The Onerous Rebuilding of Jericho

Scripture citations are to the NIV-UK, unless stated otherwise

Q 1 Kings 16: 34:

In Ahab’s time, Hiel of Bethel rebuilt Jericho. He laid its foundations at the cost of his firstborn son Abiram, and he set up its gates at the cost of his youngest son Segub, in accordance with the word of the Lord spoken by Joshua son of Nun.

Please comment on this incident.

A The account of Jericho’s destruction is recorded in the book of Josh. 5: 13 to 6: 27. Scholars date this event to the late 1300’s BC. The chronicler of the book of Joshua is not known, though he was contemporary with the events. Note, for example, the personal attribution in 5: 6:

The Israelites had moved about in the wilderness for forty years until all the men who were of military age when they left Egypt had died, since they had not obeyed the LORD. For the LORD had sworn to them that they would not see the land that he had solemnly promised their ancestors to give us, a land flowing with milk and honey.

and 6: 25:

But Joshua spared Rahab the prostitute, with her family and all who belonged to her, because she hid the men Joshua had sent as spies to Jericho – and she lives among the Israelites to this day.

The text under review – 1 Kings 16: 34 – relates to the reign of Ahab, king of northern Israel, who reigned 874-852 BC. The words of Joshua, recorded in 6: 26, spoken 500 years earlier, upon the devastation of Jericho, anticipated the sad story of Hiel of Bethel:

Joshua pronounced this solemn oath: ‘Cursed before the LORD is the one who undertakes to rebuild this city, Jericho: “At the cost of his firstborn son he will lay its foundations; at the cost of his youngest he will set up its gates.’”

Whether Hiel sacrificed his two sons as an act of re-dedication of the revival of the city, or they were each victims of a construction accident, is uncertain. Among secondary suggestions Clarke opines that so a long period of time was required to reconstruct the site – foundations and gates representing the whole – that the builder saw his sons grown, with families of their own, before his the task was done.

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