Deuteronomy 27:2

27:1-10 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 necessity of such methods as were presented to Israel. The end of the gospel ministry is, and the end of preachers ought to be, to make the word of God as plain as possible. Yet, unless the Spirit of God prosper such labours with Divine power, we shall not, even by these means, be made wise unto salvation: for this blessing we should therefore daily and earnestly pray.

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 written upon them, and be more conspicuous, and more easily read.

Deuteronomy 27:2-3 . On the day — Here it is evident the word day does not signify precisely the very same day they passed over, but some indefinite time after, namely, as soon as they were come to mount Ebal, ( Deuteronomy 27:4 ,) after the taking of Jericho and Ai. See Joshua 8:30 . All the words of this law — Some have thought that he means the whole book of Deuteronomy. But they must have been immense stones to have contained this. It is more probable that only the ten commandments are intended, or perhaps, as Josephus’s opinion is, only the cursings which here follow, the last whereof seems to respect the whole law of Moses. Mount Ebal — The mount of cursing. Here the law was written, to signify that a curse was due to the violaters of it, and that no man could expect justification from it, all having violated it in one kind and degree or other. Here the sacrifices were to be offered, to show that there is no way to be delivered from this curse but by the blood of Christ, which all these sacrifices did typify, and by Christ’s being made a curse for us.

Verse 2. - On the day when ye shall pass over Jordan ; i . e . at the time ; "day" is here used in a wide sense (cf. Genesis 2:4 ; Numbers 3:1 ; 2 Samuel 22:1 ; Ecclesiastes 12:3 ; Isaiah 11:10 , etc.). Thou shalt set thee up great stones, and plaster them with plaster, The stones, the number of which is not specified, were to be large, because much was to be inscribed upon them, and they were to be covered with a coating of lime or gypsum ( שִׂיַד ), in order to secure a smooth white surface on which the inscription might be clearly depicted. That the words were not, as Michaelis, Rosenmüller, and others suppose, cut in the stone, and afterwards covered with plaster in order to preserve them, is plain from its being enjoined that they were to be written upon ( עַל ) the stones so prepared; and besides, as this was intended to be a proclamation of the Law, the main purpose of the erection would have been frustrated had the inscription been concealed by such a covering as that supposed. Among the ancient Egyptians the practice of depicting records on walls or monuments covered with a coating of plaster was common (see Hengstenberg, 'Authentic des Pent.,' 1:464, English translation, 1:433); from them, doubtless, it was borrowed by the Hebrews. It has been suggested by Kennicott that the writing was to be in relieve , and that the spaces between the letters were filled up by the mortar or cement.

This is possible, but it is not such a process as this that the words of the text suggest. "A careful examination of Deuteronomy 27:4, 8 , and Joshua 8:30 -22, will lead to the opinion that the Law was written upon or in the plaster with which these pillars were coated. This could easily be done, and such writing was common in ancient times. I have seen specimens of it certainly more than two thousand years old , and still as distinct as when they were first inscribed on the plaster" (Thomson, 'Land and the Book,' it. p. 204). Deuteronomy 27:2

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.

2. it shall be on the day when ye shall pass over Jordan—"Day" is often put for "time"; and it was not till some days after the passage that the following instructions were acted upon. thou shalt set thee up great stones, and plaister them with plaister—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 whitewash, to render them more conspicuous. Stones and even rocks are seen in Egypt and the peninsula of Sinai, containing inscriptions made three thousand years ago, in paint or plaister. By some similar method those stones may have been inscribed, and it is most probable that Moses learned the art from the Egyptians.

2 . on the day on which ye shall pass over Jordan ] The Heb. idiom (cp. 2 Samuel 19:20 , Esther 9:1 ) implies the very day on which they were crossing, and not (vaguely) the time when they crossed; and this is confirmed by 3 b which indicates that the stones were to be set up when Israel crossed Jordan but before they entered upon their occupation of the land, in order that thou mayest go in (similarly Dillm. and Dri.). and plaister them with plaister ] A whitewash of lime or chalk, as a background for the writing in black or another colour. The practice was Egyptian, and in Egypt the climate was not hostile to the result. But such writing would not survive the winters of Palestine, where not even inscriptions engraved in limestone, but only those in basalt have endured. It is possible therefore that we have here a very ancient fragment incorporated in D. Cp. E, Exodus 24:4-7 where the writing of the words of the Lord by Moses is associated with the erection of twelve maṣṣebôth . all the word; of this law ] Heb. Tôrah (see on Deuteronomy 1:5 , Deuteronomy 31:9 , etc.). How much is comprised in this phrase we cannot say, for we are not sure of the exact size of the original code of D. It was a widespread custom in antiquity to engrave laws upon stone pillars. The Code of Ḫammurabi is engraved on a pillar of black diorite in ‘about 49 columns, 4000 lines and 8000 words’ (Johns, Hastings’ D.B. , Extra Vol.).

The local tariff of Palmyra contains about 260 lines in Greek and 163 in Aramaic (Cooke, N. Semit. Inscr. 313 ff.). The regulations for sacrifices at Carthage ( CIS. i. i. 166 ff.) were graven on stone. For Greece cp. Apollodorus in the Schol. to l. 447 of the Clouds of Aristophanes: οἱ ἀρχαῖοι λίθους ἱστάντες εἰώθεσαν τὰ δόξαντα ἐν αὐτοῖς ἀναγράφειν . These pillars were called στῆλαι and the phrase παραβῆναι τὰς στήλας (Polyb. xxvi. 1, 4) = to transgress the laws (Knobel). when thou art passed over ] LXX, ye are . that thou mayest go in , etc.] Cp. Deuteronomy 4:40 , Deuteronomy 6:3 , Deuteronomy 7:1 , etc. LXX B, etc., read that ye may go in , but most MSS have Sg.

The command in Deuteronomy 27:1 to keep the whole law (שׁמר, inf. abs. for the imperative, as in Exodus 13:3 , etc.), with which the instructions that follow are introduced, indicates at the very outset the purpose for which the law written upon stones was to be set up in Canaan, namely, as a public testimony that the Israelites who were entering into Canaan possessed in the law their rule and source of life. The command itself is given by Moses, together with the elders, because the latter had to see to the execution of it after Moses' death; on the other hand, the priests are mentioned along with Moses in Deuteronomy 27:9 , because it was their special duty to superintend the fulfilment of the commands of God. Deuteronomy 27:1-3 Deuteronomy 27:2 and Deuteronomy 27:3 contain the general instructions; Deuteronomy 27:4-8, more minute details. In the appointment of the time, "on the day when ye shall pass over Jordan into the land," etc., the word "day" must not be pressed, but is to be understood in a broader sense, as signifying the time when Israel should have entered the land and taken possession of it. The stones to be set up were to be covered with lime, or gypsum (whether sid signifies lime or gypsum cannot be determined), and all the words of the law were to be written upon them. The writing, therefore, was not to be cut into the stones and then covered with lime (as J. D.