Stones, Altar, and Curses on Mount Ebal

Moses and the elders of Israel did not leave the covenant to memory. On the same day they gave the commandments, they also gave orders for what would happen once the people crossed the Jordan. Large stones were to be set up on Mount Ebal, coated with plaster, and inscribed with every word of this law. The writing was to be done plainly, not hidden or ornamental. The land the Lord was giving them flowed with milk and honey, as He had promised their fathers, but the terms of entry were carved in stone.

An altar was to be built on the same mountain, made of uncut stones. No iron tool was to be lifted upon them. The altar was to be built of unhewn stones, and on it they were to offer burnt offerings to the Lord their God. They were also to sacrifice peace offerings, eat there, and rejoice before the Lord. The altar was not a monument to human skill but a place where the covenant was enacted in worship and celebration.

Moses and the priests the Levites then spoke to all Israel, commanding silence. They declared that on that day Israel had become the people of the Lord their God. Therefore they were to obey His voice and do His commandments and statutes, every one of them, as commanded that day. The silence was not for drama but for the weight of what was about to be pronounced.

Moses then charged the people with the ceremony itself. When they crossed the Jordan, six tribes were to stand on Mount Gerizim to bless the people: Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph, and Benjamin. The other six—Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali—were to stand on Mount Ebal for the curse. The mountains themselves became a courtroom, with the law written on stone and the tribes divided by blessing and curse.

The Levites were to cry out to every man of Israel with a loud voice, pronouncing a series of curses. The first curse was against anyone who makes a graven or molten image, an abomination to the Lord, the work of a craftsman, and sets it up in secret. All the people were to answer, “Amen.” The curse was not abstract; it targeted the hidden idolater who thought no one saw.

The second curse was against anyone who dishonors his father or his mother. The third was against anyone who moves his neighbor’s landmark. The fourth curse was against anyone who leads a blind person astray on the road. Each curse named a specific violation, and each time the people were to answer, “Amen.” The curses were not general warnings; they were tied to concrete acts of injustice and betrayal.

The fifth curse was against anyone who perverts the justice due to the sojourner, the fatherless, or the widow. The sixth curse was against anyone who lies with his father’s wife, uncovering his father’s skirt. The seventh curse was against anyone who lies with any animal. The eighth curse was against anyone who lies with his sister, whether the daughter of his father or the daughter of his mother.

The ninth curse was against anyone who lies with his mother-in-law. The tenth curse was against anyone who strikes his neighbor in secret. The eleventh curse was against anyone who takes a bribe to kill an innocent person. The final curse was against anyone who does not confirm all the words of this law by doing them. Each curse ended with the same response: all the people said, “Amen.”

The ceremony on Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim bound the nation to the law not through vague assent but through public, audible agreement. The stones held the written law; the voices of the tribes carried the curses. The altar received the offerings, and the people ate and rejoiced. But the rejoicing stood in the shadow of the curses, which were spoken plainly and answered by every man in Israel.