Deuteronomy
Deuteronomy 27
1Moses and the elders of Israel commanded the people, saying, “Keep all the commandment which I command you today. 2It shall be on the day when you shall pass over the Jordan to the land which Yahweh your God gives you, that you shall set yourself up great stones, and coat them with plaster. 3You shall write on them all the words of this law, when you have passed over, that you may go in to the land which Yahweh your God gives you, a land flowing with milk and honey, as Yahweh, the God of your fathers, has promised you. 4It shall be, when you have crossed over the Jordan, that you shall set up these stones, which I command you today, on Mount Ebal, and you shall coat them with plaster. 5There you shall build an altar to Yahweh your God, an altar of stones. You shall not use any iron tool on them. 6You shall build Yahweh your God’s altar of uncut stones. You shall offer burnt offerings on it to Yahweh your God. 7You shall sacrifice peace offerings, and shall eat there. You shall rejoice before Yahweh your God. 8You shall write on the stones all the words of this law very plainly.”
9Moses and the Levitical priests spoke to all Israel, saying, “Be silent and listen, Israel! Today you have become the people of Yahweh your God. 10You shall therefore obey Yahweh your God’s voice, and do his commandments and his statutes, which I command you today.”
11Moses commanded the people the same day, saying, 12“These shall stand on Mount Gerizim to bless the people, when you have crossed over the Jordan: Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph, and Benjamin. 13These shall stand on Mount Ebal for the curse: Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali. 14With a loud voice, the Levites shall say to all the men of Israel, 15‘Cursed is the man who makes an engraved or molten image, an abomination to Yahweh, the work of the hands of the craftsman, and sets it up in secret.’
All the people shall answer and say, ‘Amen.’
16‘Cursed is he who dishonors his father or his mother.’
All the people shall say, ‘Amen.’
17‘Cursed is he who removes his neighbor’s landmark.’
All the people shall say, ‘Amen.’
18‘Cursed is he who leads the blind astray on the road.’
All the people shall say, ‘Amen.’
19‘Cursed is he who withholds justice from the foreigner, fatherless, and widow.’
All the people shall say, ‘Amen.’
20‘Cursed is he who lies with his father’s wife, because he dishonors his father’s bed.’
All the people shall say, ‘Amen.’
21‘Cursed is he who lies with any kind of animal.’
All the people shall say, ‘Amen.’
22‘Cursed is he who lies with his sister, his father’s daughter or his mother’s daughter.’
All the people shall say, ‘Amen.’
23‘Cursed is he who lies with his mother-in-law.’
All the people shall say, ‘Amen.’
24‘Cursed is he who secretly kills his neighbor.’
All the people shall say, ‘Amen.’
25‘Cursed is he who takes a bribe to kill an innocent person.’
All the people shall say, ‘Amen.’
26‘Cursed is he who doesn’t uphold the words of this law by doing them.’
All the people shall say, ‘Amen.’ ”
Commentary
No commentary on this chapter yet.
What others are saying
4 commentators · 35 notes on this chapter
Matthew Henry2
Writes as a pastor rather than a critic. Expect devotional and practical application over historical or linguistic analysis, read through a Reformed covenantal frame — and expect the Old Testament to be read forward toward Christ throughout.
Why this voice is here: The most widely read English commentary for three centuries. Included as a baseline: where Henry and a modern voice diverge, the divergence itself is usually the interesting part.
Here is, I. A general charge to the people to keep God's commandments; for in vain did they know them, unless they would do them. This is pressed upon them, 1. With all authority. Moses with the elders of Israel, the rulers of each tribe (Deu 27:1), and…
When the law was written, to be seen and read by all men, the sanctions of it were to be published, which, to complete the solemnity of their covenanting with God, they were deliberately to declare their approbation of. This they were before directed to do…
John Gill26
The most exhaustive and the most doctrinally committed here. Expect high — even supralapsarian — Calvinism applied consistently, and unusually heavy use of rabbinic and Talmudic sources for Jewish context. Where a passage bears on election or the will, Gill will read it in one direction, and knowing that in advance is the point.
Why this voice is here: The strongest Calvinist reading available in the public domain, and the best on Jewish background. Read alongside Clarke, not instead of him — between them you get both sides of the argument.
And Moses, with the elders of Israel, commanded the people, saying,.... The seventy elders, at the head of whom was Moses, which made the great sanhedrim, or council of the nation; Moses having recited all the laws of God to the people, these joined with him…
And it shall be, on the day when you shall pass over Jordan,.... Not the precise day exactly, but about that time, a little after they passed that river, as soon as they conveniently could; for it was not till after Ai was destroyed that the following order…
And thou shall write upon them all the words of this law,.... Not the whole book of Deuteronomy, as some think, at least not the historical part of it, only what concerns the laws of God; and it may be only a summary or abstract of them, and perhaps only the…
Keil & Delitzsch4
The technical one, and Old Testament only. Expect Hebrew grammar, textual argument, and direct engagement with nineteenth-century critical scholarship — closer to a scholarly apparatus than a devotional read. Where a modern critic claims a text is late or composite, this is where the conservative counter-argument was made.
Why this voice is here: Old Testament only, and heavy going — but the place to look when someone asserts a passage cannot mean what it appears to.
The command in Deu 27:1 to keep the whole law (שׁמר, inf. abs. for the imperative, as in Exo 13:3, etc.), with which the instructions that follow are introduced, indicates at the very outset the purpose for which the law written upon stones was to be set up…
With the solemn erection of the stones with the law written upon them, Israel was to transfer to the land the blessing and curse of the law, as was already commanded in Deu 11:29; that is to say, according to the more minute explanation of the command which…
"And the Levites shall lift up and speak to all the men of Israel with a high (loud) voice:" i.e., they shall pronounce the different formularies of blessing and cursing, turning towards the tribes to whom these utterances apply; and all the men of Israel…
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown3
The concise option. Three authors split the canon, so the voice shifts between sections. Expect brief, sober, conservative notes that resolve difficulties rather than dwelling on them — useful for orientation, thinner than Gill or Clarke where a passage is genuinely contested.
Why this voice is here: The quickest way to see what the mainstream Reformed reading of a passage is. Start here, then go to Gill or Clarke when it matters.
thou shalt write upon them all the words of this law--It might be, as some think, the Decalogue; but a greater probability is that it was "the blessings and curses," which comprised in fact an epitome of the law (Jos 8:34).
there shalt thou build an altar . . . of whole stones--The stones were to be in their natural state, as if a chisel would communicate pollution to them. The stony pile was to be so large as to contain all the conditions of the covenant, so elevated as to be…
THE TRIBES DIVIDED ON GERIZIM AND EBAL. (Deu 27:11-13) These shall stand upon mount Gerizim to bless the people . . . these shall stand upon mount Ebal to curse--Those long, rocky ridges lay in the province of Samaria, and the peaks referred to were near…
World English Bible — Public domain