Deuteronomy 27:2

Deu 27:2 And it shall be on the day when ye shall pass over Jordan unto the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, that thou shalt set thee up great stones, and plaister them with plaister:

Ver. 2. And plaster them with plaster.] That they might have it in white and black.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Deu_27:2-3

That thou shalt set up great stones.

Memorial pillars

On the boundary line between European and Siberian Russia there is a square pillar of brick bearing on one side the coat-of-arms belonging to the province of Perm in Europe, and on the other side the coat-of-arms belonging to the province of Tobolsk in Asia. That pillar has more sorrowful associations than any other pillar in the world. For many years the exiles to Siberia had to pass it, and there bade a long farewell to home and country. Strong men wept; some pressed their faces to the loved soil they were leaving, some collected a little earth to take with them to their new abodes, and some passionately kissed the European side of the pillar. The plaister on the bricks was covered with inscriptions, plaintive and pathetic as the epitaphs in a graveyard. Moses thought of pillars which were to have not a mournful, but a joyful significance. The stones were afterwards set up by the people as memorials of Gods work on their behalf. The stones were to be a perpetual memorial of indebtedness to God for rescue from slavery and guidance to prosperity and honour. The disciples of Christ have experienced a change wonderful as that experienced by the Israelites. They have passed from bondage to liberty, from darkness to light, from moral debasement to spiritual glory. They are not to boast as if by their own endeavours they had wrought out the salvation in which they rejoice, but gratefully to confess that God has made them what they are. They are themselves to be monuments of Gods power such as all can see and understand. Something more is needed from them than activity in setting up great stones as abiding witnesses of the great revolution in their life. They are to stand before the world as witnesses of Gods saving, hallowing work in the human soul. The stones the Israelites were to set up were to be plaistered, and the law written on the plaister. There was a deep significance in the words thus inscribed. The people would be reminded by them that though they were out of the wilderness they had not ceased to be under the law. The horrors of Egyptian slavery would have been better for them than luxurious life in Canaan unrestricted by Divine precepts. The written stones were an attestation of Gods supremacy over them, and as a restraint from the moral laxity to which they would be tempted when at ease amid the limpid wells and orchards green and all the other charms of the land where Abraham fed his flock of yore. The disciples of Christ are to be as pillars inscribed with the law of the Lord. They do not bear the words of the ceremonial law, nor are they under direct obligation to bear those of the social law enacted in the wilderness. It is the moral law they bear as a sacred inscription on their life. Special prominence is to be given to the two great commandments, love to God and love to man, which, according to the teaching of Jesus, include the whole of the Decalogue. Faith in Christ does not mean freedom from the law as a rule of life. Truth, honesty, amiability are as much required in members of the Church as if those qualities were the sole condition of salvation: evangelical righteousness implies practical righteousness. (J. Marrat.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Deu 27:2-3. On the day — Here it is evident the word day does not signify precisely the very same day they passed over, but some indefinite time after, namely, as soon as they were come to mount Ebal, (Deu 27:4,) after the taking of Jericho and Ai. See Jos 8:30. All the words of this law — Some have thought that he means the whole book of Deuteronomy. But they must have been immense stones to have contained this. It is more probable that only the ten commandments are intended, or perhaps, as Josephus’s opinion is, only the cursings which here follow, the last whereof seems to respect the whole law of Moses. Mount Ebal — The mount of cursing. Here the law was written, to signify that a curse was due to the violaters of it, and that no man could expect justification from it, all having violated it in one kind and degree or other. Here the sacrifices were to be offered, to show that there is no way to be delivered from this curse but by the blood of Christ, which all these sacrifices did typify, and by Christ’s being made a curse for us.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Verse 2. Thou shalt set thee up great stones] How many is not specified, possibly twelve, and possibly only a sufficient number to make a surface large enough to write the blessings and the curses on.

Plaster them with plaster] Perhaps the original ושדת אתם בשיד vesadta otham bassid should be translated, Thou shalt cement them with cement, because this was intended to be a durable monument. In similar cases it was customary to set up a single stone, or a heap, rudely put together, where no cement or mortar appears to have been used; and because this was common, it was necessary to give particular directions when the usual method was not to be followed. Some suppose that the writing was to be in relievo, and that the spaces between the letters were filled up by the mortar or cement. This is quite a possible case, as the Eastern inscriptions are frequently done in this way. There is now before me a large slab of basaltes, two feet long by sixteen inches wide, on which there is an inscription in Persian, Arabic, and Tamul; in the two former the letters are all raised, the surface of the stone being dug out, but the Tamul is indented. A kind of reddish paint had been smeared over the letters to make them more apparent. Two Arabic marbles in the University of Oxford have the inscriptions in relievo, like those on the slab of basalt in my possession. In the opinion of some even this case may cast light upon the subject in question.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

2. on the day on which ye shall pass over Jordan] The Heb. idiom (cp. 2Sa_19:20, Est_9:1) implies the very day on which they were crossing, and not (vaguely) the time when they crossed; and this is confirmed by 3b which indicates that the stones were to be set up when Israel crossed Jordan but before they entered upon their occupation of the land, in order that thou mayest go in (similarly Dillm. and Dri.).

and plaister them with plaister] A whitewash of lime or chalk, as a background for the writing in black or another colour. The practice was Egyptian, and in Egypt the climate was not hostile to the result. But such writing would not survive the winters of Palestine, where not even inscriptions engraved in limestone, but only those in basalt have endured. It is possible therefore that we have here a very ancient fragment incorporated in D. Cp. E, Exo_24:4-7 where the writing of the words of the Lord by Moses is associated with the erection of twelve maṣṣebôth.

all the word; of this law] Heb. Tôrah (see on Deu_1:5, Deu_31:9, etc.). How much is comprised in this phrase we cannot say, for we are not sure of the exact size of the original code of D.

It was a widespread custom in antiquity to engrave laws upon stone pillars. The Code of Ḫammurabi is engraved on a pillar of black diorite in ‘about 49 columns, 4000 lines and 8000 words’ (Johns, Hastings’ D.B., Extra Vol.). The local tariff of Palmyra contains about 260 lines in Greek and 163 in Aramaic (Cooke, N. Semit. Inscr. 313 ff.). The regulations for sacrifices at Carthage (CIS. i. i. 166 ff.) were graven on stone. For Greece cp. Apollodorus in the Schol. to l. 447 of the Clouds of Aristophanes: οἱ ἀρχαῖοι λίθους ἱστάντες εἰώθεσαν τὰ δόξαντα ἐν αὐτοῖς ἀναγράφειν. These pillars were called στῆλαι and the phrase παραβῆναι τὰς στήλας (Polyb. xxvi. 1, 4) = to transgress the laws (Knobel).

when thou art passed over] LXX, ye are.

that thou mayest go in, etc.] Cp. Deu_4:40, Deu_6:3, Deu_7:1, etc. LXX B, etc., read that ye may go in, but most MSS have Sg.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

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 was put in execution; indeed as soon as they passed over Jordan, they were ordered to take twelve stones, and did; but then they were set up in a different place, and for a different purpose; see Jos 4:3,

unto the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, that thou shalt set thee up great stones; not in Jordan, as Jarchi, but on Mount Ebal, Deu 27:4; nor had the stones set up in Jordan any such inscription as what is here ordered to be set on these:

and plaster them with plaster: that so words might be written upon them, and be more conspicuous, and more easily read.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

The stones here named are not those of which the altar Deu 27:5 was to be built, but are to serve as a separate monument witnessing to the fact that the people took possession of the land by virtue of the Law inscribed on them and with an acknowledgment of its obligations.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Stones. The Latin translation of the Samaritan copy, defines the number to be two, (Exodus xx. 18,) and shews that the law, which was to be written upon them, was no other than the decalogue, to which the curses and blessings here recorded have a direct reference. When no number is specified, the dual is commonly understood. (Haydock) (Leviticus xii. 5, &c.) --- Two large stones would be sufficient to contain the words of the decalogue, and they would more strikingly represent the two tables written with the finger of God. They were probably first polished, and the letters raised upon them in relievo, as the Arabic marbles in the University of Oxford are done. The white plaster being then used to fill up the interstices between the letters of black marble, the words would appear very plainly. (Kennicott, Dis. 2.) --- Others think that a high and durable monument was raised both for an altar and for the inscription, though some would allow four others for this purpose. (Calmet) --- Plaster. The Hebrew does not specify all over; and Houbigant supposes, that the cement was only used to join the stones together. Neither do the Hebrew or Septuagint intimate that the plaster was laid on for the purpose of writing more easily.

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

On that day, i.e. about that time, for it was not done till some days after their passing over.

Day is oft put for time, as hath been noted before.

Plaister them with plaister, for conveniency of writing upon them.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

2. The day when ye shall pass over Jordan — Day is used here, as elsewhere, to denote the time when. After you have passed over Jordan, thou shalt set thee up great stones, etc. Some have inferred that the law was first engraved upon the stones and then the stones covered with some kind of cement.

Plaster them — The Hebrew word which our version renders plaster is so seldom met with that its meaning is not plain. In a dry climate, with little or no frost, the cement will remain intact for a long time. That on the so-called Pools of Solomon, which bear marks of great age, is in admirable preservation, as though only a few years old.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

On the day when ye shall pass over Jordan; i.e. at the time; "day" is here used in a wide sense (cf. Gen_2:4; Num_3:1; 2Sa_22:1; Ecc_12:3; Isa_11:10, etc.) Thou shalt set thee up great stones, and plaster them with plaster, The stones, the number of which is not specified, were to be large, because much was to be inscribed upon them, and they were to be covered with a coating of lime or gypsum (dyci), in order to secure a smooth white surface on which the inscription might be clearly depicted. That the words were not, as Michaelis, Rosenm and others suppose, cut in the stone, and afterwards covered with plaster in order to preserve them, is plain from its being enjoined that they were to be written upon (l) the stones so prepared; and besides, as this was intended to be a proclamation of the Law, the main purpose of the erection would have been frustrated had the inscription been concealed by such a covering as that supposed. Among the ancient Egyptians the practice of depicting records on walls or monuments covered with a coating of plaster was common (see Hengstenberg, "Authentic des Pent.," 1:464, English translation, 1:433); from them, doubtless, it was borrowed by the Hebrews. It has been suggested by Kennicott that the writing was to be in relieve, and that the spaces between the letters were filled up by the mortar or cement. This is possible, but it is not such a process as this that the words of the text suggest. "A careful examination of Deu_27:4, Deu_27:8, and Jos 8:30-22, will lead to the opinion that the Law was written upon or in the plaster with which these pillars were coated. This could easily be done, and such writing was common in ancient times. I have seen specimens of it certainly more than two thousand years old, and still as distinct as when they were first inscribed on the plaster" (Thomson, "Land and the Book," it. p. 204).

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

On that day - About that time, for it was not done 'till some days after their passing over. 3. This law - The law properly so called, that is, the sum and substance of the precepts or laws of Moses, especially such as were moral, particularly the decalogue. Write it, that thou mayest go in - As the condition of thy entering into the land. For since Canaan is given only by promise, it must be held by obedience.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

והקמת לך THEN THOU SHALT RAISE THEE UP [GREAT STONES] — in the Jordan, and afterwards you shall take out from there others and build an altar of them on Mount Eval. Consequently you must say that there were three sets of stones: twelve in the Jordan, an equal number in Gilgal, and another twelve on Mount Ebal, as is stated in Treatise Sotah 35b.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.