Deuteronomy 11:26

"Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse: the blessing, If ye shall hearken unto the commandments of Jehovah your God; and the curse, if ye shall not hearken, but turn aside out of the way which I command you this day, to go after other gods, which ye have not known. And it shall come to pass when Jehovah thy God shall bring thee into the land whither thou goest to possess it, that thou shalt set the blessing upon mount Gerizim, and the curse upon mount Ebal. Are they not beyond the Jordan, behind the way of the going down of the sun, in the land of the Canaanites that dwell in the Arabah, over against Gilgal, beside the oaks of Moreh? For ye are to pass over the Jordan to go in to possess the land which Jehovah you God giveth you, and ye shall possess it, and dwell therein. And ye shall observe to do all the statutes and the ordinances which I set before you this day."

"Beyond Jordan ..." (Deuteronomy 11:30) (See under Deuteronomy 1:1 for a discussion of this expression which has the meaning of "transjordan," sometimes meaning "West of Jordan" as here, and often meaning "East of Jordan".) These are exactly the same words that T. Witton Davies said, "prove that the writer was West of Jordan."[19] Nothing could be more undependable than assertions regarding the authorship of Deuteronomy based upon such phrases as this, which sometimes mean one thing, sometimes another.

This whole paragraph (Deuteronomy 11:26-32) regards the transfer of the leadership of Israel from Moses to Joshua.

The transition was to be marked by a two-stage renewal ritual, which would exhibit the continuity of the more ultimate divine leadership. The arrangement was the equivalent of measures taken in vassal treaties by human suzerains to guarantee the dynastic succession on their thrones.[20] Thus, there is a glimpse in advance (here) of that renewal ceremony recorded in Joshua 8:30-35.[21]

Another great feature of this remarkable paragraph is the positive proof it gives of the freedom of the human will. "If Israel were not free agents, they could not be punished for disobedience, nor could they, in any sense of the word, be rewarded for obedience."[22]

Gerizim and Ebal were two significant peaks in central Palestine about 3,000 feet in elevation. They were quite close together with a little valley in between.[23]

Some have complained that Gilgal, mentioned here as being on the way to or in the vicinity of Gerizim and Ebal, "Is not near them (if the usual Gilgal is meant)";[24] but a number of scholars identify the Gilgal here with "the modern Julejib, two and one half miles southeast of the village of Shechem (near these mountains)."[25] "The name Gilgal means a circle, or a cairn of stones, and was used to designate several localities, one of which is near Shechem."[26]

The Arabah mentioned here is the name of the Great Rift in Asia Minor that includes the entire Jordan valley.

We are concerned with one other very important consideration in this chapter. When Joshua, the successor of Moses, honored the instructions here given by Moses, he specifically declared no less than three times (Joshua 8:30-35) that MOSES had commanded these instructions to be obeyed, "as it is written in the Book of the Law of Moses." But, the Book of Deuteronomy is the only book in which those instructions are found, therefore Deuteronomy is a part of the Book of the Law of Moses. If then, there is any truth in the Book of Joshua, then, beyond all possibility of doubt, the Book of Deuteronomy came from Moses. "There is no way to avoid the truth of this conclusion except by robbing the sacred account of all truthfulness. This the destructive critics do without hesitation."[27] We note this at this point, because it is a classical example of how the so-called higher criticism, in the last analysis, is absolutely nothing but an arrogant and conceited denial of what the Holy Bible says. It is the resurgence of the old Satanic lie, "Ye shall not surely die!" The most devious and ingenious methods are adopted by many of the critics to conceal what they actually do, to deny that there is any truth in the Word of God. Such deniers of God's Word must be accounted among the most unprincipled liars ever to appear upon earth!