by which the spies were let out (note also that the Hebrew words are not the same). Rather, the cord is to be a symbolic sign acting as a reminder of the event of the visit of the spies. Rahab’s house will then act as a kind of sacred space. Anything in it is outside destruction (herem), but anything outside it is under destruction. As Nelson points out, interestingly, the word used for ‘cord’ in verse 21 also has the meaning ‘hope’ in Hebrew (Nelson