Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to Deuteronomy · About this commentary
The Stones and the Uncut Altar
Deuteronomy 27:1-10
1 Moses and the elders of Israel commanded the people, saying, “Keep all the commandment which I command you today. · WEB
The law is to be written on plastered stones the day they cross, and the altar beside it must be built of stone no tool has touched.
The first thing to be done in the new country is not a battle or a settlement. It is a piece of writing.
Great stones are to be set up and coated with plaster, and you shall write on them all the words of this law Deuteronomy 27:2–3. The instruction is repeated with an adverb that matters: very plainly Deuteronomy 27:8.
Legibility is legislated. Whatever else the monument is, it is meant to be read by ordinary people walking past, and the plaster surface is a practical choice — a writing ground that takes a full text rather than a few carved lines.
The location is Mount Ebal Deuteronomy 27:4, which is the mountain assigned to the curse Deuteronomy 27:13. The law goes up on the side of the valley where the penalties will be recited.
An altar is built there too, and its specification is unusual. An altar of stones. You shall not use any iron tool on them — uncut stones Deuteronomy 27:5–6.
The stones for the writing are dressed and plastered; the stones for the altar are exactly as found. Human workmanship is required for the text and forbidden for the place of sacrifice, and the contrast is deliberate. What God says is to be made as clear as skill allows. The place where atonement happens is not improved by anyone.
What happens at the altar is not solemn. Burnt offerings, then peace offerings, and then you shall eat there. You shall rejoice before Yahweh your God Deuteronomy 27:7. A meal, on a mountain, at the start.
Then a sentence that should be read twice, because it is spoken to people who have been the people of God for forty years: be silent and listen, Israel! Today you have become the people of Yahweh your God Deuteronomy 27:9.
Today. Not at the exodus, not at Sinai, not by descent. The same insistence as chapter 5 Deuteronomy 5:3 — the covenant is entered by the generation entering it, and the word today runs through this book more often than any other.
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