In his days did Hiel the Bethelite build Jericho: he laid the foundation thereof in Abiram his firstborn, and set up the gates thereof in his youngest son Segub, according to the word of the LORD, which he spake by Joshua the son of Nun.
In his days did Hiel the Beth-elite build Jericho - (see the note at Joshua 6:26.) The curse took effect on the family of this reckless man; but whether his oldest son died at the time of laying the foundation, and the youngest at the completion of the work; or whether he lost all his sons in rapid succession, until, at the end of the undertaking, he found himself childless, the poetical form of the ban does not enable us to determine. Some modern commentators think there is no reference either to the natural or violent deaths of Hiel's sons; that he began in presence of his oldest son; but some unexpected difficulties losses, or obstacles, delayed the completion until his old age, when the gates were set up in the presence of his youngest son. But the curse was fulfilled more than 500 years after it was uttered; and from Jericho being inhabited after Joshua's time (Judges 3:13; 2 Samuel 10:5), it has been supposed that the act against which the curse was directed was an attempt at the restoration of the walls-the very walls which had been miraculously cast down. It seems to have lain within the territory of Israel; and the unresisted act of Hiel affords a painful evidence how far the people of Israel had lost all knowledge of, or respect for, the word of God.