“Y’hoshua then made the people take this oath: ‘A curse before Adonai on anyone who rises up and rebuilds this city of Yericho: he will lay its foundation with the loss of his firstborn son and set up its gates with the loss of his youngest son.‘”-Joshua 6:26
In verse 26 Joshua proclaims an eternal curse upon any individual who would dare to rebuild the city of Jericho.
The consequences to the fool who would attempt to do such a thing is he would pay for such an act by losing both his firstborn and last-born sons in the process.
Why such a harsh penalty?
Well, there are a couple of reasons.
First, Jericho was under the law of HEREM or “the ban” forever.
This meant that the city had been devoted to Hashem for all eternity.
To attempt to rebuild the city would be the same as attempting to steal something that didn’t belong to the person attempting to rebuild it.
However, a bit more clarification is needed here.
This ban is NOT saying that people can never live in Jericho again.
It’s only saying that re-erecting huge gates surrounding the city that would make Jericho a walled fortress again was prohibited.
Keep in mind that Jericho represented a closed-up city comprised of rebels who attempted to defy the living God by closing off both their hearts and their walls towards Him.
This is similar to what rebellious man attempted to do when tried to build the Tower of Babylon.
The result of their defiance was destruction, pure and simple.
Joshua is NOT saying that a small village or a tiny settlement of people can’t build homes and farm the area for their livelihood.
However, rebuilding the gates so that they served as a huge barricade was an entirely different matter altogether.
In case you’re wondering if this curse ever actually took place in Israel’s history, check out these verses from the Book of 1st Kings.
“It was during his time that Hi’el of Beit-El rebuilt Yericho. He laid its foundation at the cost of his firstborn son Aviram and erected its gates at the cost of his youngest son S’guv. This was in keeping with the word of Adonai spoken through Y’hoshua the son of Nun.“-1 Kings 16:34
Well, there you have it folks.
A King named Hi’el decided to ignore the curse and as a result, payed the exact penalty according to the curse Joshua had pronounced.
This kinda gives us a new slant on the common saying “The Lord’s Word will never return void”, doesn’t it?
Usually we take this phrase to mean that partaking in the study or teaching of God’s Word will always in due time bear good fruit.
However, there’s a flip side to that coin and we’ve just witnessed it.
Whenever the Lord establishes a law and connects the breaking of that law to a consequence, you had best believe it won’t be overlooked.
God’s Word will spring to life and indeed not come back void as it did with Hi’el when he lost his sons due to rebuilding the gates of Jericho.
Hi Richoka,
The story about the barren land and bad water of Jericho, in the book of 2Kings 2:19-22 is still part of the result of the curse Joshua had placed on Jericho.
However, it took the men who now come to reside there after many centuries to pray for reversal of the curse by the prophet Elisha.
Thanks