The Bethelite of Jericho. His name implies, the life of God; from Chajak, to live; and El, God. I refer the reader to those two passages in Scripture, for the short but striking account of this man, whose boldness, in face of the curse Joshua pronounced, led him to so daring an act as that of building Jericho, and whose rashness the Lord so fully punished, in conformity to his servant’s prediction. (See Josh. vi. 26. with I Kings 16. 34. See also Elisha.)
Hi´el (God liveth), a native of Bethel, who rebuilt Jericho, above 500 years after its destruction by the Israelites, and who, in so doing, incurred the effects of the imprecation pronounced by Joshua (1Ki 16:34):
Accursed the man in the sight of Jehovah,
Who shall arise and build this city, even Jericho;
With the loss of his first-born shall he found it,
And with the loss of his youngest shall he fix its gates (Jos 6:26).
("God liveth".) Native of Bethel. Rebuilt, i.e. restored as a fortified town, Jericho in Ahab’s reign, who hoped through fortifying it (for Hiel was Ahab’s profane and reckless tool) to have on his borders a city securing to himself the passage of Jordan. In Hiel was fulfilled Joshua’s curse on the rebuilder of Jericho (Jos 6:26), "he shall lay the foundation in (i.e. at the price of) his firstborn (Abiram), and in (i.e. at the price of) his youngest son (Segub) shall he set up the gates of it." The builder paid for its restoration by the loss of all his Sons, from the firstborn to the youngest.
The Benjamites, by Joshua’s allotment (Jos 18:21), inhabited it, and it is called "the city of palms" (Jdg 3:13; 2Sa 10:5); but not until Ahab’s time, when men cast off all fear of Jehovah, was Joshua’s curse fulfilled, when Hiel presumed to fortify it (1Ki 16:34). The walls had been miraculously cast down, and it was against their being rebuilt that the curse was leveled. The sin marks how deeply Israel had fallen; the curse how God will not let His word be transgressed with impunity.
[Hi’el]
Native of Bethel who rebuilt Jericho in the reign of Ahab. In him was fulfilled the curse pronounced by Joshua that he should lay the foundation of the city in his firstborn and set up the gates in his youngest son. His building the city was a marked sign of insubordination.
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By: Emil G. Hirsch, M. Seligsohn
A Bethelite who rebuilt Jericho in the reign of Ahab (I Kings xvi. 34). The curse pronounced by Joshua (vi. 26) was fulfilled in Hiel, namely: "He laid the foundation thereof in Abiram his first-born, and set up the gates thereof in his youngest son Segub" (I Kings, l.c.). An attempt has been made to identify Hiel with Jehu (see Cheyne and Black, "Encyc. Bibl." s.v.; also Jew. Encyc. iv. 275, s.v. Corner-Stone).
HIEL.—The name of a certain Bethelite who in the days of Ahab fortified Jericho, and possibly sacrificed his two sons to appease the gods of the disturbed earth (1Ki 16:34). Some obscure event is here applied as a comment on the curse on Jericho pronounced by Joshua.
W. F. Cobb.