This Scarlet Cord by Joan Wolf is the love story of Rahab from Joshua. Joan has taken a story contained in about five paragraphs of scripture and turned it into an 85,000 word book according to her explanation in the back of the book. She also took the liberty to use a modern translation of Salmon’s name, Sala, in her story.
This Scarlet Cord is divided into three parts. In the first section, twelve year old Rahab is kidnapped from a caravan that her family is traveling with. Sala’s father is a merchant and part of the Israeli remnant that stayed behind in Canaan when Isaac’s family went to Egypt with Joseph. Rahab and Sala meet for the first time in Gaza where she has just escaped from kidnappers who want to sell her into Egypt. Sala takes Rahab to his father for protection and get word to her family as to a meeting place to return Rahab to her family. The second part of the story takes place two years later in Jericho. Rahab is now eligible for marriage and her father wants someone more influential than just a farmer for her husband, so he takes some of his family along with Rahab to Jericho. Sala and his father are in Jericho under the guise of business, while checking out Jericho’s strengths and weaknesses to pass on to the Israeli spies that Joshua will send in. The third part of the story contains the Israelites conquering of Jericho and the saving of Rahab’s story.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. I had previously read A Reluctant Queen: The Love Story of Esther and thought that this book would probably be just as good. Joan Wolf didn’t disappoint me. She keeps the reader spell bound and has thoroughly researched the time period and historical background. In this story she weaves in some of the religious customs of the Canaanites to give insight into Rahab’s background. While the author has deviated somewhat from the Biblical account of Exodus and Joshua, by placing Sala’s family still in a Israelite town in Canaan instead of with the refugees from Egypt with Joshua, she uses this to bring into the story how Rahab could have come to believe in the One True God.
I received this book free from Thomas Nelson through the BookSneeze® book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
