1 Kings 16:34 · World English Bible
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 Yahweh’s word, which he spoke by Joshua the son of Nun.
Some things are cursed for good reason, and the man who rebuilds them anyway pays in what he loves most. Hiel raises the forbidden city and buries a son in the foundation and another in the gates, as if ambition demanded them as its price.
From the Clinical Psychology reading below.
The same verse, read by one tradition.
CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY
Some things are cursed for good reason, and the man who rebuilds them anyway pays in what he loves most. Hiel raises the forbidden city and buries a son in the foundation and another in the gates, as if ambition demanded them as its price. The old warning was not superstition. It marked a boundary that could not be crossed without ruin.
Every defiance of a hard-won limit exacts a cost, usually from the future you were building for. A person mortgages his children to his own stubborn pride and calls it progress. Respect the line that was drawn in blood before you. Cross it, and the wreckage is rarely yours alone to bear.
Clinical Psychology lens
What am I building that my own family is paying for?
Forcing the world into your shape breaks something. The sage leaves alone what is not his to touch, because pushing past the limit costs more than the thing was worth.
Action taken out of craving binds you to its consequences. The fruit you seize comes with a bill, and it is rarely paid by you alone.
Every choice has a price, Epictetus says, and the wise man asks the price first. The trouble comes from wanting the prize while pretending the cost is optional.
Free · No account needed
Lensightful opens every verse of the Bible through the traditions you choose. Save readings, ask a follow-up question, and get one verse a day.
Get Lensightful on the App Store
Clinical Psychology