Deuteronomy 27:2

_AND IT SHALL BE ON THE DAY WHEN YE SHALL PASS OVER JORDAN UNTO THE LAND WHICH THE LORD THY GOD GIVETH THEE, THAT THOU SHALT SET THEE UP GREAT STONES, AND PLAISTER THEM WITH PLAISTER:_ It shall be on the day when ye shall pass over Jordan. Day is often put for time; and the meaning is, 'about the time;' for it was not until some days after the passage, though the earliest practicable opportunity, that the following instructions were acted upon. THOU SHALT SET THEE UP GREAT STONES, AND PLASTER THEM WITH PLASTER. These stones were to be taken in their natural state, unhewn and unpolished-the occasion on which they were used not admitting of long or elaborate preparation; and they were to be daubed over with paint or white cement, to render them more conspicuous. Stones and even rocks are seen in Egypt and the peninsula of Sinai, containing inscriptions made 3,000 years ago, in paint or...

1-10 As soon as they were come into Canaan, they must set up a monument, on which they must write the words of this law. They must set up an altar. The word and prayer must go together. Though they might not, of their own heads, set up any altar besides that at the tabernacle; yet, by the appointment of God, they might, upon special occasion. This altar must be made of unhewn stones, such as they found upon the field. Christ, our Altar, is a stone cut out of the mountain without hands, refused by the builders, as having no form or comeliness, but accepted of God the Father, and made the Head of the corner. In the Old Testament the words of the law are written, with the curse annexed; which would overcome us with horror, if we had not, in the New Testament, an altar erected close by, which gives consolation. Blessed be God, the printed copies of the Scriptures among us, do away the neces...

Verse Deuteronomy 27:2. _THOU SHALT SET THEE UP GREAT STONES_] How many is not specified, possibly _twelve_, and possibly only a sufficient number to make a surface large enough to write the blessings and the curses on. _PLASTER THEM WITH PLASTER_] Perhaps the original ושדת אתם בשיד _vesadta otham bassid_ should be translated, _Thou shalt cement them_ _with cement_, because this was intended to be a _durable_ monument. In similar cases it was customary to set up a single stone, or a heap, rudely put together, where no cement or mortar appears to have been used; and because this was _common_, it was necessary to give particular directions when the usual method was not to be followed. Some suppose that the writing was to be in _relievo_, and that the spaces between the letters were filled up by the mortar or cement.

The stones here named are not those of which the altar Deuteronomy 27:5 was to be built, but are to serve as a separate monument witnessing to the fact that the people took possession of the land by virtue of the Law inscribed on them and with an acknowledgment of its obligations....

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

AND IT SHALL BE, ON THE DAY WHEN YOU SHALL PASS OVER JORDAN,.... Not the precise day exactly, but about that time, a little after they passed that river, as soon as they conveniently could; for it was not till after Ai was destroyed that the following order was put in execution; indeed as soon as they passed over Jordan, they were ordered to take twelve stones, and did; but then they were set up in a different place, and for a different purpose; see Joshua 4:3; UNTO THE LAND WHICH THE LORD THY GOD GIVETH THEE, THAT THOU SHALT SET THEE UP GREAT STONES; not in Jordan, as Jarchi, but on Mount Ebal, Deuteronomy 27:4; nor had the stones set up in Jordan any such inscription as what is here ordered to be set on these: AND PLASTER THEM WITH PLASTER: that so words might be wri

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” ...

ON THE DAY. in the day, or, when. See App-18. THE LORD. Hebrew. _Jehovah._ App-4. GOD. Hebrew. _Elohim._ App-4. STONES: i.e. rough and unhewn. Compare Exodus 20:25. PLAISTER. gypsum.. hard white cement....

Erection of Stones for the Inscription of the Law, and of an Altar Moses and the elders charged the people to keep the commandment (1); when they cross Jordan they shall set up stones and, whitening them, shall thereon write the Law (Torah) (2 f.); they shall do this on Mt -Ebal (4), and build an altar (of the form enjoined in E, Exodus 20:24 f.) for burnt and peace offerings, eating and rejoicing before God (5 7), and writing on the stones very plainly (8). The passage is a compilation from different sources. _First_, in Deuteronomy 27:2_; Deuteronomy 27:8_, Deuteronomy 27:2 f. and...

_VER._ 2. _ON THE DAY WHEN YE SHALL PASS OVER JORDAN_— _Day_ here, as well as in the former verse, signifies _time._ See Joshua 8:30. It is not said how many _great stones_ they were to set up; neither can we determine their number, unless we knew exactly how much of the law was to be written, whether the whole book of _Deuteronomy,_ or only the _ten commandments,_ or the _curses_ and the _blessings._ They are ordered to plaister over these stones with plaister. This _plaister_ has been generally understood, as meant to be laid over the stones, to give them smooth surfaces, that so the law might be inscribed upon that _plaister._ But the very next words shew, that the words were not to be inscribed upon _it, i.e. the plaister;_ but upon _them, i.e. the stones._ Besides, if _duration_ was not intended, the original tables were