Deuteronomy 27:12

_THESE SHALL STAND UPON MOUNT GERIZIM TO BLESS THE PEOPLE, WHEN YE ARE COME OVER JORDAN; SIMEON, AND LEVI, AND JUDAH, AND ISSACHAR, AND JOSEPH, AND BENJAMIN:_ These shall stand upon mount Gerizim ... these shall stand upon mount Ebal. Those gigantic masses of limestone rock are the highest peaks of a mountain-range which, in various diverging branches, stretches out far both to the east and west. Ebal and Gerizim stand isolated, reaching apparently from 800 to 1,000 feet above the town of Shechem (Nablous), which lies in the intermediate valley. Van de Velde's barometrical measurement was-for Gerizim, 2,000 feet above the sea level, and 928 feet above Shechem; for Ebal, 2,700 feet above the level of the sea, and 1,028 feet above the town. They stand, Ebal on the north, Gerizim on the south, of a fertile, verdant, and well-watered valley, which extends to a width of about 300 yards, thou...

11-26 The six tribes appointed for blessing, were all children of the free women, for to such the promise belongs, Galatians 4:31. Levi is here among the rest. Ministers should apply to themselves the blessing and curse they preach to others, and by faith set their own Amen to it. And they must not only allure people to their duty with the promises of a blessing, but awe them with the threatenings of a curse, by declaring that a curse would be upon those who do such things. To each of the curses the people were to say, Amen. It professed their faith, that these, and the like curses, were real declarations of the wrath of God against the ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, not one jot of which shall fall to the ground. It was acknowledging the equity of these curses. Those who do such things deserve to fall, and lie under the curse. Lest those who were guilty of other sins, not here...

Verse Deuteronomy 27:12. _THESE SHALL STAND UPON MOUNT GERIZIM TO BLESS THE_ _PEOPLE_] Instead of _upon Mount_, c., we may translate _by_, as the particle על _al_ is sometimes used for we do not find that the tribes did stand _on_ either mount, for in Joshua 8:33, when this direction was reduced to practice, we find the people did not stand _on_ the mountains, but _over against_ them on the plain. See the observations at the end of this chapter. Deuteronomy 27:26....

Compare Joshua 8:32. The solemnity was apparently designed only for the single occasion on which it actually took place. Deuteronomy 27:12, Deuteronomy 27:13 The tribes appointed to stand on Gerizim to bless the people all sprang from the two wives of Jacob, Leah and Rachel. All the four tribes which sprang from the handmaids Zilpah and Bilhah are located on Ebal. But in order, as it would seem, to effect an equal division, two tribes are added to the latter from the descendants of the wives, that of Reuben, probably because he forfeited his primogeniture...

PART III.—THIRD DISCOURSE OF MOSES. THE COVENANT RENEWED. CHAPTERS 27-30. EXPOSITION Deuteronomy 27:1. INSTRUCTIONS AS TO THE PUBLISHING OF THE LAW IN CANAAN. HAVING set forth the laws and rights of Israel with special reference to the settlement of the people in Canaan, Hoses proceeds to dwell more particularly on the sanctions by which obedience to the Divine institute was enforced. Before entering on these, however, he gives some instructions regarding the setting up and proclamation of the Law when the

THESE SHALL STAND UPON MOUNT GERIZIM TO BLESS THE PEOPLE, WIDEN YE ARE COME OVER JORDAN,.... Which was a mountain in Samaria opposite to Mount Ebal, a valley of a furlong broad lay between them y; and, according to Hillerus z, had its name from being broken off from that, they being, as it should seem, originally one mountain, and now two tops of the same; so Burchard; but others think it signifies the mountain of the mowers or cutters down a; that is, of grass or corn, being a very fruitful one; and Benjamin of Tudela says b, that in his time, on Mount Gerizim were fountains and orchards; and being such a fertile mountain, it was very proper to bless upon. Mr. Maundrel c, a late traveller in those parts, says, "though neither of the mountains have much to boast of as to their pleasantness, yet as one passes between them, Gerizim seems to discover a somewhat more verdant fruitful aspec...

23. THE MEMORIAL OF THE LAW AT MOUNT EBAL; GERIZIM AND EBAL CHAPTER 27 _ 1. The memorial to be set up in the land (Deuteronomy 27:1)_ 2. Gerizim and Ebal (Deuteronomy 27:9) Little comment is needed on this chapter. The memorial stones were to be set up on Mount Ebal. Upon that mountain the curses of the law were to be uttered. The blessings were to be pronounced upon Mount Gerizim. However, on Gerizim were no stones with the law written upon it. How strikingly this illustrates the true ministration of the law! It cannot give blessing, but it must curse man. “For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse; for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them” ...

SIMEON. For order of tribes see App-45....

Appointment of Tribes to Bless and to Curse Ch. Deuteronomy 11:29 (_q.v._) commands that the blessing for obedience be set on Mt Gerizim, the curse for disobedience on Mt -Ebal. _Set_(lit. _give_) implies some solemn rite, and this is now defined. Six tribes shall stand on Gerizim to bless, and six on -Ebal for the curse. The former are all sons of Leah or Rachel, Jacob's wives, the latter the sons of their maids, Gad, Asher, Dan and Naphtali, with Reuben, Leah's eldest son, who lost his birthright, and Zebulun, her youngest. Again the former, appointed to the southern mount, are all (with the doubtful exception of Issachar) tribes established S. of Esdraelon; while those appointed to the northern mountain are the four tribes settled N. of Esdraelon, with the two from E. Palestine, Reuben and Gad. On the whole, the genealogical explanation of the division (Dill

_VER._ 12. _UPON MOUNT GERIZZIM_— _By mount Gerizzim._ To _bless the people,_ that is, by saying _Amen_ when they heard the blessings pronounced by the priests. See ver. 14, 15. The priests seem clearly to have stood round about the ark, placed near the altar in the valley between the two mountains; and, in pronouncing the _benedictions,_ turned towards _mount Gerizzim,_ where stood _six_ of the tribes; and, in pronouncing the _curses,_ towards _mount Ebal,_ where stood the other _six;_ as will appear more plainly from the following scheme of Dr. Parry's: _West_ ARK Priests. Priests. the the Levites. Levites. _South_ Simeon. Reuben. _North_ GERIZIM Levi. Gad. Judah. Asher Issachar. Zebulun. Joseph. Dan. Benjamin. Naphtali. _Strangers. Strangers. East_ EBAL...