Joshua 2:6

"I will be mindful of Rahab," of Rahab, that harlot who lodged Jesus' [Joshua's] secret agents, who lived in Jericho where Jesus [Joshua] had come and had dispatched the two spies. Jericho, that collapsed in seven days, is a type of this world, and as such is determined to kill the secret agents. Because, therefore, Jericho is bent upon killing the spies, Rahab, the harlot, alone received them, lodged them not on the ground floor but in the upper story of the roof—or, in other words, in the sublimity of her faith. She hid them under her stalks of flax.… She believes in Jesus, and those whom Jericho is determined to destroy she protects in safety on her own roof. She harbors them on the roof—in the loftiness of her faith—and hides them under the stems of flax. Even though she is a harlot, she covers them with flax. Flax with much labor and care becomes of dazzling whiteness. You yourselves know that flax grows from the soil and that when it has come forth from the ground, it is black; it has no beauty; it has no use. First, it is pulled up from the ground, broken, then twisted, afterwards washed. Next, it is pounded; finally, combed, and after so much care and hard work, it finally becomes white. Here, then, is the meaning: this harlot took the messengers in and covered them with her flax so that these agents might turn her flax into dazzling whiteness.

But not even the "stalk of flax," in which the spies lay hidden, do I receive without sacred meaning. For flax is the priestly garment, by which is signified either that to those who were to be invited the priestly dignity was conferred, as the Apostle Peter too says: "But you are a holy nation, a royal priesthood," or certainly that in the sacred mystery of the law, where it is noted concerning the priests, the hidden calling of this people, which is "from the nations," lay concealed. Straightway, therefore, the "harlot" undergoes enmities against the "king of Jericho." Why not, since "the flesh lusts against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh"? And again he says: "This world hates you, because it hated me before you." There is, therefore, a certain king who is the enemy of this harlot, who is "the prince of this world," who pursues and desires to seize the spies of Jesus, but cannot prevail, because they make their journey over the mountains; they do not walk through the lowly places nor delight in the valleys, but pursue the hilly summits and the high places of the mountains; for this our harlot says: "I lifted up my eyes to the mountains; from whence shall my help come?" The "prince of this world" cannot ascend thither, nor can he by the lofty way come to Jesus; nay rather, even if tempting him he set him on high places, he says to him: "Cast yourself down," because he always loves the lowly and the fleeting things, in these he reigns, in these he sets his seat, in which also he may descend even to hell.