Deuteronomy 27:3

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

And thou shalt write upon them all the words of this law, when thou art passed over, that thou mayest go in unto the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, a land that floweth with milk and honey;

All the words of this law; either, 1. All the words of this Book of Deuteronomy. But that seems too large for this place. Or, 2. The blessings and curses here following. But they are mentioned as a different thing. Or, 3. The law properly so called, i.e. the sum and substance of the precepts or laws of Moses, especially such as were moral and general, as may be guessed from the following part of the chapter, where the curses pronounced against all that confirm not all the words of this law to do them are particularly applied unto the transgressors of moral laws only, ,16, &c. And especially the decalogue, which oft goes under that name. Compare , &c.

XXVII. THE LAW TO BE IN CANAAN AS THE LAW OF THE LAND.(1) Moses with the elders.—Here joined in exhortation for the first time in this book. Keep.—Literally, to keep. Possibly we are intended to connect the two verses. In order to keep them, ye shall write them. Deuteronomy 27:2-4 THE TO BE WRITTEN ON MOUNT EBAL.(2) Set . . . up great stones, and plaister them with plaister.—The idea is to make a smooth surface, on which the Law could be inscribed. “Plaister” only here and in Isaiah 33:12; Amos 2:2. In both those places it is rendered “lime.” (3) Thou shalt write upon them all the words of this law, when thou art passed over, that thou mayest go in.—Again it is evident that the “going in” to the land and the “passing over” Jordan are not identical. The “Law of God” was to be set up in the heart of the country, as soon as Israel had entered it, in order that they might complete the conquest of it. It is abundantly clear that Israel’s title to Canaan was dependent upon their maintaining the Law of Jehovah as the law of the land. For the fulfilment of this precept, see Joshua 8:32-35. The words of this verse are an additional reason for the view taken in the Note on that passage, that the Law was set up on Ebal immediately after the capture of Ai, without waiting for the completion of the conquest (as some suppose).

Verse 3. All the words of this law] After all that has been said by ingenious critics concerning the law ordered to be written on these stones, some supposing the whole Mosaic law to be intended, others, only the decalogue, I am fully of opinion that the (תורה torah) law or ordinance in question simply means the blessings and curses mentioned in this and in the following chapter; and indeed these contained a very good epitome of the whole law in all its promises and threatenings, in reference to the whole of its grand moral design. See at the end of this chapter. See Clarke on Deuteronomy 27:26.

1–8. Erection of Stones for the Inscription of the Law, and of an Altar Moses and the elders charged the people to keep the commandment (1); when they cross Jordan they shall set up stones and, whitening them, shall thereon write the Law (Torah) (2 f.); they shall do this on Mt ‘Ebal (4), and build an altar (of the form enjoined in E, Exodus 20:24 f.) for burnt and peace offerings, eating and rejoicing before God (5–7), and writing on the stones very plainly (8).—The passage is a compilation from different sources. First, in Deuteronomy 27:2-4; Deuteronomy 27:8, Deuteronomy 27:2 f. and Deuteronomy 27:4; Deuteronomy 27:8 are doublets (cp. Dillm., Westphal, Berth., Marti). With deuteron. phrases both command the same thing, the erection of stones to bear on a white surface an inscription of the Law; but the former prescribes this to be done immediately (Deuteronomy 27:3) on the crossing of the Jordan, the latter on Mt ‘Ebal. Here, then, is another indication of more than one edition of the Code with different supplements. Deuteronomy 27:1 fuses the introductions to these two supplements: Moses charged the elders, and Moses charged the people (see below). Second, in Deuteronomy 27:5-7 the command to build an altar on ‘Ebal seems inconsistent with D’s law of the One Altar, and therefore it is usually taken as the revision by a deuteronomic editor (note the phrases in 7 b) of a command in E (see the small print above on chs. 27–30). This only mitigates the difficulty, if Deuteronomy 27:5-7 be really inconsistent with ch. 12. Yet, whoever placed 5–7 here, must have felt no inconsistency; probably because he argued that at the time fixed for the erection of an altar on ‘Ebal Israel would not have gotten that rest from all their enemies round about, which D fixes as the date after which the law of the One Altar was to come into operation (Deuteronomy 12:10). Because the text is uncertain and the passage has been touched by more editors than one, we can infer nothing from the changes between the Sg. and Pl. forms of address in this passage. Steuern. offers with reserve the following analysis. ‘The Editor appears first to have expanded Deuteronomy 27:5-7 [a fragment older than D] with 2 b, 3 a and thereby identified the altar-stones with the stones on which the law was written, as in Joshua 8:30 ff.; hence he also repeated 3 a in Deuteronomy 27:8. Another has further identified these stones with those Deuteronomy 27:2 a á and so added besides Deuteronomy 27:1-2 a á, 4 a.’

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).

3. Thou shalt write upon them — Before the cement put upon the stones became dry the words could be inscribed; or, on the smooth surface after it had become hard they could be traced, as we find in some ancient tombs.