Hiel

Biblical Account

Hiel appears only once, in 1 Kings 16:34. The text states that "in his days," that is, while Ahab reigned over the northern kingdom of Israel, Hiel the Bethelite built Jericho. He lost his firstborn son Abiram when he laid the city's foundation, and his youngest son Segub when he set up its gates. The text adds that this came to pass "according to the word of the LORD, which he spake by Joshua the son of Nun."

The word referred to here is the oath that Joshua pronounced immediately after the fall of Jericho. According to Joshua 6:26, Joshua declared that whoever rebuilt the city would be cursed before the LORD: he would lay its foundation at the cost of his firstborn and set up its gates at the cost of his youngest son.

Significance Within Scripture

This verse stands at the end of the passage introducing Ahab's reign (1 Kings 16:29–34), and Elijah appears in the very next chapter (17:1). For this reason the verse is read as illustrating the spiritual condition of Ahab's era: Ahab introduced the worship of Baal, and in his day a word of God pronounced centuries earlier was fulfilled exactly. The books of Kings frequently pair prophecy with its fulfillment, and this verse belongs to that pattern. Some interpreters also note that Hiel's hometown, Bethel, was the place where Jeroboam had set up an altar with a golden calf.

The New Testament does not mention Hiel. In the New Testament, Jericho is the setting of the accounts of Zacchaeus and Bartimaeus, and Hebrews 11:30 states that by faith the walls of Jericho fell down.

Interpretation and Points of Discussion

• The deaths of the sons: The text does not say how the two sons died. Many commentators read their deaths as divine judgment fulfilling Joshua's curse. Other scholars, appealing to claims that peoples of the ancient Near East practiced human sacrifice at the foundations or gates of buildings, suggest that Hiel may have offered his sons as sacrifices. This is conjecture rather than something the text states directly.
• The meaning of "built": Passages such as Judges 3:13 and 2 Samuel 10:5 record people dwelling in Jericho before Hiel's time. Accordingly, some hold that Hiel's building was not the construction of a new city on vacant land but the rebuilding of Jericho as a fortified city with walls and gates.
• Jewish tradition is also reported to preserve an interpretation according to which Hiel lost his sons one after another, from the firstborn to the youngest. This, too, is an interpretation outside the text.

In the Korean Church

Hiel is rarely treated as the subject of a standalone sermon. He is usually mentioned in sermons on the fall of Jericho or the era of Ahab, where he is cited as an example that God's word is certain to be fulfilled however much time passes, and as a warning against treating God's word lightly. No hymns or widely known Sunday school curriculum units devoted to Hiel have been identified.