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Josue 6:26

Cursed be the man before the Lord, that shall raise up and build the city of Jericho. In his firstborn may he lay the foundation thereof, and in the last of his children set up its gates.

Challoner: CursedJericho, in the mystical sense, signifies iniquity: the sounding of the trumpets by the priests, the preaching of the word of God; by which the walls of Jericho are thrown down, when sinners are converted; and a dreadful curse will light on them who build them up again.

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The verse in its languages

Vulgate (Clementine): Maledictus vir coram Domino, qui suscitaverit et ædificaverit civitatem Jericho. In primogenito suo fundamenta illius jaciat, et in novissimo liberorum ponat portas ejus.
Septuagint (Swete): Καὶ ὥρκισεν Ἰησοῦς ἐν τῇ ἡμέρᾳ ἐκείνῃ ἐναντίον Κυρίου λέγων Ἐπικατάρατος ὁ ἄνθρωπος ὃς οἰκοδομήσει τὴν πόλιν ἐκείνην. ἐν τῷ πρωτοτόκῳ αὐτοῦ θεμελιώσει αὐτήν, καὶ ἐν τῷ ἐλαχίστῳ αὐτοῦ ἐπιστήσει τὰς πύλας αὐτῆς. καὶ οὕτως ἐποίησεν Ὁζὰν ὁ ἐκ Βαιθήλ· ἐν τῷ Ἀβειρὼν τῷ πρωτοτόκῳ ἐθεμελίωσεν αὐτήν, καὶ ἐν τῷ ἐλαχίστῳ διασωθέντι ἐπέστησεν τὰς πύλας αὐτῆς.
Hebrew (WLC): וַיַּשְׁבַּ֣ע יְהוֹשֻׁ֔עַ בָּעֵ֥ת הַהִ֖יא לֵאמֹ֑ר אָר֨וּר הָאִ֜ישׁ לִפְנֵ֣י יְהוָ֗ה אֲשֶׁ֤ר יָקוּם֙ וּבָנָ֞ה אֶת הָעִ֤יר הַזֹּאת֙ אֶת יְרִיח֔וֹ בִּבְכֹר֣וֹ יְיַסְּדֶ֔נָּה וּבִצְעִיר֖וֹ יַצִּ֥יב דְּלָתֶֽיהָ

Haydock's commentary

Cursed, &c. Jericho, in the mystical sense, signifies iniquity; the sounding of the trumpets by the priests, signifies the preaching of the word of God; by which the walls of Jericho are thrown down, when sinners are converted: and a dreadful curse will light on them who build them up again. (Challoner)

Gates. Some copies of the Septuagint insert here that the curse fell upon Azan (Hiel) of Bethel, 3 Kings xvi. 34. Before his time, there was a city of palm-trees, or Jericho, built in the neighbourhood. (Josephus, Jewish Wars v. 4.) Though Hiel was so severely punished, no one made any scruple to live there. Elias and Jesus Christ himself honoured the place with their presence. The city is now almost in ruins, and the territory uncultivated. Ancient history mentions similar imprecations against obnoxious cities. Thus the Romans cursed the rebuilders of Carthage, and Agamemnon followed "the ancient custom," says Strabo, (xiii.) laying a curse upon those who should rebuild the city of Troy. The Ionians and Greeks forbad those temples to be re-established, which the Persians had destroyed, that they might remain eternal monuments of the impiety of the latter, and of the hatred which subsisted between the two nations. (Pausanias in Phoc.) (Calmet)

Where a note speaks of the Jewish people, the Church teaches that the Passion cannot be charged against all the Jews then living, nor against the Jews of today, and that all sinners were its authors (CCC 597, 598).

From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.