Deuteronomy 27:2,3 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Bible Comments

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, (Deuteronomy 27:4,) after the taking of Jericho and Ai. See Joshua 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.

Deuteronomy 27:2-3

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:

3 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; as the LORD God of thy fathers hath promised thee.