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
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