Read & Study the Bible Online - Bible Portal
Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Deuteronomy 27:1-10

Very plainly. These words, "very plainly," suggest three lines of thought. I. THEY SHOW SOMETHING THAT WAS ORDERED TO BE , viz. that the Law of God was to be written very plainly, as the permanent, standard expression of right, to which the people might appeal. It was not to be left to a floating tradition. To no such risks would God expose his teaching. There was no priesthood in Israel which had any monopoly of knowledge. The words were to be so clearly and accurately... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Deuteronomy 27:1-10

Safeguards for obedience. The enthusiasm of Moses for God's Law is admirable, and no less admirable is his earnest desire for Israel's prosperity. That self-forgetful zeal for others' good was one main qualification in Moses to be the vehicle of God's revealed will. With singular sagacity, Moses presses into the earliest service, for the promulgation of Divine Law, the people themselves. The very stones of Canaan were to be written over with the substance of the Law, and in this way were... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Deuteronomy 27:1-10

Law-abiding people. We have here a direction about writing, upon great stones in Mount Ebal, the words of the Divine Law. Whether this meant only the blessings and curses, as Josephus thinks, or an abstract of Deuteronomy, or only the ten commandments, we cannot tell. But the idea implied is similar to the writing of the Decalogue in stone; it was to render fixed the Law on which the national policy was to rest. In other words, it was a symbolic way of declaring that Israel will be a... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Deuteronomy 27:2

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... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Deuteronomy 27:3

All the words of this law ; i . e . all the purely legislative parts of the Mosaic institute. By the "Law" here cannot be intended merely the blessings and the curses afterwards mentioned ( Deuteronomy 27:14-26 ); nor is there any reason why this term should be restricted to the precepts of this Book of Deuteronomy, as if they only were to be inscribed on the stones: the term must be extended so as to cover all that Moses had at any time delivered to Israel as a law from God. It is not... read more

Albert Barnes

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible - Deuteronomy 27:1

Moses in a third discourse Deut. 27–30, proceeds more specifically to dwell upon the sanctions of the Law. In these chapters he sets before Israel in striking and elaborate detail the blessings which would ensue upon faithfulness to the covenant, and the curses which disobedience would involve. Deuteronomy 27:0 introduces this portion of the book by enjoining the erection of a stone monument on which the Law should be inscribed as soon as the people took possession of the promised inheritance... read more

Albert Barnes

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible - 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. read more

Albert Barnes

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible - Deuteronomy 27:3

All the words of this law - i. e. all the laws revealed from God to the people by Moses, regarded by the Jews as 613 (compare Numbers 15:38 note). The exhibition of laws in this manner on stones, pillars, or tables, was familiar to the ancients. The laws were probably graven in the stone (“very plainly,” Deuteronomy 27:8 is by some rendered “scoop it out well”), as are for the most part the Egyptian hieroglyphics, the “plaister” being afterward added to protect the inscription from the weather. read more

Joseph Benson

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Deuteronomy 27:1

Deuteronomy 27:1. Moses with the elders Having in discourses at several times repeated the principal parts of the laws, and made several necessary additions to them, Moses called the council together, and summoned the body of the people to attend them at the tabernacle; where, after an earnest exhortation to observe what he had already said, and was now about to prescribe to them, he directs them, the first opportunity they had after their arrival in the land of promise, to renew their... read more

Joseph Benson

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Deuteronomy 27:2-3

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... read more

Group of Brands