Deuteronomy 27:18

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 27:18. _THE BLIND TO WANDER OUT OF THE WAY._] A sin against the sixth commandment. Exodus 20:13, Exodus 20:13....

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

CURSED [BE] HE THAT MAKETH THE BLIND TO WANDER OUT OF THE WAY,.... By directing him wrong knowingly, or laying a stumbling block in his way, Leviticus 19:14. The Targum of Jonathan is, "that maketh a traveller wander out of the way, who like a blind man;'' who knows his way no more than a blind man does. Jarchi interprets it, "that blinds in anything, and gives evil counsel;'' which leads men to take wrong steps, whether in things civil, or moral, or religious; all which are usually done privately: AND ALL THE PEOPLE SHALL SAY AMEN; Deuteronomy 27:15; Deuteronomy 27:16....

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” ...

THE BLIND. Compare Leviticus 19:14....

Appointment of the Levites to Curse According to 11 13 both a blessing and a curse were to be pronounced, here we have only curses, twelve in number. There _Levi_was one of six tribes appointed to bless; here _the Levites_, in religious distinction from all the other tribes, are to pronounce the curses. Further, the 12 curses are not confined to sins dealt with in the Code of D; the objects of only 7 are forbidden in D, of 6 in E, Exodus 20:2-23, of 1 in J, Exodus 34, and of as many as Deuteronomy 27:9 in H, Leviticus 17-26. The inferences are reasonable that this passage is not from the same hand as the preceding (i.e. not from E) and not from D. The inclusion of so many sins forbidden only in H does not

THOUGHT QUESTIONS 27:15-26 473. Try to imagine the great attraction of idolatry. There must have been some rationalization, attempt to express it. 474. What is meant by the use of the word light as used in Deuteronomy 27:16? 475. Are we to believe a man could be put to death for changing a property line? 476. Why would anyone be so cruel as to mislead a blind man? 477. Kindness and generosity was a very prominent part of Israel's morality. Why? 478. Why mention his father's skirt in the case of adultery with the wife of the father? 479. Was morality so lax in Israel, or was there some other reason for these regulations? 480. What is involved in the word confirmeth in Deuteronomy 27:26? AMPLIFIED

CEREMONIES TO BE OBSERVED ON REACHING CANAAN This chapter has probably been misplaced, as it seems to break the connexion between Deuteronomy 26 and Deuteronomy 28. It ordains four ceremonies to be observed after the people have entered Canaan: the Law to be written on stones on Mt. Ebal: an altar to be erected there: the covenant ratified on Ebal and Gerizim: and twelve curses pronounced by the Levites....