Deuteronomy 27: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

Moses and the elders tell Israel that when they cross the Jordan they must set up large stones coated with plaster on Mount Ebal, write all the words of this law on them plainly, and build there an altar of uncut stones for burnt offerings and peace offerings. Moses and the Levitical priests tell the people that on this day they have become the people of the LORD their God and must obey him. Moses then assigns six tribes to stand on Mount Gerizim to bless the people and six on Mount Ebal for the curse, and the Levites call out twelve curses, with the whole people answering "Amen" to each one.

Claim by Claim

1. 27:1
   • Moses and the elders of Israel commanded the people.
   • They said to keep all the commandment that Moses commands them this day.
2. 27:2
   • On the day the people cross the Jordan into the land the LORD their God is giving them, they are to set up large stones.
   • They are to coat those stones with plaster.
3. 27:3
   • They are to write on the stones all the words of this law when they have crossed over.
   • The purpose is that they may enter the land the LORD their God is giving them.
   • The land flows with milk and honey.
   • The LORD, the God of their fathers, promised the land to them.
4. 27:4
   • When they have crossed the Jordan, they are to set up these stones that Moses commands them this day.
   • The stones are to be set up on Mount Ebal.
   • They are to coat the stones with plaster.
5. 27:5
   • They are to build an altar there to the LORD their God.
   • The altar is to be an altar of stones.
   • They are not to wield any iron tool upon the stones.
6. 27:6
   • They are to build the altar of the LORD their God of whole, unhewn stones.
   • They are to offer burnt offerings on the altar to the LORD their God.
7. 27:7
   • They are to sacrifice peace offerings.
   • They are to eat there.
   • They are to rejoice before the LORD their God.
8. 27:8
   • They are to write on the stones all the words of this law.
   • The writing is to be very clear and plain.
9. 27:9
   • Moses and the priests the Levites spoke to all Israel.
   • They told Israel to be silent and listen.
   • They said that on this day Israel has become the people of the LORD their God.
10. 27:10
    • Israel is therefore to obey the voice of the LORD their God.
    • Israel is to do his commandments and his statutes, which Moses commands them this day.
11. 27:11
    • Moses charged the people on that same day.
12. 27:12
    • These tribes shall stand on Mount Gerizim to bless the people when the people have crossed the Jordan.
    • The tribes are Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph, and Benjamin.
13. 27:13
    • These tribes shall stand on Mount Ebal for the curse.
    • The tribes are Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali.
14. 27:14
    • The Levites shall speak to all the men of Israel with a loud voice.
15. 27:15
    • Cursed is the man who makes a carved or cast image.
    • Such an image is an abomination to the LORD.
    • Such an image is the work of a craftsman's hands.
    • Cursed is the man who sets such an image up in secret.
    • All the people shall answer and say, Amen.
16. 27:16
    • Cursed is he who treats his father or his mother with contempt.
    • All the people shall say, Amen.
17. 27:17
    • Cursed is he who moves his neighbor's boundary marker.
    • All the people shall say, Amen.
18. 27:18
    • Cursed is he who misleads a blind man on the road.
    • All the people shall say, Amen.
19. 27:19
    • Cursed is he who perverts the justice due the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow.
    • All the people shall say, Amen.
20. 27:20
    • Cursed is he who lies with his father's wife.
    • The reason is that he has uncovered his father's skirt.
    • All the people shall say, Amen.
21. 27:21
    • Cursed is he who lies with any animal.
    • All the people shall say, Amen.
22. 27:22
    • Cursed is he who lies with his sister, whether the daughter of his father or the daughter of his mother.
    • All the people shall say, Amen.
23. 27:23
    • Cursed is he who lies with his mother-in-law.
    • All the people shall say, Amen.
24. 27:24
    • Cursed is he who strikes down his neighbor in secret.
    • All the people shall say, Amen.
25. 27:25
    • Cursed is he who takes a bribe to strike down a person, shedding innocent blood.
    • All the people shall say, Amen.
26. 27:26
    • Cursed is he who does not uphold all the words of this law by doing them.
    • All the people shall say, Amen.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

27:1

"Elders" were the senior heads of families and clans who settled disputes and spoke for the community; the word marks an office, not simply old age.

27:2

Coating stones with plaster and writing on the smooth surface was a known method for public inscriptions in the ancient Near East; plastered wall inscriptions from this period have been found east of the Jordan. It is not clear whether the same stones are meant as the altar stones of verse 5.

27:3

"A land flowing with milk and honey" is a stock phrase for a country good enough to support both herds (milk) and orchards and wild bees (honey), abundance, not two particular products.

27:4

Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim stand on either side of the pass at Shechem, in the central hill country. The Samaritan Pentateuch, and some ancient manuscript evidence, reads "Mount Gerizim" here instead of Ebal; the two communities disagreed over which mountain the altar belonged on.

27:5

Uncut stone was required for altars elsewhere in the law as well (Exodus 20:25). The stated reason there is that using a tool on the stone profanes it; the ban is on shaping the stone, not on the tool itself.

27:6

A burnt offering was wholly burned on the altar, with no part eaten by the worshiper.

27:7

A peace offering (also translated fellowship offering) was the one sacrifice largely eaten by the people who brought it, a shared meal at the sanctuary, which is why eating and rejoicing are mentioned together.

27:9

"Take heed" translates a rare Hebrew word meaning to be silent or hold still; the sense is closer to "be quiet and pay attention" than "be careful." "The priests the Levites" is not two groups: priests were drawn from the tribe of Levi.

27:10

"Statutes" is an old word for rules.

27:12

The two mountains face each other across a narrow valley at Shechem, so shouts from the slopes carry across it. The six tribes on Gerizim are all descended from Jacob's wives Leah and Rachel; the Ebal group contains the four tribes descended from the two servant wives, plus Reuben (the firstborn, who had forfeited his standing) and Zebulun.

27:13

To "curse" here means to pronounce a formal curse out loud: a public declaration that anyone who does these things has put himself outside God's protection. It has nothing to do with swearing or bad language.

27:14

Levi is listed among the tribes on Gerizim in verse 12, yet the Levites here do the speaking; the text does not explain the overlap, and readers have long taken it either as a smaller group of officiating Levites standing in the valley or as a loose way of speaking.

27:15

A "graven" image is carved from wood or stone; a "molten" one is cast from melted metal. "Amen" means roughly "truly" or "let it stand", by saying it the assembly accepted each curse as binding on itself. The point of "in secret" runs through the whole list: these are offenses a human court would rarely catch.

27:16

"Setteth light by" is old English for treating someone as of no weight, dishonoring or holding in contempt. The Hebrew verb is the opposite of the one behind "honor" in the commandment about parents.

27:17

Fields were marked by boundary stones, not fences or deeds. Quietly shifting one stole a strip of a neighbor's land, and in a society with no land registry the theft was almost impossible to prove.

27:18

The Hebrew covers both misdirecting a blind person and leaving one to stray, deliberately exploiting someone who cannot check what he is told. A related law forbids putting an obstacle in a blind person's path (Leviticus 19:14).

27:19

"Perverteth the judgment" means bending a legal case in court. These three groups are named together throughout the law because each lacked what normally protected a person there: the resident foreigner had no clan, the fatherless and the widow no male household head to argue for them.

27:20

"His father's wife" ordinarily means a stepmother rather than the man's own mother. "Uncovereth his father's skirt" is an idiom: the skirt is the corner or hem of a garment, and spreading it over a woman signaled a claim to her in marriage (see Ruth 3:9), so lifting the father's skirt means seizing what was exclusively his.

27:22

The wording deliberately covers half-sisters (a sister by the same father only, or the same mother only) as well as full sisters.

27:23

"Mother in law" here means the wife's mother.

27:24

"Smiteth ... secretly" means a killing done where there is no witness, so no one could bring the killer before the elders or before the dead man's avenging kinsman.

27:25

"Taketh reward" means accepting a bribe. The wording covers both a hired killing and taking money to secure a death sentence in court against someone innocent.

27:26

"Confirmeth not" translates a verb meaning to uphold or make stand, to keep the law in force by acting on it, not merely to agree with it. Paul quotes this verse in Galatians 3:10 from the Greek version, which adds "everyone" and "all" for emphasis.