Was Rachav A Harlot (Prostitute)?

Question

It specifically says several times in Yehoshua chapter 2 and chapter 6 that Rachav was a Harlot " וְאֶת רָחָב הַזּוֹנָה". Why is it that it is accepted that she wasn't a harlot but an innkeeper and someone who sold mezonot (wheat). Some opinions that I read say because she made herself available to everyone as she sold many provisions and because she was an innkeeper (" הַזּוֹנָה").

I just want to know why we cannot take this literally? It says it quite a few times. Why couldn't the Torah just say that she was a provisioner or an innkeeper?

And I know not everything is made to be taken literally in the Torah, like 'an eye for an eye'.

Answer 1

• Targum Yonassan followed by Rashi (2:1) explain that she was an inkeeper (that "zona" in this context relates to the word "mazon" for bread).
• Radak explains that she was actually a prostitute and that even Targum agrees, and that sometimes Targum uses the term for innkeeper to mean harlot.
• Abarbanel writes that the two explanation arent mutually exclusive and that the secondary role of an innkeeper was usually being a prostitute

Answer 2

The Talmud Bavli (Zevachim 116b, top) states quite plainly that she was a harlot:

דאמר מר: אין לך כל שר ונגיד שלא בא על רחב הזונה. אמרו: בת י' שנים היתה כשיצאו ישראל ממצרים, וזנתה [כל] מ' שנה שהיו ישראל במדבר, אחר נ' שנה נתגיירה, אמרה: יהא מחול לי בשכר חבל חלון ופשתים.

[A]s a master said, There was no prince or ruler who had not possessed Rahab the harlot. It was said: She was ten years old when the Israelites departed from Egypt, and she played the harlot the whole of the forty years spent by the Israelites in the wilderness. At the age of fifty she became a proselyte. Said she: May I be forgiven as a reward for the cord, window, and flax. (For hiding them in flax, and then letting them down by a cord through a window (ibid. 6, 15).)

(Soncino translation)

Answer 3

There is a basic idea that whenever we have an opportunity to say good about a good person, we will. Likewise whenever there is the opportunity to say bad about a bed person we will. Rachav was a nice lady, professed a deep belief in and fear of God. She endangered herself to save the Jewish spies. As such she qualifies for chazzal and our mipharshim to find a way to explain the things said about her as meaning something nice.

As an aside it is not universally accepted that she was dealing with mezonos, but it is widely mentioned.

EDIT: Here's a third explenation for the word zona in this type of context. Rabbeinu Bichaya in Parshas Masei 36:8 says it means a women who had no brothers who married out of her tribe. By doing so her father's inheritance is lost from the tribe, and she would be called zona, as we find Yiphtach bring called the son of a zona, Shophtim 11:1.

Answer 4

A number of sources have been provided already. Another one that points to the fact that she was a harlot is in Sifrei Zuta - Bamidbar 10:29:

ד"א רחב הזונה שהיתה מזנה עם בני המדינה מבפנים ועם הליסטים מבחוץ שנאמר כי ביתה בקיר החומה ובחומה היא יושבת

Alternatively, Rachav the harlot offered her services to the people of the city within the city, and with robbers from outside. As it says, "For her dwelling was at the outer side of the city wall and she lived in the actual wall" (Yehoshua 2:15).

However, on balance, it is also worth noting that the Sifrei Bamidbar 78 understand this title of 'zonah' in a different way:

ר' אליעזר אומר: זו רחב הזונה, שהיתה עסוקה באכסנאי

Rabbi Eliezer says this is Rachav the 'Zonah' that was busy/engaged with an inn.

So in this context, the Sifrei chooses to understand 'zonah' from the word 'mazon', to provide food. Thus she was an innkeeper through which she earnt the means to feed her family. And as such she was referred as Rachav 'the feeder' and that is what 'zonah' means.

Building on what @user6591 said, I would imagine that a reason why we possibly don't dwell on the fact that she was a harlot was because she later converted and married Yehoshua (Megillah 14b) and was famed (like Yisro) for her righteousness (Yerushalmi Brachos 2:8)¹, as such we don't draw attentions to a convert's past as it may be a source of great shame and embarrassment. As it says in Shemos 22:20

וְגֵ֥ר לֹא־תוֹנֶ֖ה וְלֹ֣א תִלְחָצֶ֑נּוּ כִּֽי־גֵרִ֥ים הֱיִיתֶ֖ם בְּאֶ֥רֶץ מִצְרָֽיִם׃

And a stranger [from another land] you shall not taunt and you shall not oppress him [by theft], for you were strangers in the land of Egypt [and are equally vulnerable to taunting].

---

¹ It writes there: כך בשעה שישראל עושין רצונו של הקב"ה מחזר בכל העולם כולו ורואה אי זה צדיק באומות העולם ומביאו ומדבקו לישראל. כגון יתרו ורחב - At the time when Israel does the will of Hashem, He chooses a righteous person among the nations of the world and He brings him and joins him to Israel. For example, Yisro and Rachav.