约书亚记 6:26

Chinese NCV (Simplified)

凡重建耶利哥城的必受咒詛那時，約書亞要人民起誓，說：“起來重建這耶利哥城的，那人在耶和華面前是可咒可詛的；他立地基的時候必喪長子；他安城門的時候必失幼子。”

Parallel Translations

Chinese Union (Simplified)
当 时 ， 约 书 亚 叫 众 人 起 誓 说 ： 有 兴 起 重 修 这 耶 利 哥 城 的 人 ， 当 在 耶 和 华 面 前 受 咒 诅 。 他 立 根 基 的 时 候 ， 必 丧 长 子 ， 安 门 的 时 候 ， 必 丧 幼 子 。

Contextual Overview

¹⁷ The city and everything in it are to be destroyed as an offering to the Lord . Only Rahab the prostitute and everyone in her house should remain alive. They must not be killed, because Rahab hid the two spies we sent out. ¹⁸ Don't take any of the things that are to be destroyed as an offering to the Lord . If you take them and bring them into our camp, you yourselves will be destroyed, and you will bring trouble to all of Israel. ¹⁹ All the silver and gold and things made from bronze and iron belong to the Lord and must be saved for him." ²⁰ When the priests blew the trumpets, the people shouted. At the sound of the trumpets and the people's shout, the walls fell, and everyone ran straight into the city. So the Israelites defeated that city. ²¹ They completely destroyed with the sword every living thing in the city—men and women, young and old, cattle, sheep, and donkeys. ²² Joshua said to the two men who had spied out the land, "Go into the prostitute's house. Bring her out and bring out those who are with her, because of the promise you made to her." ²³ So the two men went into the house and brought out Rahab, her father, mother, brothers, and all those with her. They put all of her family in a safe place outside the camp of Israel. ²⁴ Then Israel burned the whole city and everything in it, but they did not burn the things made from silver, gold, bronze, and iron. These were saved for the Lord . ²⁵ Joshua saved Rahab the prostitute, her family, and all who were with her, because Rahab had helped the men he had sent to spy out Jericho. Rahab still lives among the Israelites today. ²⁶ Then Joshua made this oath: "Anyone who tries to rebuild this city of Jericho will be cursed by the Lord . The one who lays the foundation of this city will lose his oldest son, and the one who sets up the gates will lose his youngest son."

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

adjured: This is to be regarded as a prediction, that he who rebuilded this city should lose all his children in the interim between the laying of the foundation to the completion of the walls. Numbers 5:19-21, 1 Samuel 14:24-46, 1 Kings 22:16, Matthew 26:63, Acts 19:13

Cursed: 1 Kings 16:34, Malachi 1:4

Reciprocal: Genesis 27:7 - before the Leviticus 27:28 - no devoted Numbers 5:21 - an oath Numbers 21:2 - I will Deuteronomy 13:16 - an heap Deuteronomy 13:17 - the Lord Joshua 16:7 - Jericho Judges 9:57 - upon them 2 Kings 2:4 - Jericho 2 Kings 2:19 - the water Daniel 2:5 - made Habakkuk 2:12 - him Luke 19:1 - Jericho Acts 23:12 - under a curse

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And Joshua adjured [them] at that time,.... When the city was burnt and spoiled; not that he adjured the people individually, or one by one, which was not very practicable, but in a general way:

saying, cursed [be] the man before the Lord; let him be cursed by him with the curses written in the book of the law; and let him be driven from him, from his presence, as Cain was:

that riseth up, and buildeth this city Jericho; that rises up in future time, and rebuilds it; for it cannot be thought that after such an adjuration anyone would start up quickly, and rebuild it:

he shall lay the foundation thereof in his firstborn, and in his youngest [son] shall he set up the gates of it; that is, while he is laying, or as soon as he has laid the foundation of the city, his eldest son should die; and as he went on with the building, other sons of his, if he had more than two, should be taken away by death likewise; and by the time he has finished it, signified by setting up the gates of it, both for ornament and security, his youngest and last son should die also; so that his whole posterity should be taken alway, as a curse of God upon him for rebuilding the city; which was fulfilled in Hiel the Bethelite, the rebuilder of this city in the times of Ahab, five or six hundred years after this adjuration was made, when either it was forgotten, or, however, little regarded: Maimonides observes g, that this was made that the miracle might remain in perpetual memory, for whoever should see the wall sunk in the earth, it would be plain and clear to him that this was not the form of a building demolished, but that it fell by a miracle; and yet this city became a very flourishing one in later times; we soon hear of the school of the prophets in it, 2 Kings 2:5; here, Strabo h says, was a royal palace, where, as Josephus i relates, Herod died, and who speaks of an amphitheatre and hippodrome in it; in this city sometimes the sanhedrim sat, and a great number of the stationary priests dwelt, even half a station, twelve thousand of them, all which is observed by Dr. Lightfoot k; our Lord himself honoured it with his presence,

Luke 19:1.

g Maimon. Moreh Nevochim, par. 3. c. 50. h Geograph. l. 16. p. 525. i Antiqu. l. 17. c. 8. sect. 1. 2. k Chorograph. Cent. c. 47.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Adjured - i. e. put an oath upon them; or, perhaps, actually caused them themselves to take an oath (compare Matthew 26:63). The words of the oath have in the original a rhythmical character which would tend to keep them on the lips and in the memory of the people.

Buildeth this city - i. e. rebuilds the fortifications. Jericho was at once occupied by the Benjamites. Joshua 18:21, and the natural advantages of the situation were such that it would not be likely to be left long desolate. Joshua speaks in the text as a warrior. He lays a ban on the re-erection of those lofty walls which had bidden defiance to God’s host, and been by God’s signal interposition overthrown. Hiel, the Bethelite, reckless of the prophecy recorded in our text, began and completed the circumvallation of the city a second time (see the marginal reference). Hiel did not found a new city but only fortified an existing one.

He shall lay the foundation thereof in his first-born - i. e. when he begins this work his eldest son shall die, when he completes it his youngest shall die (see 1 Kings 16:34 note).

This chapter read in the light of the New Testament has indications of a further import and bearing than such as concerned Joshua and the Jews. As Joshua, the leader and captain of the Jewish theocracy, is a type of Christ, so is Jericho to be taken (with all Christian expositors) as a type of the powers opposed to Christ and His cause. The times which prepare for the close of God’s present dispensation are signified in the days during which the people obeyed and waited; as the number of those days, seven, the number of perfection, represents that “fullness of time,” known only to God, at which His dispensation will culminate and close. Thus the circumstances which lead up to the fall of Jericho are an acted prophecy, as was that fall itself, which sets forth the overthrow of all that resists the kingdom of which Christ is the head; and particularly the day of judgment, in which that overthrow will be fully and finally accomplished. Paul, in describing that day, seems to borrow his imagery from this chapter (see 1 Thessalonians 4:16).

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Joshua 6:26. And Joshua adjured them at that time — It appears that he had received intimations from God that this idolatrous city should continue a monument of the Divine displeasure: and having convened the princes and elders of the people, he bound them by an oath that they should never rebuild it; and then, in their presence, pronounced a curse upon the person who should attempt it. The ruins of this city continuing would be a permanent proof, not only of God's displeasure against idolatry, but of the miracle which he had wrought in behalf of the Israelites; and for these reasons God willed that it should not be rebuilt: nevertheless, he left men to the operation of their own free will, and recorded the penalty which those must pay who should disobey him.

He shall lay the foundation thereof, c. — This is a strange execration but it may rather be considered in the light of a prediction. It seems to intimate that he who should attempt to rebuild this city, should lose all his children in the interim, from laying the foundation to the completion of the walls; which the author of 1 Kings 16:34 says was accomplished in Hiel the Beth-elite, who rebuilt Jericho under the reign of Ahab, and laid the foundation of it in Abiram, his first-born, and set up its gates in his youngest son Segub: this was 550 years after Joshua pronounced the curse. But we are not sure that this means that the children either died a natural or violent death on this occasion for we may understand the history as relating to the slow progress of the work. Hiel having begun the work at the birth of his first-born, was not able to conclude before the birth of his last child, who was born many years after: and as their names are mentioned, it is very likely that the distance of time between the birth of each was well known when this history was written; and that the extraordinary length of time spent in the work, in which a multitude of vexatious delays had taken place, is that to which the prophetic execration relates. Yet the first opinion is the most probable. We must not suppose that Jericho had been wholly neglected from its overthrow by Joshua to the days of Hiel; if it be the same with the city of palm trees, mentioned Deuteronomy 34:3. We find it mentioned as an inhabited place in the beginning of Judges 1:16, a short time after the death of Joshua: And the children of the Kenite, Moses' father-in-law, went up out of the city of palm trees, with the children of Judah, c. and this said city (if the same with the city of palm trees) was taken from the Israelites by Eglon king of Moab, Judges 3:13. The ambassadors of David, who were disgracefully treated by Hanun king of the Ammonites, were commanded to tarry at Jericho till their beards should grow, 2 Samuel 10:4-5. It appears, therefore, that there was a city which went under this name long before the time of Hiel, unless we can suppose that the city of palm trees was a different place from Jericho, or that the name Jericho was given to some part of the circumjacent country after the city was destroyed, which is very probable.

After Hiel had rebuilt this city, it became of considerable consequence in the land of Judea: the courses of priests lodged there, who served in their turns at the temple; see Luke 10:30. There was a school of the prophets there, which was visited by Elijah and Elisha, 2 Kings 2:4-5; 2 Kings 2:18; and it was at this city that our Lord miraculously healed blind Bartimeus, Mark 10:46; Luke 18:35, &c. At present, Jericho is almost entirely deserted, having but thirty or forty miserable cabins in it, which serve for a place of refuge to some wretched Moors and Arabs, who live there like beasts. The plain of Jericho, formerly so celebrated for its fertility, is at present uncultivated, producing nothing but a few wild trees, and some very indifferent fruits. See Calmet.