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Places of the Bible

Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim

Two hills facing each other across a valley, used once as a room with the acoustics built in.

The instruction is given by Moses long before the land is entered, and it is unusually architectural. Six tribes shall stand upon mount Gerizim to bless the people, and six shall stand upon mount Ebal to curse. The two hills stand on either side of the pass at Shechem, and the valley between them is narrow enough that a voice carries. The nation is arranged into a building it did not have to build.

Where it appearsDeuteronomy 27 · Joshua 8

DeuteronomyJoshua
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The movements, in the order the text gives them.

The Account of Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim

  1. 01

    Deuteronomy 27:4-8

    Thou shalt not lift up any iron tool upon them

    The altar must be unworked stone, and the law is written very plainly on plastered stones next to it.

    The meal belongs on the mountain of the curse. That is the unexpected arrangement in the KJV: the stones, the altar, the peace offerings, and the rejoicing are assigned to Ebal, not to Gerizim. The warning and the welcome are not placed safely out of sight of one another.

    The instructions also distinguish purposes that are easy to blur into one impressive monument. There are stones to be plastered and written upon, and there is an altar made of whole stones. The altar is not an invitation for a mason to improve the design. No iron tool. Exodus 20:25 has already made the same restriction explicit, so this is continuity with Sinai, not a new regional style of worship.

    Then comes very plainly. The Hebrew piles clarity upon clarity: the words must be made clear, and made clear well. The inscription is not decorative lettering whose meaning can be ignored while admiring the stonework. It records the obligation under which the land is received. Sacrifice, eating, rejoicing, writing: the whole scene refuses to separate belonging to God from hearing what he commands. Even at Ebal, the people are told to eat.

    Verse by verse

    1. 27:4

      These stones recalls the great stones to be plastered and inscribed in 27:2-3. The altar instruction follows in verse 5.

    2. 27:5-6

      Whole translates a Hebrew form meaning complete or intact; the accompanying ban on iron specifies stones left unhewn.

    3. 27:7

      The peace offerings include eating and rejoicing before the LORD. They are not described here as meals of mourning.

    4. 27:8

      Very plainly combines Hebrew expressions for making clear and doing well; the emphasis is legibility or clarity, not decorative complexity.

    Deuteronomy 27:4-8

    King James Version · 5 verses

    27:4Therefore 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.

    27:5And there shalt thou build an altar unto the LORD thy God, an altar of stones: thou shalt not lift up any iron tool upon them.

    27:6Thou shalt build the altar of the LORD thy God of whole stones: and thou shalt offer burnt offerings thereon unto the LORD thy God:

    27:7And thou shalt offer peace offerings, and shalt eat there, and rejoice before the LORD thy God.

    27:8And thou shalt write upon the stones all the words of this law very plainly.

    Deuteronomy 27:4-8: Thou shalt not lift up any iron tool upon them
  2. 02

    Deuteronomy 27:11-13

    These shall stand upon mount Gerizim to bless

    The tribes are divided by name between two hills. The geography does the work of a public address system.

    Israel is divided without being divided against itself. Six tribes stand with Gerizim and six with Ebal, but the two groups are not opposing nations, nor does one receive a favorable moral grade while the other is condemned. Both belong to the people being bound to the covenant. Deuteronomy 11:26-29 has already explained the distinction: blessing belongs to obedience, curse to disobedience.

    The names prevent a tidy family ranking. Reuben, Jacob's firstborn, stands on Ebal; Benjamin, the youngest, stands on Gerizim. Levi appears with the tribes even though the Levites will also supply the loud voice that leads the responses in 27:14. The ritual has more than one function to assign, and tribal membership is not the same thing as a particular ceremonial duty.

    When ye are come over Jordan keeps the command ahead of the event. Moses is arranging an assembly he will not lead in the land. The mountains become fixed points for words that must outlast his voice. This is not scenery added to make a lecture picturesque. The people are physically placed within the blessing-and-curse terms of their inheritance.

    Verse by verse

    1. 27:12

      Joseph is a single name in this list; Ephraim and Manasseh do not appear separately.

    2. 27:12-13

      The text does not explain every reason for the six-and-six arrangement. It does not call the tribes on Ebal individually wicked.

    3. 27:13

      To curse identifies a ceremonial role; the conditions of blessing and curse were already stated for Israel as a whole in Deuteronomy 11:26-29.

    Deuteronomy 27:11-13

    King James Version · 3 verses

    27:11And Moses charged the people the same day, saying,

    27:12These shall stand upon mount Gerizim to bless the people, when ye are come over Jordan; Simeon, and Levi, and Judah, and Issachar, and Joseph, and Benjamin:

    27:13And these shall stand upon mount Ebal to curse; Reuben, Gad, and Asher, and Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali.

    Deuteronomy 27:11-13: These shall stand upon mount Gerizim to bless
  3. 03

    Deuteronomy 27:15-26

    And all the people shall say, Amen

    Twelve curses, most of them about things done where nobody is watching, and the whole nation agreeing aloud to each.

    Amen is doing legal work here. After each declaration, all the people affirm the stated judgment. They are not merely keeping a ceremony moving with a familiar religious response. The community publicly accepts a standard that reaches actions some of its members could keep hidden.

    The first curse names an image installed in a secret place; another names a secret attack on a neighbor. Between them stand offenses that exploit unequal power: moving a boundary marker, misleading a blind person, corrupting justice against the foreigner, orphan, or widow. A man can enlarge his field without winning a battle. He only has to move a stone and count on his neighbor being unable to stop him. The covenant notices the stone.

    The sexual prohibitions are equally explicit about violations within a household, and the final specific curse condemns payment for killing an innocent person. No public respectability makes those acts disappear. Then the last declaration widens from named offenses to all the words of this law to do them. Agreement is not treated as a substitute for conduct. The mouths saying Amen are committing their owners to something beyond saying Amen.

    Verse by verse

    1. 27:15

      The hidden location is explicit. The condemnation is not limited to an image displayed in a public sanctuary.

    2. 27:17

      A landmark is a property boundary marker. Moving it is a means of taking a neighbor's land, not merely changing a road sign.

    3. 27:18-19

      The blind person is someone being deliberately misdirected; the following verse names vulnerable people denied justice. Neither detail requires turning these people into symbols.

    4. 27:20

      Uncovereth his father's skirt describes violation of the father's marriage bed; the verse itself names intercourse with his father's wife.

    5. 27:26

      To do them makes the obligation active. The closing curse concerns failure to uphold the law in practice, not failure to admire its language.

    Deuteronomy 27:15-26

    King James Version · 12 verses

    27:15Cursed be the man that maketh any graven or molten image, an abomination unto the LORD, the work of the hands of the craftsman, and putteth it in a secret place. And all the people shall answer and say, Amen.

    27:16Cursed be he that setteth light by his father or his mother. And all the people shall say, Amen.

    27:17Cursed be he that removeth his neighbour’s landmark. And all the people shall say, Amen.

    27:18Cursed be he that maketh the blind to wander out of the way. And all the people shall say, Amen.

    27:19Cursed be he that perverteth the judgment of the stranger, fatherless, and widow. And all the people shall say, Amen.

    27:20Cursed be he that lieth with his father’s wife; because he uncovereth his father’s skirt. And all the people shall say, Amen.

    27:21Cursed be he that lieth with any manner of beast. And all the people shall say, Amen.

    27:22Cursed be he that lieth with his sister, the daughter of his father, or the daughter of his mother. And all the people shall say, Amen.

    27:23Cursed be he that lieth with his mother in law. And all the people shall say, Amen.

    27:24Cursed be he that smiteth his neighbour secretly. And all the people shall say, Amen.

    27:25Cursed be he that taketh reward to slay an innocent person. And all the people shall say, Amen.

    27:26Cursed be he that confirmeth not all the words of this law to do them. And all the people shall say, Amen.

    Deuteronomy 27:15-26: And all the people shall say, Amen
  4. 04

    Joshua 8:30-35

    There was not a word which Joshua read not

    It is carried out immediately after Ai, and the account notes who was present: the women, the little ones, and the strangers among them.

    Moses is absent, but his commands keep occupying the sentence. As Moses commanded, as it is written, the law of Moses, all that Moses commanded. Joshua leads the assembly without replacing the authority under which it gathers. His role is not to produce a revised covenant for the newly successful army.

    The ark provides the center of the arrangement. Leaders and ordinary Israelites stand on either side before the priests, with the two mountains giving the assembly its larger shape. The law is both written in public and read in public. This is a different use of visible objects from merely displaying a monument: the writing is given a voice, and the voice addresses an identified community.

    The final verse is almost stubborn about completeness. Not a word is omitted, and the women, little ones, and resident foreigners are named rather than left to disappear inside a broad term for the congregation. Nothing says that everyone has identical offices or identical capacities to understand. What is explicit is that the covenant's hearing is not reserved for the men who carried weapons. The mountains frame a people, not just its army.

    Verse by verse

    1. 8:30

      The altar at Ebal carries out the location and construction instructions in Deuteronomy 27:4-6.

    2. 8:32

      The passage does not specify the length of the inscribed copy. Identifying it confidently with only the Ten Commandments goes beyond what is stated.

    3. 8:33

      Gerizim is the mountain traditionally identified in the Samaritan woman's words this mountain in John 4:20; John itself does not supply its name.

    4. 8:35

      The explicit inclusion of women, children, and resident foreigners parallels the audience prescribed for public reading in Deuteronomy 31:12.

    Joshua 8:30-35

    King James Version · 6 verses

    8:30Then Joshua built an altar unto the LORD God of Israel in mount Ebal,

    8:31As Moses the servant of the LORD commanded the children of Israel, as it is written in the book of the law of Moses, an altar of whole stones, over which no man hath lift up any iron: and they offered thereon burnt offerings unto the LORD, and sacrificed peace offerings.

    8:32And he wrote there upon the stones a copy of the law of Moses, which he wrote in the presence of the children of Israel.

    8:33And all Israel, and their elders, and officers, and their judges, stood on this side the ark and on that side before the priests the Levites, which bare the ark of the covenant of the LORD, as well the stranger, as he that was born among them; half of them over against mount Gerizim, and half of them over against mount Ebal; as Moses the servant of the LORD had commanded before, that they should bless the people of Israel.

    8:34And afterward he read all the words of the law, the blessings and cursings, according to all that is written in the book of the law.

    8:35There was not a word of all that Moses commanded, which Joshua read not before all the congregation of Israel, with the women, and the little ones, and the strangers that were conversant among them.

    Joshua 8:30-35: There was not a word which Joshua read not

Why it matters

An altar of unhewn stones goes up on Ebal, with the specific instruction that no iron tool is lifted upon them, and the words of the law are written on plastered stones very plainly. Then the Levites recite twelve curses and the whole people answer amen to each one. What is striking is the content: most of the twelve are about things done in secret, moving a landmark, misleading a blind man on the road, taking a bribe. The public ceremony is mostly about what nobody would see.

1 song

The music

Every song in the catalogue whose passage falls inside these chapters.

  1. Joshua 8:30-9:27

    We Asked No Counsel

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