Deuteronomy 27:2 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Ver. 2. On the day when ye shall pass over Jordan— Day here, as well as in the former verse, signifies time. See Joshua 8:30. It is not said how many great stones they were to set up; neither can we determine their number, unless we knew exactly how much of the law was to be written, whether the whole book of Deuteronomy, or only the ten commandments, or the curses and the blessings. They are ordered to plaister over these stones with plaister. This plaister has been generally understood, as meant to be laid over the stones, to give them smooth surfaces, that so the law might be inscribed upon that plaister. But the very next words shew, that the words were not to be inscribed upon it, i.e. the plaister; but upon them, i.e. the stones. Besides, if duration was not intended, the original tables were present, and might have been used for a single recital of the commandments on this extraordinary occasion: and if duration was intended, covering the surfaces of the stones with plaister, notwithstanding what has been said of the tenacity of the ancient plaister, seems a method very unlikely to perpetuate the inscription; especially as the words are supposed to be inscribed as soon as the plaister was laid on. The learned Houbigant thinks, that the words do not mean plaister for the surfaces, but cement for the sides of these stones, by which they were to be joined firmly together:—caementum, quo lapides monumenti, unus ad unum, firme cohaererent. But, perhaps, the truth of the case is this: the letters on these stones were not to be sunk or hollowed out, but raised in relievo, and the stone cut from around the letters. The plaister would then be of excellent use to fill up the interstices of the letters: and if the plaister was white between the letters of black marble, the words would appear according to the command, ver. 8 very plainly, or, as in Coverdale's Version of 1535, manifestly and well. This hypothesis of the letters being raised may be strengthened, by observing, that the Arabic inscriptions, perhaps all that are now extant, are in relievo. The two Arabick marbles, preserved in the University of Oxford, are proofs of this method of engraving; which, therefore, might obtain formerly among the other oriental nations. Selden, in his account of the Oxford marbles, mentions four, numbered 191, 192, 193, 194, which have on them Hebrew characters, and were anciently parts of some sepulchral monuments of the Jews. But not knowing where these fragments are, I cannot say whether the letters upon them are in relievo, or the contrary. See Kennicott's Dissertation, 2: p. 77.