Deuteronomy 27:4

_THEREFORE IT SHALL BE WHEN YE BE GONE OVER JORDAN, THAT YE SHALL SET UP THESE STONES, WHICH I COMMAND YOU THIS DAY, IN MOUNT EBAL, AND THOU SHALT PLAISTER THEM WITH PLAISTER._ Ye shall set up these stones, which I command you this day, in mount Ebal. The Samaritan version has, 'in mount Gerizim'-a reading which, though supported with great zeal by Kennicott ('Dissert.,' ii), was most satisfactorily refuted, and the correctness of the Hebrew text established by Verschuir (Dissept. 'Exeget. Philologicae,' 1773: see Moses Stuart, 'On the Samaritan Pentateuch and Literature,' in 'American Biblical Repository,' vol. 2:, p. 681-724)....

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 27:4. _SET UP THESE STONES - IN MOUNT EBAL_] So the present Hebrew text, but the Samaritan has _Mount Gerizim_. Dr. Kennicott has largely defended the reading of the Samaritan in his second dissertation on the _present state of the Hebrew text_, and Dr. Parry has defended the Hebrew against the Samaritan in his _Case_ _between Gerizim and Ebal fairly stated_. So has _J. H. Verschuir_, in his _Dissert. Critica_. Many still think Dr. Kennicott's arguments unanswerable, and have no doubt that the Jews have here corrupted the text through their enmity to the Samaritans. On all hands it is allowed that _Gerizim_ abounds with springs, gardens, and orchards, and that it is covered with a beautiful verdure, while _Ebal_ is as _naked_ and as barren as a rock. On this very account the former was highly proper for the ceremon...

IN MOUNT EBAL - Compare the marginal references. The Samaritan Pentateuch and Version read here Gerizim instead of Ebal; but the original text was probably, as nearly all modern authorities hold, altered in order to lend a show of scriptural sanction to the Samaritan temple on Mount Gerizim. The erection of the altar, the offering thereon burnt-offerings and peace-offerings Deuteronomy 27:6, the publication of the Law in writing, form altogether a solemn renewal of the covenant on the entrance of the people into the promised land, and recall the ceremonies observed on the original grant of the covenant at Sinai (compare Exodus 24:5). And Ebal (the mount of “barrenness “),the mount of cursing, was the fitting spot on which to celebrate th

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 THEREFORE IT SHALL BE, WHEN YE BE GONE OVER JORDAN,.... Some time after they had passed that river: [THAT] YE SHALL SET UP THESE STONES, WHICH I COMMAND YOU THIS DAY, IN MOUNT EBAL; a mountain near Shechem in Samaria, and was, as Benjamin of Tudela says r, dry as stones and rocks itself, and perhaps had its name, as some think s, from the root in the Arabic language which signifies to strip a tree of its leaves, and a derivative from it, white stones and a mountain in which such are found. Hither the stones commanded to be set up were to be brought, and fixed here; from whence it is not certain; it may be from some part of the mountain. Here the Samaritan version has Gerizim instead of Ebal, which is generally thought to be a wilful corruption of the Samaritans, in favour of their temple built at Gerizim: AND THOU SHALL PLASTER THEM WITH PLASTER; as before directed,...

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” ...

IN MOUNT EBAL. The stones, therefore, carried thither from Jordan. EBAL. heaps....

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._ 4, 5. _IN MOUNT EBAL_— Dr. Parry has given a very just turn to this passage, remarking well from Noldius, that we should not read _in mount Ebal,_ but BY _mount Ebal,_ as, in the 12th and 13th verses, UPON _mount Gerizzim,_ and UPON _mount Ebal,_ should be BY _mount Gerizzim,_ and BY _mount Ebal:_ and accordingly we find, that when this commandment was fulfilled, the tribes did not stand upon the mountains, but in the plain between them; half of them _over-against mount Gerizzim, and half of them over-against mount Ebal._ Joshua 8:33. And in the middle of this plain, it is most probable, the altar was erected; the very place, as there is great reason to believe, where Abraham erected his first altar in the land of Canaan. See Genesis 12:6. But as every law is