Deuteronomychapter 27
26 verses · BSBDeuteronomy book hub →
Key verse
‘Cursed is he who withholds justice from the foreigner, the fatherless, or the widow.’ And let all the people say, ‘Amen!’
It stands in Twelve curses, and all the people say Amen, verses 15 to 26.
The chapter
Chapter summary
Ebal and Gerizim. The third sermon begins. Great stones to be set up on Mount Ebal with all the words of this law written upon them, plastered with plaster. An altar of unhewn stones. Six tribes (Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph, Benjamin) on Mount Gerizim to bless; six (Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan, Naphtali) on Mount Ebal to curse. Twelve curses pronounced by the Levites with loud voice, each answered with ‘Amen’. The graven image, the despiser of parents, the mover of the landmark, the misleader of the blind, the perverter of judgment, the incestuous, the smiter of the neighbour secretly, the confirmer of blood. The covenant's sanctions spoken.
Context
Law · Moses · Deuteronomy overview
The world behind this chapter
Deuteronomy 27The history
The charge comes from the whole leadership rather than from Moses alone. He commands with the elders of Israel at verse 1, and at verse 9 the Levitical priests stand with him. It falls in the fortieth year after the exodus, on the plains of Moab, and the ceremony it orders is to be held after the crossing at the two mountains above Shechem. The occasion is the close of the law code that began at 4:44, so the nation now has to ratify what it has heard. A first hearer knew that large stones coated with plaster were a normal way to publish a text. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown point to Egyptian inscriptions laid in paint or plaster that have survived three thousand years, and observe that Moses was raised where that craft was practised. He also knew the altar rule being applied here, whole stones with no iron tool lifted on them, which Exodus 20:25 had already given. Adam Clarke observes that every act in the list of twelve curses was forbidden long before this chapter, so what the ceremony adds is the sentence hanging over each one.
The rest of the history, and what it meant to them
What it meant to them
Saying Amen aloud made every person present a party to the agreement rather than a spectator at it. The content of the curses told them what God watches, since most of the twelve name acts done where no witness stands. The covenant therefore reached past anything the elders at the gate could try. The stones were to go up on the land itself before any city was taken, so the law was published on the ground before the ground was held.
Sources cited
- Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible , 1871, on Deuteronomy 27:2
- Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible , 1832, on Deuteronomy 27:16
- Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament , on Deuteronomy 27:12
- Adam Zertal's excavation on Mount Ebal, 1982 to 1989
Where the chapter sits
Deuteronomy 27 falls in Third sermon, blessings and curses (chapters 27–30). Ebal and Gerizim; the blessings of obedience and the curses of apostasy; the choice set before Israel: life or death.
Ebal and Gerizim. The blessings on one mountain, the curses on the other; the covenant put before the nation.
Before it: Second sermon, the law restated, chapters 5–26. After it: Final words, song, blessing, death, chapters 31–34.
The whole shape of Deuteronomy→The structure of this chapter
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
A. Great stones, plaster, and an unhewn altar
1. (vv. 1-3)
Deuteronomy 27:1
“Moses in a third discourse Deut. 27–30, proceeds more specifically to dwell upon the sanctions of the Law. In these chapters he sets before Israel in striking and elaborate detail the blessings which would ensue upon faithfulness to the covenant, and the curses which disobedience would involve.”
Deuteronomy 27:2
“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.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Deuteronomy 27:2
“Stones and even rocks are seen in Egypt and the peninsula of Sinai, containing inscriptions made three thousand years ago, in paint or plaister. By some similar method those stones may have been inscribed, and it is most probable that Moses learned the art from the Egyptians.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Deuteronomy 27:3
“And thou shall write upon them all the words of this law,.... Not the whole book of Deuteronomy, as some think, at least not the historical part of it, only what concerns the laws of God; and it may be only a summary or abstract of them, and perhaps only the ten commandments.”
2 more voices on this verse
Deuteronomy 27:3
“All the words of this law - i. e. all the laws revealed from God to the people by Moses, regarded by the Jews as 613 (compare Num 15:38 note). The exhibition of laws in this manner on stones, pillars, or tables, was familiar to the ancients. The laws were probably graven in the stone (“very plainly,” Deu 27:8 is by some rendered “scoop it out well”), as are for the most part the Egyptian hieroglyphics, the “plaister” being afterward added to protect the inscription from the weather.”
Deuteronomy 27:3
“Others think that the whole book of Deuteronomy was written upon this monument, or at least the statutes and judgments from ch. xii. to the end of ch. xxvi.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Moses commands with the elders of Israel at verse 1, and at verse 9 the priests the Levites stand with him, so the charge comes from the whole leadership of the nation rather than from one voice. The first work ordered for the far side of Jordan is a writing, great stones plaistered with plaister and carrying all the words of this law. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown point to Egyptian inscriptions laid in paint or plaister that have survived three thousand years, and observe that Moses was raised where that craft was practised.
2. (v. 4)
Deuteronomy 27:4
“And therefore it shall be, when ye be gone over Jordan,.... Some time after they had passed that river: that ye shall set up these stones, which I command you this day, in Mount Ebal; a mountain near Shechem in Samaria, and was, as Benjamin of Tudela says (r), dry as stones and rocks itself, and perhaps had its name, as some think (s), from the root in the Arabic language which signifies to strip a tree of its leaves, and a derivative from it, white stones and a mountain in which such are found.”
2 more voices on this verse
Deuteronomy 27:4
“Set up these stones - in Mount Ebal - So the present Hebrew text, but the Samaritan has Mount Gerizim. Dr. Kennicott has largely defended the reading of the Samaritan in his second dissertation on the present state of the Hebrew text, and Dr. Parry has defended the Hebrew against the Samaritan in his Case between Gerizim and Ebal fairly stated. So has J. H. Verschuir, in his Dissert. Critica. Many still think Dr. Kennicott’s arguments unanswerable, and have no doubt that the Jews have here corrupted the text through their enmity to the Samaritans.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Deuteronomy 27:4
“Here the sacrifices are to be offered, to shew 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.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Ebal is the mountain of the curse at verse 13, and the stones bearing the law are set up there rather than on the mountain of blessing. The Samaritan Pentateuch reads Gerizim in this verse instead, and the difference is old and contested. Adam Clarke reports that Benjamin Kennicott defended the Samaritan reading in his dissertations on the state of the Hebrew text and that Parry defended the Hebrew in The Case Between Gerizim and Ebal Fairly Stated, and Clarke gives both without deciding. This is the textual ground of the question the woman at the well raises at John 4:20, that our fathers worshipped in this mountain.
3. (vv. 5-7)
Deuteronomy 27:5
“And there shall thou build an altar to the Lord thy God,.... On the same mountain, though not of the same stones. Jarchi's note is,"after that (the setting up of the plastered stones) thou shalt bring from thence (from Jordan) others, and build of them an altar on Mount Ebal;''but Josephus (t) places this altar not on Mount Ebal, but between that and Gerizim.”
2 more voices on this verse
Deuteronomy 27:5
“It was once counted a glory for the altar that no axe had been lifted upon it, no stonecutter's tool seen or heard. The higher meaning was that whatever was consecrated to God should be natural and free from artifice.”
Gregory of Nazianzus· written before 390· ORATION 18.10patristic
Deuteronomy 27:5
“Christ, our altar, is a stone cut out of the mountain without hands ( Dan. ii. 34, 35 ), and therefore refused by the builders, as having no form or comeliness, but accepted of God the Father, and made the head of the corner.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Deuteronomy 27:6
“Thou shall build the altar of the Lord thy God of whole stones,.... And of such Joshua did build it, Jos 8:31, and thou shalt offer burnt offerings thereon unto the Lord thy God; and very likely sin offerings too; for these frequently went together, the one to make atonement for sin, and the other as a gift, and by way of thankfulness for the acceptance of the former; and both typical of Christ, the true sacrifice, and the antitype of all the legal sacrifices.”
1 more voice on this verse
Deuteronomy 27:6
“Whole stones - Rough, not hewed or polished. By the law written on the stones, God spake to them: by the altar and sacrifices upon it, they spake to God: and thus was communion kept up between them and God.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Deuteronomy 27:7
“This signified, [1.] The consent they gave to the covenant; for the parties to a covenant ratified the covenant by feasting together.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
The altar rule given here is the one at Exodus 20:25, whole stones with no iron tool lifted upon them, on the ground that a tool laid to the stone pollutes it. Burnt offerings come first and peace offerings after, and the peace offering is eaten, so the ceremony closes in a meal and rejoicing before the Lord, as the covenant at Exodus 24:11 did. Joshua 8:30-31 records this altar built on Ebal of unhewn stones, and Matthew Henry reads the altar standing beside the written law as the pattern of the two testaments bound together, the words with their curse attached and a place of sacrifice next to them.
4. (v. 8)
Deuteronomy 27:8
“And thou shall write upon the stones all the words of this law,....”
1 more voice on this verse
Deuteronomy 27:8
“Some understand it only of the covenant between God and Israel, mentioned ch. xxvi. Let this help be set up for a witness, like that memorial of the covenant between Laban and Jacob, which was nothing but a heap of stones thrown hastily together, upon which they did eat together in token of friendship ( Gen. xxxi.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Very plainly renders a phrase others give as scoop it out well, and Albert Barnes takes the letters to have been graven into the stone with plaister laid over afterward to guard the inscription from weather. How much was written has been disputed for as long as the verse has been read. John Gill allows that it may have been a summary of the laws, or only the ten commandments, while Matthew Henry reports readers who took it for the whole book of Deuteronomy or for the statutes and judgments of chapters 12 to 26. Barnes counts all the laws delivered through Moses, which the Jewish reckoning puts at 613.
B. This day you have become a peoplevv. 9-10
Israel came out of Egypt forty years before this speech, and Moses tells the men in front of him that this day thou art become the people of the Lord thy God. The covenant is put in the present tense to the generation standing there, and this day falls seventy times in the book for that reason. Verse 10 draws the consequence in the same breath, that they are to obey the voice of the Lord because of what they have this day become.
Deuteronomy 27:9
“It was to be done but once, and at their entrance into the land of promise, in token of their taking possession of it under the several provisos and conditions contained in this law. There was a solemn ratification of the covenant between God and Israel at Mount Sinai, when an altar was erected, with twelve pillars, and the book of the covenant was produced, Exod. xxiv.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Deuteronomy 27:10
“Thou shalt therefore obey the voice of the Lord thy God,.... In whatsoever he directs in his word, and by his prophets, and especially by his Son, eminently called the Word of the Lord: and do his commandments and his statutes, which I command thee this day; See Gill on Deu 27:1.”
C. Six tribes to bless, six to curse
1. (vv. 11-13)
Deuteronomy 27:11
These curses attendant on disobedience to the divine will, which had been revealed as a law from heaven, be it observed, are given in the form of a declaration, not a wish, as the words should be rendered, "Cursed is he," and not, "Cursed be he."
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Deuteronomy 27:12
“These shall stand upon Mount Gerizim to bless the people - Instead of upon Mount, etc., we may translate by, as the particle על al is sometimes used; for we do not find that the tribes did stand on either mount, for in Jos 8:33, when this direction was reduced to practice, we find the people did not stand on the mountains, but over against them on the plain. See the observations at the end of this chapter, Deu 27:26 (note).”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Deuteronomy 27:12
“Joseph is here put for both his sons and tribes Manasseh and Ephraim, which are reckoned as one tribe, because Levi is here numbered; but when Levi is omitted, as it is where the division of the land is made, there Manasseh and Ephraim pass for two tribes.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Deuteronomy 27:12
“The curses are here expressed, but not the blessings; for as many as were under the law were under the curse, but it was a honour reserved for Christ to bless us, and so to do that for us which the law could not do, in that it was weak. In Christ's sermon upon the mount, which was the true Mount Gerizim, we have blessings only, Matt. v. 3 , &c.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Deuteronomy 27:13
“And these shall stand upon Mount Ebal curse,....”
1 more voice on this verse
Deuteronomy 27:13
“But the curses come in, only as exceptions to the general rule: "Israel is a blessed people: but if there be any even among them, that do such and such things, they have no part or lot in this matter, but are under a curse." This shews how ready God is to bestow the blessing: if any fall under the curse, they bring it on their own head.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Six tribes stand on Gerizim to bless and six on Ebal to curse, and Albert Barnes points out that the division follows the mothers. Every tribe on the blessing side descends from Leah or Rachel, and all four tribes born to the handmaids Bilhah and Zilpah stand on the cursing side, joined by Reuben and Zebulun. Adam Clarke reads the preposition as by rather than upon, since Joshua 8:33, where the ceremony is carried out, has the people standing over against the two mountains. Matthew Henry marks what the chapter does next, that twelve curses are written out in full and the blessings are left unwritten.
2. (v. 14)
Deuteronomy 27:14
“And the Levites shall speak, and say unto all the men of Israel,.... Rather, "answer (e) and say"; not the whole tribe of Levi, for that stood on Mount Gerizim to bless, Deu 27:12; but the priests of that tribe who were placed in the valley, between the two mountains, and pronounced both the blessings and the curses in the hearing of all the tribes of Israel, to which they were to answer Amen; and that they might plainly hear, they expressed their words with a loud voice, clearly and distinctly, as follow. (e) ענו "respondebunt", Montanus.”
Deuteronomy 27:14-15
Levi stands on Gerizim at verse 12 and the Levites speak the curses at verse 14, and John Gill reads the speakers as the priests of that tribe placed in the valley between the mountains, which is where Joshua 8:33 puts the men who bore the ark. The first curse falls on an image put in a secret place, and that sets the key of the whole list, since most of what follows is done where no witness stands. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown render the formula as a declaration rather than a wish, cursed is he rather than cursed be he. The people answer Amen twelve times, a word first spoken in Scripture by one woman at Numbers 5:22 and here said by a nation.
D. Twelve curses, and all the people say Amen
1. (v. 15)
Deuteronomy 27:15
“Whether it be a graven image or a molten image, it comes all to one, it is an abomination to the Lord, even though it be not set up in public, but in a secret place,--though it be not actually worshipped, nor is it said to be designed for worship, but reserved there with respect and a constant temptation.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
2 more voices on this verse
Deuteronomy 27:15
“Cursed be the man, etc. - Other laws, previously made, had prohibited all these things; and penal sanctions were necessarily understood; but here God more openly declares that he who breaks them is cursed - falls under the wrath and indignation of his Maker and Judge. See the note on Exo 20:4.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Deuteronomy 27:15
“But how could they say it to the curses? It was both a profession of their faith in the truth of it, and an acknowledgment of the equity of these curses. So that when they said Amen, they did in effect Say, not only, it is certain it shall be so, but it is just it should be so.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
2. (vv. 16-19)
Deuteronomy 27:17
“Cursed be he that removeth his neighbour's landmark,.... Removes it backward, and steals ground, as Jarchi explains it; this is commonly done secretly; see Deu 19:14, and all the people shall say Amen; See Gill on Deu 27:15; See Gill on Deu 27:16.”
Deuteronomy 27:18
“Cursed be he that maketh the blind to wander out of the way,.... By directing him wrong knowingly, or laying a stumbling block in his way, Lev 19:14. The Targum of Jonathan is,"that maketh a traveller wander out of the way, who like a blind man;''who knows his way no more than a blind man does.”
1 more voice on this verse
Deuteronomy 27:18
“Such [a line of conduct] belongs not to those who heal, or who give life: it is rather that of those bringing on diseases, and increasing ignorance; and much more true than these men shall the law be found, which pronounces every one accursed who sends the blind man astray in the way. For the apostles, who were commissioned to find out the wanderers, and to be for sight to those who saw not, and medicine to the weak, certainly did not address them in accordance with their opinion at the time, but according to revealed truth.”
Irenaeus· written before 202· AGAINST HERESIES 3.5.2patristic
Deuteronomy 27:19
“Cursed be he that perverteth the judgment of the stranger, fatherless, and widow,.... Who have none to assist them, and take their part, and therefore judges may be tempted to do an unjust thing; but God is the patron of them, and takes notice of every injury done them, and is the avenger of all such: and all the people shall say Amen; See Gill on Deu 27:15; See Gill on Deu 27:16.”
These four curses name people who cannot see what is done to them or cannot answer it. The landmark is already protected at Deuteronomy 19:14, the blind at Leviticus 19:14, and the stranger, the fatherless and the widow are the three the book keeps returning to at 10:18, 14:29 and 24:17. Setting light by father or mother is the fifth commandment stated as a curse, and Adam Clarke observes that every act in this list was forbidden long before, so what the ceremony adds is the sentence hanging over it.
3. (vv. 20-23)
Deuteronomy 27:20
“Cursed be he that lieth with his father's wife,.... As Reuben did, and which is forbidden Lev 18:8, because he uncovereth his father's skirt; see Deu 22:30, and all the people shall say Amen; the tribe of Reuben said this as well as the rest.”
Deuteronomy 27:21
“Cursed be he that lieth with any manner of beast,.... See Lev 18:23, and all the people shall say Amen; as being shocking and abhorrent to human nature.”
Deuteronomy 27:22
“Cursed be he that lieth with his sister,.... Which is forbid, Lev 18:9, the daughter of his father, or the daughter of his mother; whether his sister by father or mother's side: and all the people shall say Amen; detesting such uncleanness.”
Deuteronomy 27:23
“Cursed be he that lieth with his mother in law,.... See Lev 18:7. All these incestuous or brutal copulations may well be supposed to be done in secret: and all the people shall say Amen; as abhorring such incest.”
All four stand in the list at Leviticus 18, the father's wife at 18:8, the beast at 18:23, the sister at 18:9 and the mother in law at 18:17. What they share with the curses on either side of them is a closed door, since each names an offence committed inside a household where no outside witness would be present. Paul finds the first of them in a Corinthian church at 1 Corinthians 5:1 and says that even the Gentiles do not name such a thing. Verse 22 covers a half sister on either side, which is the exact distinction Abraham drew about Sarah at Genesis 20:12.
4. (vv. 24-25)
Deuteronomy 27:24
“Cursed be he that smiteth his neighbour secretly,.... And kills him, and the murder is not known; the curse of God follows such, and overtakes them sooner or later. Some interpret this of smiting with the tongue, of secret backbiting and slander; so the Targum of Jonathan,"that smiteth with the third tongue;''or false accusation: and all the people shall say Amen; as disapproving of and condemning such a practice, even slander, and especially murder.”
Deuteronomy 27:25
“Cursed be he that taketh reward to slay an innocent person,.... As an assassin, to murder him privately; or as a judge, that takes a bribe to condemn to death an innocent person: so Aben Ezra observes, that according to the sense of some a judge is meant; but, says he, in my opinion a false witness; one that swears a man's life away for the sake of a reward given him: and all the people shall say Amen; at so detestable a crime.”
Both of these are killings and both are hidden. Smiting a neighbour secretly is murder with no witness, and taking reward to slay an innocent person is murder bought at a distance, forbidden already at Exodus 23:8 and Deuteronomy 16:19 on the ground that a gift doth blind the eyes of the wise. Judas is paid for this at Matthew 26:15, and at Matthew 27:4 he states the charge in the words of verse 25, that he has betrayed the innocent blood.
5. (v. 26)
Deuteronomy 27:26
Moses was the writer of a great part of the law. Did he not add to it a threat against the transgressor or the negligent? He presents a general malediction upon all violators. This is seen in his introduction to the announcement of this most frightful penalty: "Cursed be every man that abides not in all that is written in the book of this law"; and elsewhere, "Cursed be he that does the work of the Lord negligently."
Basil of Caesarea· written before 379· CONCERNING BAPTISM 5patristic
3 more voices on this verse
Deuteronomy 27:26
“That confirmeth not all the words of this law - The word כל col, All, is not found in any printed copy of the Hebrew text; but the Samaritan preserves it, and so do six MSS. in the collections of Kennicott and De Rossi, besides several copies of the Chaldee Targum. The Septuagint also, and St. Paul in his quotation of this place, Gal 3:10. St. Jerome says that the Jews suppressed the word, that it might not appear that they were bound to fulfill All the precepts in the law of Moses.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Deuteronomy 27:26
“Confirmeth not - Or, performeth not. To this we must all say, Amen! Owning ourselves to be under the curse, and that we must have perished forever, if Christ had not redeemed us from the curse of the law, by being made a curse for us.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Deuteronomy 27:26
“By our obedience to the law we set our seal to it, and so confirm it, as by our disobedience we do what lies in us to disannul it, Ps. cxix. The apostle, following all the ancient versions, reads it, Cursed is every one that continues not, Gal. iii.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Deuteronomy 27:26
- Quoted inGalatians 3:10All who rely on works of the law are under a curse. For it is written: “Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.”
'Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things' ('it is written')
The twelfth curse gathers the eleven and reaches past them, since it falls on the man who confirmeth not all the words of this law, and the people say Amen to that as well. Paul quotes this verse at Galatians 3:10 to say that as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse, and his wording follows the Greek of the Septuagint, which reads every man that continueth not, a phrase the Hebrew does not carry. Three verses later he sets Deuteronomy 21:23 beside it, that he which is hanged is accursed of God, and reads Christ as taking the curse of the law in that manner. Matthew Henry notes that the blessings promised on Gerizim are never written down here, and points to the sermon on the mount at Matthew 5:3 for a hill from which blessings alone are spoken.
This page carries no textual note on Deuteronomy 27. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Calvin, Commentary on the Four Last Books of Moses Arranged in the Form of a Harmony; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.
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