Bible Commentaries
Deuteronomy 27

Verses 1-26

We have here the record of something distinctive and arresting. Immediately after the close of the second discourse containing a r6sum6 I of laws, Moses and the elders commanded the people that after they entered the land they were to erect on Mount Ebal stones that were to be covered with plaster and have inscribed on them the words of the Law, the reference to the Law there undoubtedly being to the Ten Commandments. Moreover, they were to build an altar on the same mountain

The action was suggestive. The law insisted on the necessity for obedience, while the altar spoke of the only method of approach to God consequent on disobedience.

Following these instructions, Moses and the Levites charged the people that after they entered on the land there was to be a formal pronouncement of blessing and cursing. The blessings were to be uttered from Mount Gerizim by the children of Leah and Rachael; the cursing from Mount Ebal by the children of the bondwomen. It is noticeable here that the blessings pronounced are not enumerated, but only the curses.