Lives of Scripture

Segub's entire biblical record is a single clause: "In his days Hiel the Bethelite built Jericho; he laid its foundation with the loss of Abiram his firstborn, and set up its gates with the loss of his youngest son Segub, according to the word of the LORD, which He spoke through Joshua the son of Nun" (1 Kings 16:34). Some seven centuries earlier, after Israel's conquest of Jericho, Joshua had pronounced a curse on anyone who dared rebuild the city: "with the loss of his firstborn he will lay its foundation, and with the loss of his youngest son he will set up its gates" (Joshua 6:26). During wicked King Ahab's reign, Hiel rebuilt Jericho anyway, and Segub's death -- like his brother's -- stands in Scripture as sobering, exact proof that God's word outlasts generations.