Despite Joshua's curse on Jericho (Joshua 6:26–27), people sometimes lived there before Hiel rebuilt it (see Judges 3:13; 2 Samuel 10:5; 1 Chronicles 19:5), as shown by archaeological digs. Hiel's actions show Israel's spiritual decline.
he laid its foundation … Segub: The Targum (an Aramaic translation with explanations for Jews who no longer knew Hebrew after the exile in Babylon) says that Hiel sacrificed his sons as foundation offerings, following pagan practices. Others believe his sons died from disease or accident. The Hebrew wording may also be a merism (a figure of speech using two extremes to mean the whole), which would suggest that all of Hiel’s sons died.