Curse of Jericho

(26) At that time Joshua pronounced this oath: “Cursed of the LORD be the man who shall undertake to fortify this city of Jericho: he shall lay its foundations at the cost of his first-born, and set up its gates at the cost of his youngest.” (27) The LORD was with Joshua, and his fame spread throughout the land.

[The death of] his first born etc. [the death of] his youngest son etc. When he begins laying the foundation upon which he is building it [the city], his first born son will die and he will bury him, and he will continue doing so⁶He will continue burning his sons. until the youngest son dies at the completion of the work which is the setting of its portals.

During his reign, Hiel the Bethelite fortified Jericho. He laid its foundations at the cost of Abiram his first-born, and set its gates in place at the cost of Segub his youngest, in accordance with the words that the LORD had spoken through Joshua son of Nun.

With Avirom his first born he laid the foundation. When he laid its foundation, his firstborn son died, and he buried [him] and continued to bury all his sons until the last one died when he was installing its doors. And, these were Yehoshua’s curses, “With [the loss of] his firstborn shall he lay its foundation, and with [the loss of] his youngest child he will set up its gates.”¹³Yehoshua 6:26.

Elijah the Tishbite, an inhabitant of Gilead, said to Ahab, “As the LORD lives, the God of Israel whom I serve, there will be no dew or rain except at my bidding.”

As Adonoy lives. Why was this placed here? For Eliyahu and Achov went to console Chieil in his mourning. Achov said to Eliyahu, “Is it possible that the student’s curse was fulfilled while Moshe our teacher’s curse was not fulfilled, as it is stated, “And you turn away and serve other gods, and bow down to them, Adonoy’s wrath will be aroused against you, and He will restrain the skies [and there will be no rain].”¹Devarim 11:17,18. Now, all Yisroel are worshiping idols, yet, the rains are not being withheld. Immediately, Eliyahu said, etc.²Maseches Sanhedrin 113a. ³Eliyahu intended that by withholding the rain and dew, some or all of the people would repent from their idol worship.—Radak

"Look, the town is a pleasant place to live..." Up to this point we have no indication that the waters of Jericho were bad, or that they caused bereavement. If it had been son, the people would not have loved it nor would they have transgressed the ban against rebuilding it. Furthermore, if the waters had been bad all along how is it that Eliyahu did not heal them? Finally, if they had caused bereavement for the many years they had been settled there the people would have given up and left. Therefore it appears that the evil had come to the waters recently due to the wickedness of the city's residents, and it was the bad waters which caused the ground to be a source of bereavement - killing many who drank from them. From an interpretive perspective, the verse is saying that Jericho was cursed and a source of bereavement because Joshua had cursed it. Then Eliyahu added his own curse in the when Hiel's two sons died and Eliyahu and King Ahav came to comfort him, as described above in I Kings 16:34 and the midrash. The Sages taught "Look, the town is a pleasant place to live in...but the water is bad and the land causes bereavement." What could be good about it?! R' Yochanan said: the inhabitants always see the grace of a place. (Sotah 47a)