Deuteronomy 27:5

Cp. Exodus 20:24 and notes there.

9, 10. The Levites are addressed here because it was their duty to pronounce the blessings and the curses, to which the people responded with 'Amen.'

11-13. On Ebal and Gerizim see Deuteronomy 11:29; Deuteronomy 11:30. It need not be supposed that six tribes spoke the blessings from the top of Gerizim and the other six the curses from the top of Ebal. According to the Jewish writers the priests and Levites stood in the valley between the two heights and spoke both the blessings and the curses from there (see Deuteronomy 27:14), and all the people answered with a loud Amen. The valley between the hills is not more than 60 rods wide at the eastern end, and all travellers in Palestine remark upon the wonderful distance at which sounds are audible, on account of the unusual clearness of the air. Our Lord frequently spoke to large multitudes in the open air.