Scripture sometimes uses “Rahab” as a poetic name for pride and chaos and as a figure for Egypt, not to be confused with Rahab of Jericho who welcomed Israel’s spies and later stood in Messiah’s line (Joshua 2:1–21; Matthew 1:5). The psalmist can say, “You crushed Rahab like one of the slain” to praise the Lord’s might over every arrogant power that sets itself against His rule (Psalm 89:10). Prophets and poets draw on this image to show that the Lord who makes covenants also subdues storms, nations, and spiritual opposition so that His purposes move forward without fail (Psalm 89:8–9; Isaiah 51:9–11).
Read across the canon, this symbol gathers meaning. “Rahab” becomes shorthand for Egypt’s pride, for the sea’s roaring, and for the boast of the world that will not bow to God (Isaiah 30:7; Job 26:12). At the same time, the Scriptures hint at a future in which former enemies will acknowledge the Lord and be numbered among those born in Zion, a promise as surprising as it is glorious (Psalm 87:4). Behind the poetry stands a Person: the Lord who brings order from waters and keeps covenant mercy for His people (Psalm 93:4; Exodus 15:13).
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Historical and Cultural Background
Hebrew poets reach for images their hearers recognize, and the sea is chief among them. The sea in Scripture often stands for untamed threat, yet the Lord “rules over the surging sea; when its waves mount up, you still them” (Psalm 89:9). In that same psalm the name “Rahab” appears as a taunt-name for a proud, chaotic foe that God has struck down: “You crushed Rahab like one of the slain; with your strong arm you scattered your enemies” (Psalm 89:10). The coupling of stilled waters and crushed Rahab teaches one truth: the Maker of heaven and earth is Lord over nature and nations alike (Psalm 89:11).
Within Israel’s neighborhood, Egypt’s fame, wealth, chariots, and gods made it the great southern power. Isaiah warns Judah not to trust that arm of flesh: “Woe to the obstinate children… who carry out plans that are not mine… who go down to Egypt without consulting me” (Isaiah 30:1–2). Then he names Egypt with biting irony: “To Egypt, whose help is utterly useless. Therefore I call her Rahab the Do-Nothing” (Isaiah 30:7). The prophet exposes the lie of human security without God; Egypt, for all its boast, will not save. The same book calls for the Lord’s arm to awaken, recalling the days when He “cut Rahab to pieces” and “pierced that monster,” linking the downfall of Egypt with the Lord’s victory over chaotic forces that would drown His people and His plans (Isaiah 51:9–10).
Job’s poetry reinforces this theme, but from the vantage point of the sufferer who fears God and says more than he knows. “God does not restrain his anger; even the cohorts of Rahab cowered at his feet” (Job 9:13). Later he sings that by God’s power “he churned up the sea; by his wisdom he cut Rahab to pieces” (Job 26:12). These lines are not a rival creation story; they are worship in storm language. The One who laid the earth’s foundations is not threatened by proud forces that stalk His world; He sets limits and brings them low (Job 38:8–11). In that poetic world, “Rahab” names the pride and disorder that God conquers so His covenant might stand (Psalm 33:10–11).
Biblical Narrative
Israel learned who God is not only from psalms and prophecies but from history. When the Lord brought them out of Egypt “with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm,” He humbled the gods of Egypt and Pharaoh who said, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey him?” (Deuteronomy 26:8; Exodus 5:2). At the sea, Moses stretched out his hand and the Lord drove the waters back so that Israel passed through on dry ground; then the waters returned and covered the chariots and horsemen (Exodus 14:21–28). Israel sang, “The horse and its rider he has hurled into the sea,” proclaiming the Lord’s warrior love that led the people He had redeemed (Exodus 15:1, Exodus 15:13). Later worshipers remembered that victory with the shorthand “Rahab,” not to muddle stories but to fix in the mind that the Lord had shattered the proud and tamed the deep to save His own (Psalm 89:10; Psalm 77:16–20).
The prophets turned that memory into hope. “Awake, awake, arm of the Lord… Was it not you who cut Rahab to pieces, who pierced that monster? Was it not you who dried up the sea… that the redeemed might cross over?” (Isaiah 51:9–10). The next line explains the point: “Those the Lord has rescued will return. They will enter Zion with singing; everlasting joy will crown their heads” (Isaiah 51:11). Past deliverance becomes a pattern for future deliverance. The Lord who judged Egypt would gather a scattered people, bringing them home under His care in a way that no empire could stop (Ezekiel 36:24–28; Jeremiah 31:10–14).
Yet Scripture’s promises reach beyond Israel to the nations. The psalmist hears God say, “I will record Rahab and Babylon among those who acknowledge me… and will say, ‘This one was born in Zion’” (Psalm 87:4–6). The shock is deliberate: Egypt (Rahab) and Babylon—old oppressors—are listed among those enrolled as native citizens of God’s city. Isaiah dares to say that a day will come when Egypt, Assyria, and Israel will be bound together under the Lord’s blessing: “Blessed be Egypt my people, Assyria my handiwork, and Israel my inheritance” (Isaiah 19:24–25). The Bible does not deny Egypt’s pride; it proclaims God’s power to judge pride and then to fold former enemies into praise (Psalm 67:3–4).
Theological Significance
The name “Rahab” gathers three interlocking truths about God. First, He is sovereign over chaos. Whether the poets speak of the sea’s roar or a monster cut in pieces, the point is that nothing unruly in creation or history can finally resist the Lord who set bounds to the waters and says to every wave, “This far you may come and no farther” (Job 38:11). When the psalmist says, “You crushed Rahab,” he is not rehearsing folklore but confessing faith in the God who rides the storm and scatters enemies (Psalm 89:8–10). The same Lord silenced the wind and the waves by His word to show that the One present with the disciples is the Lord whom the psalms praise (Mark 4:39–41; Psalm 107:28–29).
Second, He delivers by judgment and mercy. Egypt’s ruin was Israel’s rescue, and the Lord made a way through the sea for the people He loved (Exodus 14:29–31; Exodus 15:13). That pattern reaches its fullness at the cross where Christ “disarmed the powers and authorities” and made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross (Colossians 2:15). What the sea did to Pharaoh’s army, the cross did to the powers that held us—only more deeply, for sin and death themselves were put to shame (Hebrews 2:14–15). The poetry of Rahab points past itself to the Redeemer who breaks chains we could not break (Isaiah 61:1–3; Luke 4:18–21).
Third, He keeps covenant promises across the ages. The Scriptures look toward a time when nations that once opposed the Lord will seek Him. “I will record Rahab and Babylon among those who acknowledge me,” says the Lord, as if to underline that grace can rewrite the roll (Psalm 87:4). The prophets speak of a day when the nations stream to Zion to learn the Lord’s ways and walk in His paths (Isaiah 2:2–3). In that future the Lord gathers Israel, heals their backsliding, and brings peace to the earth under Messiah’s rule in the millennial kingdom—Christ’s thousand-year reign on earth (Ezekiel 37:21–28; Micah 4:1–4; Revelation 20:4–6). The symbol “Rahab” therefore becomes a signpost: the pride of the world will not stand; the grace of God will.
A needed clarification belongs here. The Rahab of Jericho was a woman of faith who hid the spies, confessed the Lord’s supremacy, and was spared with her household; her name appears in the genealogy of Jesus as a banner of mercy to the nations (Joshua 2:8–14; Joshua 6:25; Matthew 1:5). The poetic “Rahab” that names Egypt or the sea’s proud rage is a different use entirely. Scripture honors both uses without confusion. One Rahab shows how God welcomes the outsider who believes; the other shows how God humbles the proud who will not (James 2:25; Psalm 89:10).
Spiritual Lessons and Application
Trust God over human props. When Judah turned to Egypt for help, the Lord called Egypt “Rahab the Do-Nothing,” exposing the emptiness of alliances made without seeking Him (Isaiah 30:7). The same passage says, “In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength,” but the people “would have none of it” (Isaiah 30:15–16). We face our own versions of that temptation whenever we lean on wealth, influence, or clever plans more than on the Lord who speaks and steadies hearts (Psalm 20:7; Proverbs 3:5–6). The God who stilled the sea will not fail those who wait for Him (Psalm 27:14).
Humble your pride before the One who crushes Rahab. “Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall” (Proverbs 16:18). Job’s poetry pictures proud forces cowering at God’s feet (Job 9:13). The psalmist celebrates a right fear of the Lord that puts all our boasts back in their small place (Psalm 33:8–11). That humility is not a cower; it is a bow that turns into song. “The Lord lifts up the humble” and gives grace to the lowly, even as He opposes the proud (Psalm 147:6; James 4:6). The safest people in a shaking world are those who tremble at God’s word and rest in His strong arm (Isaiah 66:2; Isaiah 51:9–11).
Read your storms through the Red Sea and the cross. When waters rise in your life—loss, fear, strain—remember the pattern. The Lord “split the sea and let them pass through,” and He “led his people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron” (Psalm 78:13, Psalm 77:20). He has done a greater thing in His Son, who took our sins in His body on the tree that we might die to sin and live to righteousness (1 Peter 2:24). The One who spoke “Peace, be still” to the gale also speaks peace to anxious hearts and brings order where there was only turmoil (Mark 4:39; Philippians 4:6–7). Bring your chaos to the Lord who cuts Rahab and calms seas.
Pray with hope for the nations—including Egypt. Psalm 87 dares us to imagine old enemies enrolled as sons and daughters of Zion by sheer grace (Psalm 87:4–6). Isaiah goes further and names Egypt, Assyria, and Israel together in blessing (Isaiah 19:24–25). That vision should shape our prayers and our tone. We are sent to make disciples of all nations, trusting that the gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Gentile (Matthew 28:19–20; Romans 1:16). The Lord who crushed Rahab can convert the proud, and He delights to do so.
Keep the long view. The world’s noise can feel like surf that never stops. Yet “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way” (Psalm 46:1–2). One day the shouting will cease, and “the kingdoms of the world” will become “the kingdom of our Lord and of his Messiah” (Revelation 11:15). Until then we walk by faith, love our neighbors, and sing the songs of the redeemed who know that every wave is numbered and every boast of the proud is on a leash (Psalm 93:3–5; Psalm 33:10–12).
Conclusion
“Rahab” in Scripture is not a myth to be decoded but a name the poets use to teach our hearts who God is. He is the Lord over seas and scepters, the One who “rules over the surging sea” and “crushed Rahab like one of the slain” (Psalm 89:9–10). He is the Redeemer who made a way through the deep for His people and then promised to bring them home with singing, crowned with joy that does not end (Isaiah 51:10–11). He is the King who can write Egypt and Babylon into Zion’s birth register and call them His own (Psalm 87:4–6). No power in heaven or on earth can stop His good purpose (Daniel 4:35).
Most of all, the symbol sends us to the Savior. The Lord Jesus stilled real waves with a word and then walked the greater path through death to life so that every storm we face would be bounded by His victory (Mark 4:39–41; Revelation 1:17–18). “Who is this King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle” (Psalm 24:8). He is the One who brings an end to the roaring, gathers the nations, and fills Zion with people who once stood far away but now stand near by grace (Ephesians 2:13–14). To Him be the glory.
Awake, awake, arm of the Lord, clothe yourself with strength! Awake, as in days gone by, as in generations of old. Was it not you who cut Rahab to pieces, who pierced that monster through? Was it not you who dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep, who made a road in the depths of the sea so that the redeemed might cross over? (Isaiah 51:9–10)
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