Joshua 6:26, Joshua’s Curse and the City of Jericho

//Remember the battle of Jericho? Israel marched around and around its walls until the walls simply fell down, and they plundered the city. Every living thing—men, women, cattle, sheep and donkeys—was put to the sword, and the city and everything in it was burned. Joshua then concludes the ordeal with this curse against anybody who tries to rebuild it. It will cost the builder his firstborn son.

Well, if you don’t believe in curses, maybe you should. Around 500 years later, a man named Hiel couldn’t resist rebuilding Jericho, and though we don’t know the details of what happened, the Bible hints at something sordid:

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. –1 Kings 16:34