Joshua 8:33

33. As well the stranger The entire body of Israelites, by descent and by adoption, were present. The latter were more commonly called proselytes, but sometimes strangers.

Over against Mount Gerizim The multitude did not stand on the summits of the mountains, but on their slopes. That they could all hear when thus standing is sufficiently attested by modern travellers. Says Stanley: “The vale of Shechem is far from broad, not exceeding in some places a few hundred feet.” [Says Tristram: “The acoustic properties of this valley are interesting. A single voice might be heard by many thousands, shut in and conveyed up and down by the enclosing hills. In the early morning we could not only see from Gerizim a man driving his ass down a path on Mount Ebal, but could hear every word he uttered as he urged it on; and, in order to test the matter more certainly, on a subsequent occasion two of our party stationed themselves on opposite sides of the valley, and with perfect ease recited the commandments antiphonally.”] Dr. W.M. Thomson writes, respecting this impressive scene: “This was, beyond question or comparison, the most august assembly the sun ever shone upon. I never stand on the narrow plain, with Ebal and Gerizim rising on either hand to the sky, without involuntarily recalling and reproducing the scene. I have shouted to hear the echo, and then fancied how it must have been when the loud-voiced Levites proclaimed from the naked cliffs of Ebal, ‘Cursed be the man that maketh any graven or molten image, an abomination unto Jehovah;’ and then the tremendous AMEN, tenfold louder, from the mighty congregation, rising and swelling, and reaching from Ebal to Gerizim and from Gerizim to Ebal.”