and it happened about the time of the shutting of the gate, when it was dark, that the men went out; where the men went I don't know: pursue after them quickly; for you will overtake them.
"Two men as spies secretly   ..." The critics insult this passage as being "redundant,"[4]  That type of cavil is based on the proposition that the word "spies" automatically means "secretly," such a cliche being itself untrue.  When Joshua himself went out as a spy forty years earlier, all Israel knew of the sending out of those spies and of their disastrous report (by the majority) that resulted in the cursing of Israel for the space of forty years.  Thus, the word "secretly" in this place means that Joshua concealed their mission from everyone, even in Israel, except from himself.  This clearly was done to avoid the mistake that followed the earlier example of sending out spies.  Keil and many other able scholars have accurately discerned this.  "This was done so that, if the report proved unfavorable, the people might not be thrown into despair as they had been in the times of Moses."[5]