When Is a Curse Invalid?

At that time Joshua pronounced this solemn oath: “Cursed before the Lord is the one who undertakes to rebuild this city, Jericho: ‘At the cost of his firstborn son  he will lay its foundations; at the cost of his youngest   he will set up its gates.’”  Joshua 6:26  NIV

Solemn oath – Who is involved in this oath is left up to the translation you read.  The NIV says that Joshua took this oath, but the NASB says that he made the rest of the people take this oath (“Then Joshua made them take an oath . . .”).  Most translations side with the NIV but the verb form is a Hiphil making it a command for someone other than the speaker to do something.  But let’s not get hung up in the details.  There’s a much more important issue here.  It has to do with Latitude: 31° 52′ 0.01″ N, Longitude: 35° 27′ 0.00″ E.  What’s at that location?  Well, Jericho, that’s what!

I thought Joshua issued a curse on anyone who ever rebuilt that city, yet today you and I can visit Jericho, walk its streets, sit by the big pool in the town center, watch children play, eat a meal.  What happened to the curse?  Was it just erased by modern society?  Was it nothing more than an emotional reaction on the part of the Israelites?  Why is there a “Jericho” today?

The Hebrew text reads וַיַּשְׁבַּ֣ע יְהוֹשֻׁ֔עַ בָּעֵ֥ת הַהִ֖יא לֵאמֹ֑ר  The crucial verb is šābaʿ, a verb that means, “to bind oneself to an oath” in the Niphal stem, and “to cause someone to swear an oath” in the Hiphil stem.  “To swear in the Old Testament was to give one’s sacred unbreakable word in testimony that the one swearing would faithfully perform some promised deed, or that he would faithfully refrain from some evil act.”^[1]  Now we can understand why there is a city at Latitude: 31° 52′ 0.01″ N, Longitude: 35° 27′ 0.00″ E. despite Joshua’s curse, and at the same time see why the verb must be read as a Hiphil, that is, an oath caused to be recited by the people.  The curse isn’t for any man.  It’s for any man of the nation of Israel.  The citizens of Jericho have been destroyed.  The only people on the scene are the Israelites.  Joshua makes them take the oath.  None of them shall ever rebuild this city without severe consequences.

When you walk through Jericho today, you can be fairly certain that no Israelite was involved in rebuilding this city.  In fact, even today it is under Arab control even though it is inside the State of Israel.  Joshua’s command that the people take an oath against Jericho has a long memory.  Perhaps the validity of this oath, given that it does not come from God, is upheld because of the history of the people.  Some traditions last.

What have we learned here?  Perhaps we’ve discovered that an oath involves more than some magical prohibition.  It involves a commitment by one or many.  An oath lasts only as long as there are those who refuse to violate its fences.  Oaths ultimately depend on faithfulness.  The words have life if they are accompanied by living borderlines.

Topical Index: oath, curse, Jericho, faithfulness, Joshua 6:26

^[1] Harris, R. L., Archer, G. L., Jr., & Waltke, B. K. (Eds.). (1999). Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (electronic ed., p. 900). Chicago: Moody Press.