That all Rahab’s furniture [supellex] was preserved, our text plainly indicates at v. 23; but in the Hebrew and the Greek there is no such word. This our Interpreter [the Vulgate translator] used, as a word which might reach most widely, [so as] to embrace all that was Rahab’s. For under “furniture” these things are contained — as Paulus says (bk. 4 To Sabinus), and from him Justinian (Digest, bk. 33, tit. 10, law 2): a table, table-stands [trapezophora], a Delphic table [delphica], benches, stools, beds also that are silver-plated, mattresses, couch-coverlets, imperia [coverings], water-vessels, basins, ewers, candelabra, lamps, ladles, likewise common bronze vessels — that is [reckoned furniture], because they are not properly assigned to a [fixed] place. Besides, chests, cupboards. But there are those who rightly think that chests and cupboards, if they are prepared for the sake of books, or clothes, or armaments, are not among the furniture: because not even those very things, to which they would be assigned, fall under the equipment of furniture. Glass eating- and drinking-ware are among the furniture, just as earthenware: and not only the common, but also those which are of great price; for that silver basins, and silver ewers, and tables, and beds silver-plated, or gilded, or set with gems, are among the furniture is not doubted — so far, indeed, that the same law holds even if they be wholly of silver or of gold. Of murrhine and crystalline [vessels] it can be doubted whether they ought to be counted among the furniture, on account of their exceptional use and price; but of these too the same is to be said. Nor does it matter of what material are the things which are among the furniture. But [some say] that a silver mixing-bowl [crater] is not among the furniture, but is a silver vessel — according to the severity of the age, which did not yet admit silver furniture; [whereas] today, on account of the use of the emperors, if a silver candelabrum be reckoned among silver, it seems to be [mere] silver — and error makes law. Many other things are added; and finally Celsus, in the same place. Labeo says that still more can be signified by the same name; because, by the customs of the state and the use of things, its appellation is changed — though before, in law 1, Pomponius had said, “furniture is the domestic equipment of the head of a household, which is counted neither among silver, nor wrought gold, nor clothing.” Rightly, therefore, did the Interpreter render the sense by the word “furniture” [supellectilis]. For in the Hebrew and the Greek we here read,
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all that is hers. And therefore rightly Abulensis: “Furniture is said,” he says, “[to be] all that Rahab possessed: and not only what she herself possessed, but also what her kindred possessed: because Rahab had expressed this, saying to the spies, That you save my father and my mother, my brothers and sisters, and all that is theirs, as is plain above, ch. 2.” But this was done, not as though Rahab could not have greater [goods] among the Israelites than [those] they would leave in the city of Jericho — since she was joined in marriage to a prince of the tribe of Judah, namely Salmon — but because she loved her own things, which she had always possessed, and would grieve too much if she saw them burn together with the whole city: therefore they were led out. Chiefly, because Rahab was a woman, and [women] have tenderer affections, and are more richly moved toward the things they love, and are more deeply distressed over them when lost. All the goods, therefore, which are called movable, were preserved, both Rahab’s and her kinsfolk’s. But it is not treated here of immovables, of which sort are fields, gardens, vineyards, pools, and any others of that kind they had. For it is said (v. 22) lead out, and (v. 13) they led out: which verb suits only things that can be moved. Yet that her house — in which, and out of which, so many men and so many women escaped destruction — stood immune from the fire, I said above, ch. 2, q. 21. But that fields were given her by Joshua, Josephus relates (bk. 5, ch. 1): δωρεῖται αὐτὴν εὐθὺς ἀγροῖς, καὶ διὰ τιμῆς εἶχε τῆς ἁπάσης [dōreitai autēn euthys agrois, kai dia timēs eiche tēs hapasēs, “he straightway presents her with fields, and held her in all honor”].