He wrote there on the stones a copy of Moses’ law, which he wrote in the presence of the children of Israel.
Parallel Translations
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He wrote there on the stones a copy of Moses’ law, which he wrote in the presence of the children of Israel.
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And he wrote there upon the stones a copy of the law of Moses, which he wrote in the presence of the children of Israel.
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And he wrote there upon the stones a copy of the law of Moses, which he wrote before the children of Israel.
Cross-references (2)
Passages linked to Joshua 8:32 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Deuteronomy 27:2-3 It shall be on the day when you shall pass over the Jordan to the land which Yahweh your God gives you, that you shall set yourself up great stones, and coat them with plaster. You shall write on them all the words of this law, when you have passed over, that you may go in to the land which Yahweh your God gives you, a land flowing with milk and honey, as Yahweh, the God of your fathers, has promised you.
- Deuteronomy 27:8 You shall write on the stones all the words of this law very plainly.”
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain 32. And he wrote there upon the stones, etc…
32. And he wrote there upon the stones, etc A different rule is applicable to the stones here mentioned, on which God wished that a memorial of his Law should always appear, in order that, a kind of barrier might be interposed to protect the pure religion against the superstitions of Egypt. They were therefore covered with lime, that they might be more conspicuous, and the writing upon them more distinct. I willingly subscribe to the opinion of those who understand by the repeated Law a written form, or what is commonly called a copy or duplicate. I cannot, however, believe that the whole volume was traced upon it; for no stones however large could suffice to contain all the details. I therefore think that by the term Law only its substance and sanctions are denoted. This made it palpable even to strangers entering the land what God was worshipped in it, and all excuse for error was taken away, when the Law was not treasured up in a book, but made manifest to the eyes of all. In short, though the priests should have been dumb, the stones themselves spoke clearly.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain Meaning, the ten commandments, which are the sum of…
Meaning, the ten commandments, which are the sum of the whole Law.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Jos 8:32 And he wrote there upon the stones…
Jos 8:32 And he wrote there upon the stones a copy of the law of Moses, which he wrote in the presence of the children of Israel.
Ver. 32. A copy of the law of Moses,] i.e., The decalogue or ten commandments, and therewith, likely, the blessings and curses here pronounced on these two mountains: to the end that all the people might read them, and be well versed in them. But what a sot was that Popish doctor, who, being asked whether he had read the decalogue, denied that he had ever had any such book in his study. {a}
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{a} Amama, in Antibarb. Biblico.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain Not upon the stones of the altar, which were…
Not upon the stones of the altar, which were to be rough and unpolished, Jos 8:31, but upon other stones, smooth and plastered, as is manifest from Deu 27:2.
A copy of the law of Moses; not certainly the whole five books of Moses, for what stones and time would have sufficed for this! nor the blessings and the curses here following, which never are nor can without great impropriety be called the law of Moses, seeing they presuppose the law, and the observation or transgression thereof, to which they belong, only as rewards of the one, and punishments of the other: but the most weighty and substantial parts of the law, as may be gathered from the laws which are mentioned, and to the violators whereof the curses are applied, Deu 27:15, and especially the law of the ten commandments.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain And he wrote there upon the stones a copy…
And he wrote there upon the stones a copy of the law of Moses,.... Not upon the stones of which the altar was made, though some have so thought; but upon other stones erected in the form of a pillar, and plastered over, Deu 27:4; which copy of the law was not the whole book of Deuteronomy, as some, at least only an abstract of the laws in it; but rather the decalogue, as Abarbinel; or the blessings and curses later read, as Ben Gersom:
which he wrote in the presence of the children of Israel: they being witness of it, that he did what was enjoined.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Upon the stones - Not upon the stones of…
Upon the stones - Not upon the stones of the altar, which were to be rough and unpolished, ver. 31, but upon other stones, smooth and plaistered, as is manifest from Deut. xxvii, 2. The law of Moses - Not certainly the whole five books of Moses, for what stones and time would have sufficed for this, but the most weighty parts of the law, and especially the law of the ten commandments.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 32. A copy of the law of Moses]…
Verse 32. A copy of the law of Moses] משנה תורת mishneh torath, the repetition of the law; that is, a copy of the blessings and curses, as commanded by Moses; not a copy of the Decalogue, as some imagine, nor of the book of Deuteronomy, as others think; much less of the whole Pentateuch; but merely of that part which contained the blessings and curses, and which was to be read on this solemn occasion. See Clarke on De 27:3.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Jos 8:32. Upon the stones — Not upon the…
Jos 8:32. Upon the stones — Not upon the stones of the altar, which, were to be rough and unpolished, (Jos 8:13,) but upon other stones, smooth and plastered, as is manifest from Deu 27:2. A copy of the law of Moses — Not certainly the whole five books of Moses, for what stones or time would have sufficed for this? but the most weighty parts of the law, and especially the law of the ten commandments.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Stones, of which the altar was formed, (Calmet) or…
Stones, of which the altar was formed, (Calmet) or on a separate monument, (Masius) consisting of two stones of black marble, so as to leave the letters prominent, and to fill up the vacuities with white plaster, that they might be seen more plainly, and might, at the same time, be more durable than if they had been only written on the cement, whatever some may have said of the tenacity of the ancient plaster. --- Deuteronomy. &c., or copy of the Decalogue which, by way of eminence, is called the law, Acts vii. 53. It is distinguished from the blessings and the curses; (ver. 34,) and Moses referred to it, as already existing, (Deuteronomy xxvii. 3, 8,) though the Book of Deuteronomy was not finished till afterwards. He might point to the very tables contained in the ark. "This law, consisting of only 16 verses, might easily be engraved on this solemn day; whereas to engrave the 80 verses of blessings and cursings, would be improbable; and engraving the Pentateuch, or indeed the Book of Deuteronomy, had been impossible." That the Decalogue was to be thus solemnly proclaimed is evident, from the Samaritan text, Exodus xx. 18. (Kennicott) --- This was the covenant which God had made with his people, (Deuteronomy iv. 13,) and which Moses cautions the Israelites to observe; as upon their fidelity, their present and future happiness entirely depended. It was on this title alone that they could hold the land of Chanaan; and therefore Josue takes care thus publicly to admonish them of their duty. (Haydock) --- The Rabbins say that the whole Pentateuch was written on this occasion in 70 languages, that no nation might plead ignorance. But we can hardly believe that even the Book of Deuteronomy could be written, and read, and explained to the people, as that would require many days. (Calmet)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain he wrote there upon the stones a copy of…
he wrote there upon the stones a copy of the law of Moses--(See on Deu 27:2-3, Deu 27:5); that is, the blessings and curses of the law. Some think that the stones which contained this inscription were the stones of the altar: but this verse seems rather to indicate that a number of stone pillars were erected alongside of the altar, and on which, after they were plastered, this duplicate of the law was inscribed.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 32. He wrote there upon the stones — Whether…
32. He wrote there upon the stones — Whether these stones were the same as those of which the altar was built, or others, erected solely for the purpose of inscription, is not positively determined either by this passage or that of Deu_27:2-8. But the more probable opinion, and the one adopted by most expositors, is that it was a separate monument of stones on which the law was written. According to the original command, (Deu_27:4,) the stones were to be smeared with cement, and the words to be written upon it. At first thought this would seem to lack the chief quality of a memorial, durability. But travelers in the east assert that such inscriptions are as lasting as those cut in the rock. Says Dr. Thomson: “A careful examination of Deu_27:4; Deu_27:8, and Jos_8:30-32, will lead to the opinion that the law was written upon, or in, the plaster with which these pillars were coated. This could be done, and such writing was common in ancient times. I have seen numerous specimens of it certainly two thousand years old, and still as distinct as when they were first inscribed on the plaster. In this hot climate, where there is no frost to dissolve the cement, it will continue hard and unbroken for thousands of years, which is certainly long enough. The cement on Solomon’s pools remains in admirable preservation, though exposed to all the vicissitudes of climate, and with no protection. The cement in the tombs about Sidon is still perfect, and the writing entire, though acted upon for perhaps two thousand years by the moist damp air always found in caverns.” Respecting the mode of writing on the cement, he says: “What Joshua did, therefore, when he erected these great stones at Mount Ebal, was merely to write in the still soft cement with a stile, or, more likely, on the polished surface, when dry, with red paint, as in ancient tombs.”
A copy of the law of Moses — The chief difficulty which critics have here is in the size of the work, if the whole of the Torah, or Mosaic law, is to be deemed as thus inscribed. The Hebrew word for copy is mishneh, (משׁנה,) and signifies a repetition, a duplicate, “an apograph next to the original.” The Septuagint and the Vulgate translate it by the word Deuteronomy, which, though literally meaning a repetition of the law, had already acquired a narrower signification. Several Rabbins make the incredible statement that the whole law, word for word, was written on the monuments, in seventy different languages, that all the people of the earth might be able to read it! Clarke and Bush suppose ‘“that only a copy of the blessings and curses, recorded in Deuteronomy 27, 28, was written.” But Keil well says, “To limit ‘the law’ to the blessings and curses is out of the question, for these are not ‘the law.’ but motives added to impel, or rather adjure, the people to keep the law inviolate.” [The opinion of Grotius seems at first very plausible, that the Decalogue is meant, for it contains the essence of the whole law, all else being accessory to it. But against it is the insuperable objection, that to call” the words of the covenant” — “the ten words,” (Exo_34:28; Deu_4:13,) which are ever associated with “the two tables of the testimony” — to call these a copy of the law of Moses would be inexplicably strange. In the absence of any specific statement it is impossible to decide the question positively, but we incline to the view of Hengstenberg, Keil, and others, that the so-called “second law” is meant, which is embodied in Deuteronomy, between Deu_4:44, and Deu_26:19, omitting, of course; the exhortations and historical incidents with which it is now associated in the Book of Deuteronomy. This would be the essence of all the law of Moses.]
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 32. a copy of the law] “Short declaracioun of…
32. a copy of the law] “Short declaracioun of the lawe of Moyses,” Wyclif. This has been variously interpreted as meaning (a) the whole Law; (b) the Decalogue; (c) the Book of Deuteronomy; (d) the “commandments” proper, the “statutes” and “rights” contained in the Pentateuch, “six hundred and thirteen in number, according to the Jewish reckoning, not including all the narratives also, and warnings, admonitions, discourses, reasons, and the like.”
he wrote in the presence] The Law was probably “written upon or in the plaster with which these pillars were coated. This could easily be done; and such writing was common in ancient times. I have seen numerous specimens of it certainly more than two thousand years old, and still as distinct as when they were first inscribed on the plaster.” Thomson’s Land and the Book, p. 471. “The investigation of the Egyptian monuments has shewn that it was an ancient Egyptian custom first to plaster the stone walls of buildings, and also monumental stones that were to be painted with figures and hieroglyphics, with a plaster of lime and gypsum, into which the figures were worked; thus it was possible in Egypt to engrave on the walls the most extensive pieces of writing. And in this manner Deu_27:4-8 must be understood, and in this manner it was accomplished by Joshua.” Oehler’s Theology of the Old Testament, p. 121 n.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain And he wrote there upon the stones; i.e. ,…
And he wrote there upon the stones; i.e. , upon the plaster, as we read in Deu_27:2, Deu_27:4. "The wall destined to receive the picture," and it was just the same with inscriptions was covered with a coating of lime and gypsum plaster. The outline was then sketched with red chalk, and afterwards corrected and filled in with black (Keurick"s "Egypt," 1., p. 271). Thomson ("Land and the Book," Io. 471) says that he has seen writings in plaster which could not have been less than two thousand years old. This passage shows that our author had Deu_28:2, 3 in his mind. The stones of the altar, which alone have been mentioned, are clearly not meant here, but the erection of plastered stone on which the law was to be written. A copy of the law of Moses, "Deuteronomium legis," Vulgate. So also LXX Not the whole law, nor yet the Book of Deuteronomy, for time would not permit,but the decalogue, as the word hnvmi duplicate, from whence the word Mishna comes, signifies. It is to be observed that the word is definite, the copy, not a copy, of the law. This (Deu_5:22) was what was written on the two tables of stone, which (Exo_24:12 Exo_31:18) God gave to Moses. Yet it is possible that, as some commentaters suggest, and as ver. 34 may be held to imply, what is meant is the curses and blessings mentioned in Deuteronomy 27, and 28. The formal setting up of this memorial was intended to remind the Israelites, by a perpetual standing witness, of the conditions on which they held the land of Canaan. And it is to be observed that the moral, rather than the positive, precepts of the law were thus solemnly enjoined on them, since neglect of the moral law of God is the invariable source of national degradation and decay. Which he wrote. Namely, Joshua.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain Gerizim . . . Ebal.
Jos_8:32-35
Gerizim . . . Ebal.
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Ebal and Gerizim
The valley between these two is one of the most beautiful in Palestine. Jacobs well lies at its mouth, and all its luxuriant extent is covered with its verdant beauty of gardens, and orchards, and olive groves, rolling in waves of billowy beauty up to the walls of Shechem, whilst the murmur of brooks flowing in all directions fills the air. The width of the valley is about a third of a mile, though the summits of the two mountains, in the lap of which it lies, are two miles apart. It is remarkable that where the two mountains face each other and touch most closely, with a green valley of five hundred yards between, each is hollowed out, and the limestone stratum of each is broken into a succession of ledges, so as to present the appearance of a series of regular benches. Thus a natural amphitheatre is formed, capable of containing a vast audience of people; and the acoustic properties are so perfect in that dry and rainless air that Canon Tristram speaks of two of his party taking up positions on the opposite mountains, reciting the ten commandments antiphonally, and hearing each other perfectly.
I. The altar on Ebal. Ebal was stern and barren in its aspect. There was a congruity, therefore, between its appearance and the part it played in the solemn proceedings of the day. For far up its slopes gathered the dense masses of the six tribes, who, with thunderous amens, twelve times repeated, answered the voices of the band of white-robed Levites, as standing with Joshua, and the elders, and officers, and judges, in the green valley, they solemnly repeated the curses of the law. But that was not the first proceeding in that holy ceremonial. Before the people took up their assigned places on the mountain sides an altar was reared on the lower slopes of Ebal. As we pass into the land of promise we must be watchful that we do not leave behind the devout and loving consideration of that precious blood by which we have been redeemed and which is our life. Our highest and most rapturous experiences can never take the place of this. Constantly we must remind ourselves and others that we are redeemed sinners, and that all our hopes of salvation, our fellowship with God, our motives for service, are derived from what our Saviour did when He bore our sins in His own body on the tree. But because He died there, we need never stand there. Because He counted not His life dear to Himself, those gaunt and forbidding slopes have become the scene of blessed communion with God. We sit and feast with Him, and from peak to peak the joy chases the terrors of the curse, and smiles look out on us from the old rocks, whilst the torrents tinged with the light of the sun flash and sing.
II. The law in canaan. Around the altar strong men reared great stones, and plastered them with a facing of cement, composed of lime and gypsum, on which it was easy to write all the words of the law very plainly (Deu_27:8). In that dry air, where there is no frost to split and disintegrate, such inscriptions, written on the soft cement with a stencil, or on its polished surface, when dry, with ink or paint, as in the case of the monumental stones of Egypt, would remain for centuries. As the time could not have admitted of the inscription of the whole law, it is probable that the more salient points were alone committed to the custody of those great cromlechs to perpetuate to after generations the conditions of the tenure on which Israel held the lease of Palestine. They were a standing protest against the sins which had blighted those fertile valleys, and an incentive to the obedience on which so much of the future hinged. The case is this: when we yield ourselves entirely to the Spirit of life which is in Christ Jesus, and which passes freely through us, as the blood through artery and vein, He makes us very sensitive to the least commandment or desire of Him whom He has taught us to love; we dread to see the shadow of suffering pass over His face more than to feel the pang of remorse rend our hearts; we find our heaven in His smile of approval, and the Well done! that glistens in His eyes when we have done aught to the least of His; we are conscious of the pulse of a love which He has instilled, and which supplies us with the highest code for life--and so insensibly, whilst we yield ourselves to Him, we find ourselves keeping the law after a fashion which was foreign to us when it was a mere outward observance, and we cry with David, Oh, how I love Thy law, it is my meditation all the day.
III. The convocation. It is well worth our while to ponder the list of blessings appended to obedience in that memorable twenty-eighth chapter of Deuteronomy, that we may discover their spiritual counterparts, and, having found them, to claim them. Let us, first, be quite sure that we are right with God; next, that we are on His plan and doing His will; also, thirdly, that we are set upon His glory, altogether irrespective of our own interests; and we shall find ourselves able to claim blessings of which we little dreamt. The Lord will open His good treasury in heaven and make us plenteous for good, and establish us for an holy people unto Himself. (F. B. Meyer, M. A.)
Ebal and Gerizim
I. Where we go. We go to a distant place; about a weeks journey from Gilgal. Why do we go there? To take some strong fortress? To fight some great battle? No, but to worship Jehovah, and to take formal possession of the land in His name. But it is a for midable thing to move all the host of Israel so far as that. It is; but no trouble is too great that serves to show our loyalty to Jehovah. What a reproof is this to those whose religion costs them nothing! who seek to serve God with the miserable fag-ends of time--the odd intervals of a busy life, or the poor dregs of the evil days of natures decay. There is no fear of any mans temporal interests suffering by due attention to the spiritual. Turning again to Israel, we notice that they went to a dangerous place. Why march a company of religious worshippers to that distant valley, instead of a mighty army to destroy every foe? Surely prompt action, preventing their enemies from amalgamating their forces, is their only policy. Nay, to wait on God is better. Man is only weak when he disobeys. And they go to an appointed place. This makes the march wise and profitable. This journey had a special bearing on the formal possession of the land in Jehovahs name. From being defiled Canaan, resting under Gods curse, it is to become the inheritance of Jehovah, the holy land which He delights to bless. As Noahs first act was to take possession of the new world in the name of God, so at the first opportunity Joshua took possession of Canaan in Jehovahs name. Still further, this was an appropriate place to which Israel marched. It was appropriate, whether we consider its past associations or look at its position in the land. It was here that Abraham, the father of Israel, built his first altar in the land that God had promised. What more appropriate, then, than that his children should first come here, and as inheritors of his faith and piety, as well as of his promise, rear their altar and worship the unchanging Jehovah? It was here that Jacob bought ground and dug a well which remains to this day, leaving it in faith a heritage to his childrens children. And here they come, the possessors of all that was promised; their feet shall stand on this earnest of the inheritance; they and their little ones and their flocks shall drink of their fathers well. This rendezvous was also appropriate because it was so central and so beautiful. Mahomed called it the fairest spot on earth; and many have named it the paradise of the Holy Land. No greater contrast could be conceived than that presented by the scenery of Mount Sinai, where the law was first given, and that of Ebal and Gerizim, where it was repeated. The former is stern, still, and forbidding, without speck of green or sign of life. This is smiling and verdant, vocal with the songs of innumerable birds, laden with the fatness of the olive, the sweetness of the fig, the luscious richness of the vine--the most inviting spot the heart of man can conceive. Here the traveller, enchanted by the indescribable air of tranquillity and repose which hang over the scene, pitches his tent beside the purling and pellucid rills, and however anxious to renew his journey, feels he would gladly linger days and weeks in such a paradise. Such is it even now, as described by those whose eyes have rested on it- what must it have been in those days of Joshua?
II. What we see. First of all we behold the ark, as conspicuously prominent as on the day that Israel crossed the Jordan. The Holy Presence of which the ark speaks has never failed them, has never forsaken them. We also behold an altar here. The altar is for the ark. The blood of the one sprinkles the mercy-seat of the other, and thus sin is purged; God can dwell among the people, and say to the sinful, There will I meet with thee. This altar was constructed of rough stones, untouched by any instrument of iron, and therefore spoke of the work of Christ as divinely finished, requiring not any addition or improvement that mans wisdom could suggest or mans skill accomplish. This altar was pitched on Ebal, the loftier height, from which the curses came. There it was set to remove the curse; for apart from the sacrifice of the altar which God has provided all flesh are under the curse of the law. On this altar were offered up burnt-offerings and peace-offerings. The burnt-offerings spoke of Christ offered to God, a sacrifice of a sweet-smelling savour; yielding a perfect and glorious obedience to all that law which He thus magnified and made honourable. The peace-offering spoke of Christ as the centre and substance of rest, delight, and refreshment to God and man; the glorious means whereby communion is restored and maintained. God and man delight in the same sacrifice, are sharers in the same feast. Thus the ark and the altar, the Holy Presence and the Perfect Sacrifice, guarantee to Israel all the glory of Gods inheritance. Behold the imposing scene. The elders of the tribes stand with Joshua and Eleazar and the priests in the centre of the valley beside the ark. The tribes stretch outward, like two dark wings, on either side in compact masses. Then, when all were in their places and solemn silence reigned, the Levites read aloud the curses of the law, and the men on Ebal responded with a deep amen, like the sound of many waters. Again the clear notes of the Levites rise as they recite the blessings, and like the sound of harpers harping with their harps comes the joyous amen from the slopes of Gerizim. But there is still another object for our eyes to rest upon. As a lasting monument of that great event, Joshua put up great stones on Mount Ebal, plastered with plaster, and having written upon them a copy of the law of Moses. The altar spoke of what the Holy Presence in Israel bestowed. These stones spoke of what this Holy Presence demanded. The stones on Jordans bank spoke of Jehovahs gracious power. The stones of Jericho declare His judgment. The stones of Achor speak of His discipline. The stones of Ai tell His faithfulness. The stones of Ebal are witnesses of His holiness. They tell what is becoming in the people whose God is the Lord. They hold up the standard whereby His people are to walk. Has this standard changed? Are its precepts binding still, or have they become antiquated? Are these ten words the Christians standard and rule of life? It is a vain morality, it is a false spirituality, which dreams that it can rise above obedience to the law. (A. B. Mackay.)
He read all the words of the law.
The reading of the law
I. The fitness of marking lifes changes by a special recognition of dependence upon God and obligation to him. With Israel it was a time of transition, involving triumph, gain, a new and long-desired possession. At such times, men of the world are apt to think only of themselves and their good fortune. It was not so with Israel. This is their first pause on entering the promised land. And they trust God to protect them, while they use it to own Him as having brought them thither. With solemn ceremony they put themselves afresh into covenant relations with Him. Supposing ourselves to be changing our residence or occupation, to be entering a new place or state of responsibility, to be keeping a birthday or other anniversary--how becoming it would be to make it a time of re-dedication to God! So of a youth passing from school to business, entering the marriage state, going out from the old home, and taking up for himself a lifes work. Our religious faith should make it natural to do this.
II. The value of special means to deepen the sense of obligation to God. There are such ordinary means as the daily reading of the Bible, attendance on the public ordinances of Gods house, Christian conversation, giving heed to the voices of conscience and the Divine Spirit. Many things remind us of duty and dependence. And yet it is easy to forget. Ordinary means lose a measure of their power, save as they are reinforced now and then by those that are special and extraordinary. It was once more common than we fear it now is for persons entering the Christian life to do it with a solemnly-written covenant, to be recalled and renewed in after months and years. Other occasions were signalised in a similar way. On the day of the birth of the late Dr. Bethune, his father solemnly dedicated him to God in writing--an act more than once repeated. Churches have had their times of renewing covenant vows by rising in a mutual pledge to each other, and a common re-dedication to God. I have seen the record of an holy covenant entered into, and renewed with God, by ye Church of Christ in concord, upon a day of fasting and prayer, set apart for that purpose, July 11, 1776, bearing the signature of Rev. William Emerson (then pastor) and sixty-one others. Religious revivals have been begun and prolonged by such means. Piety that is from the heart readily approves them. It makes glad use, not only of common, but of special, helps to fidelity and growth in godly living.
III. The wisdom of heeding all God has told us of our obligation to him, and of the peril of casting it off. Joshua read all the words of the law, the blessings and cursings. Just what things were included in the inscription on the stones and in the reading we are not told. Doubtless, at least, the substance and sanctions of the law. It is clear that there was no self-pleasing discrimination in favour of the easy and agreeable commands, nor yet in the singling-out of the blessings and the rejection of the cursings.
IV. The mistake of withholding any part of Gods law from any age or class. All Israel, and their elders and officers, and their judges, stood on this side the ark, and on that side. None were so great and wise that they had no need to be present. And there was not a word of all that Moses commanded which Joshua read not, &c. It is sometimes thought that the great and sober things of Gods law are not to be taught to children. Set before them only the bright things, it is said. How strange that it is so much easier to be wise in earthly things than in the heavenly! In this worlds affairs, we teach the child to foresee that which is evil, that he may hide himself. We remember, too, that great souls are never nurtured on the ostrich plan. The ostrich thrusts his head into the sand, shuts his eyes, and, seeing no peril, says, Now I am safe! This is not Gods way. The little ones were to hear all that Moses commanded. They might comprehend little. They would feel much. Through the imagination, their souls would be filled with abiding, restraining, and uplifting awe.
V. The possibility of a serene contemplation of Gods law and remembrance of our past unfaithfulness to it. First of all, before he ventured to read the law, Joshua built an altar, &c. On this altar, burnt-offerings and peace-offerings were to be presented. The burnt-offering signified self-surrender, entire devotement to God; the peace-offering, joyful communion with Him. Thus the people came face to face with law and penalty, not as aliens, but as friends; their sins expiated and pardoned; their persons, powers, and possessions made over to Him to be wholly His; their hearts at rest in the gladdening sense of His favour. To such the law could be nothing other than a blessed, Divine rule. So it may be with us. (Sermons by the Monday Club.)
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The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain Jos_8:32. Wrote there upon the stones] Upon the plaster…
CRITICAL NOTES.—
Jos_8:32. Wrote there upon the stones] Upon the plaster with which the stones were to be covered. These were not the stones of the altar itself, but rude pillars of stone reared near to the altar (cf. Deu_27:2-4). A copy of the law of Moses] Lit. = a double, or duplicate of the law. It seems natural to suppose that only the commandments which Moses commanded them on that day, i.e., the blessings and cursings ordered to be pronounced, were thus written. Compare Deu_27:3; Deu_27:8, with Jos_8:1; Jos_8:26 of the same chapter, and with Jos_8:34.
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MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Jos_8:32-35
THE PROCLAMATION OF THE WORD OF GOD
No sooner had the altar been erected, than Joshua proceeded to set up other stones close by, plastering them over with cement, and then, ere the cement dried, “he wrote there” upon it, and thus “upon the stones, a copy of the law of Moses.” Judging by Jos_8:34, by the natural meaning of Deu_27:3; Deu_27:8, and by the improbability that all of “the second law” would be written in this manner, it seems likely that only the blessings and the cursings were written on the plaster. The portion of Scripture which has been called the second law—Deu_4:44 to Deu_26:19 -contains no less than 538 verses, most of them being of unusual length. The law was to be written upon the stones “very plainly.” It is obvious that the preparation of a sufficient number of superficial feet of stone to receive a record of such length must in itself be a work of considerable time. It is not likely that many of the Israelites could take part in the work of inscription, which would be much more tedious. There is no evidence that this visit to Ebal was prolonged beyond a few days; indeed, the history supposes the contrary. We therefore conclude that the law written on the stones was simply that epitome of its principles and spirit contained in the blessings and curses.
I. The altar of the Lord and the word of the Lord go together. Neither is sufficient without the other.
1. The cross of Christ would be insufficient without the Scriptures. We need the Scriptures to assure us that He who died upon Calvary is indeed the Christ of God and the Saviour of the world. Some people speak lightly of doctrine. It has been said, “Give us facts; if the facts are against the doctrines, so much the worse for the doctrines; let the doctrines take care of themselves.” As if the facts of Scripture could be more than other facts without the doctrines which illuminate the facts, and which make them admissible. Take the fact of the three crosses on Calvary, and what is one cross more than another, without the doctrine which tells us that He who hangs between the thieves is none other than the Son of God? Faith in Him cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
2. The Scriptures would be insufficient without the cross. They would but reveal the surrounding darkness. They would but tell us of sin from which there would be no escape. The Bible, to be faithful, must still say, “By the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in His sight;” but without the sacrifice of Christ, it could never enable us to read, “There is therefore now no condemnation.”
3. Standing together, the cross and the Scriptures reveal salvation clearly. Taken separately, the one is incomprehensible, and the other a revelation which leads to despair; taken together, they blend to shed forth a light by which every repentant man and woman may see the King in His beauty, and behold, as his own ultimate home and country, the land which is very far off.
II. The word of the Lord is not only recorded, but recorded in a plain and an enduring manner.
1. These words were to be written so that there should be no difficulty in reading them. Moses commanded Joshua to write all the words “very plainly” (Deu_27:8). Such, also, was the command of the Lord to Habakkuk: “Write the vision, and make it plain upon the tables, that he may run that readeth it.” Such is the character of the Bible as a whole. Its message is so clear that he who reads, whether of wrath or mercy, may well run from the one and to the other.
2. These words were to be written in a manner which would preserve them for a long period. (Cf the quotation from ‘The Land and the Book,’ following this outline.) In a marvellous way, God has likewise preserved to us the records of the life of Christ and the epistles of the apostles. Owing to the long-continued dominance of the Greek power after the conquests of Alexander, the Greek language, at the time of Christ, was known almost throughout the civilised world. The Hebrew language had been the granary in which the seed of Divine truth had hitherto been carefully preserved; in the days of Christ, the Greek tongue became the machine by which the good seed was distributed, in many thousand furrows, to the very ends of the civilised earth. The Gospel for the Gentiles being ready, the language suited to spread it abroad was ready also. The Gospel for all nations was set down in a language so rich in literature that it would never die,—a language so necessary to the learned of all countries in the future, that the foremost men of every land throughout time would be certain to learn and know the tongue in which the truths of salvation were written. But while this language was so suitable for the spread of the Gospel, it was no less fitted to preserve the Gospel free from corruption. The Greek power had long ceased to be dominant. The Greek language was fast becoming what we call a “dead language.” If it had been a language spoken as widely as the Latin, and having as much vitality, the truths of the Gospel might have been varied by the changes which are always insensibly taking place in a living and spoken tongue. Thus Divine wisdom took this Greek language just where it was living and plastic enough to receive this great addition to its literature, and just where it was dead enough for the use and meaning of words not to be much changed. And what is the consequence? Like the rain-drift of ages ago, which stands written so plainly in the tablets of the stones, that we can tell even the direction of the shower; like the extinct animals, whose footprints, just as they left them, are set down in what is now hard rock; so these words of life from the lips of Jesus and His apostles became fossilised in a language just plastic enough to receive them, and just unused and dead enough to petrify into the unalterable word of truth. It was God’s way of lithographing the New Covenant, which no less than the Old was “written and engraven in stones.” In Old Testament times, God had the Scriptures laid up in the Ark, or written, as here at Ebal, on stones; in New Testament times, He laid up the Gospel unalterably in a widely known but dying language.
III. The word of the Lord is recorded not only in blessings, but also in cursings. The word ‘curse’ is not often used in the New Testament, but it is used; the threatenings of the New Testament, however, are certainly as severe as those of the first dispensation.
1. God’s promises of blessing are very precious. (Cf. Deu_28:3-14.) (a.) They cover our entire life. (b.) They are neither few nor small.
2. If the blessings are precious, the threatenings are not less necessary, (a.) The noblest motive for serving God is love of Him and of the things which He commands. Too few, it is to be feared, serve in this spirit, (b.) God, who “knoweth our frame,” permits us to serve Him in view of promised mercies. He plies us with the thought of reward to be gathered both here and hereafter, (c.) Divine wisdom has no less recognised the necessity of threatening. Those who will not serve Him in love, or from expectation of reward, His love seeks to awaken by fear. After knowing something of the blessedness of His truth, they may do His will from higher motives; but with many, “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” How grateful we should be for this love which thus surrounds us on every side, and which prompts us in every possible manner to seek the way of life and joy.
IV. The word of the Lord is not only impartially written, but should be impartially proclaimed. When God Himself directs the public service in which the people are to approach Him, He will have the cursings uttered as well as the blessings.
1. The preaching and reading of God’s word is often partial, and one-sided. Chapters are read because they are pleasant and soothing. Themes are chosen which are inspiring and comforting. Thus, too often, the words of the Lord are subject to an irreverent selection. This is often done almost unconsciously. There may be no desire on the part of a minister to avoid any particular truths, and no consciousness of being unfaithful. Men get perverted by their sympathies. This evil is not merely the error of the pulpit, but also of the pew; for while it is true that a minister will do much to make a congregation what they are, the congregation will generally do much more to make a minister what he is. Time, and freedom from a public position in the service, are always on the side of the congregation. These perverted sympathies should be guarded against. Our strongest sympathies should always be in doing the will of our heavenly Father. Infinite love and wisdom have arranged, far better than we can, the desirable proportion of threatening and promise.
2. Experience shews that the threatenings of Divine truth have often awakened men to seek Christ, where words of mercy have failed. President Edwards never uttered kinder words than when he preached his truly awful discourse from the text, “Their feet shall slide in due time.” Many in glory now, know how to thank him, and God for him, because of the loving earnestness which moved him to risk even utterances like those, if by any means he might save some. It has been affirmed that this sermon has never been preached without conversions, although spoken several times by the author, and sometimes by others, on account of the remarkable blessing by which it had invariably been followed.
V. The word of the Lord thus written and proclaimed, was written and proclaimed for all the people. It was read “before all the congregation of Israel.” The women were there, for the Bible has no words of help for men, which are not addressed to them also. The little ones were there. They were not too young to hear the word of the Lord, and in the event of the fathers’ backsliding, their very children might rise up to reprove them. The strangers were there: proselytes, it may be, like Rahab and her family. How this proclamation of the word of the Lord to everybody rebukes the practice of the Romish Church in withholding, as far as possible, the Bible from the people. The elders and the little ones, the princes and the poor, the judges and the judged, were all to listen to, and might all read, these words of the Lord God.
VI. The word of the Lord to all the people was a word to which all the people bore witness, and which, if broken, would, in its turn, witness against them.
1. The people testified that this word must be either a blessing or a curse. Every word of God comes under this description. To the unfaithful God has said, “I will curse your blessings” (Mal_2:2), while from all the obedient He removes the curse for ever. The word of the Lord to every hearer now is “a savour of life unto life, or of death unto death.”
2. The people gave their “Amen” to the threatenings as well as to the promises. Thus even the Old Testament reveals God as preparing to say, “Out of thine own mouth will I judge thee, thou wicked servant.” No man who provokes the curse will find room to complain of its penalty as unjust. The heart of every hearer of God’s word now inwardly utters its “Amen” to the truth as it is in Jesus.
3. The people who thus accepted the word of God, necessarily made the acts of their after life a petition to God The “Amens” which they had so solemnly uttered were so many interpretations which they themselves agreed should be put to their daily deeds. Henceforth, when a man made or worshipped idols, he was virtually saying to God, “Let the curse be upon me.” When he removed his neighbour’s landmark, set light by his parents, misled the blind, or perverted judgment, he rendered himself liable to the curse pronounced on Ebal, and his guilty act, read in the light of his “Amen” then, still invoked the curse. The after generations who know what their fathers had done, and who could not but recognise the justice of the law to which their ancestors had given so solemn a consent, stood in exactly the same position. To know the covenant to which their fathers had agreed, was to become parties to its terms. Thus, all through the dispensation, the daily life of each Israelite was a prayer for blessing, or a prayer for the curse. It is equally so with men now. Every heart hearing the word of God acknowledges its purity, authority, and justice; and for a man to know the word and do it not, “to him it is sin.” and each sin invokes the penalty to which the conscience has given its solemn assent.
“The deed ye do is the prayer ye pray:
‘Lead us not into temptation, Lord;
Withhold the bread from our babes this day,
To evil we turn us, give evil’s reward.’
Over to-day to-morrow bends,
With an answer for each acted prayer;
And woe to him who makes not friends
With the pale hereafter hovering there!”
—G. S. Burleigh.
4. The people who solemnly assented to the word of the Lord, gave a no less solemn witness to its unfailing truth. The after history of the nation reads like an echo of these utterances on Ebal and Gerizim. That history is the seal and testimony of Time that the Scriptures are what they claim to be,—“a sure word of prophecy.”
OUTLINES AND COMMENTS ON THE VERSES
Jos_8:30-35.—THE SOLEMN SERVICE AT MOUNT EBAL.
I. The erection of an altar to the Lord. “History repeats itself.” Abraham’s altar (Gen_12:6). Jacob’s altar (Gen_33:18-20).
II. The writing of the word of the Lord. This was:
1. By the altar.
2. On the stones.
3. In the centre of the land. The Scriptures are to be accessible to all the people.
III. The proclamation of the word of the Lord. This should be:
1. Impartial.
2. Reiterated.
3. Continuous.
IV. The hearers of the word of the Lord. These should embrace men:
1. Irrespective of rank and occupation.
2. Irrespective of age.
3. Irrespective of nationality.
Jos_8:33.—THE DIVINE IDEA OF PRECEDENCE AND HONOUR AMONG MEN.
The tribes were to stand “half of them over against Mount Gerizim, and half of them over against Mount Ebal, as Moses the servant of the Lord had commanded.” In Deuteronomy 27, the arrangement of the tribes is specified, and is declared to be not merely the word of Moses, but the command of Jehovah. The enunciation of the blessings could hardly fail to be esteemed the more honourable work. The very selection of the tribes recognises the blessing as the more, and the cursing as the less honourable part of the service. In this Divine recognition of precedence and honour among men, certain principles of interest and importance are more or less clearly marked:—
1. Nothing preventing, the elder children are preferred before the younger. The list of the tribes chosen to bless begins with Simeon.
2. The youngest of the children take precedence of the man who has forfeited his character. Reuben, although the firstborn, gives place even to Joseph and Benjamin. His lost character was reckoned as a lost birthright (cf. Gen_35:22; Gen_49:4; 1Ch_5:1).
3. The children of the legitimate wives are placed before the children of Zilpha and Bilha. Reuben and Zebulun are the only two children of Jacob’s wives who are passed by; the former for the reason stated, and the latter as the youngest son of Leah. Dan and Naphtali are probably named before Zebulun, on the ground of seniority. Joseph and Benjamin seem to be chosen for the work of blessing, because, although they were younger than Zebulun, they were the first and second children of the second wife, whereas Zebulun was the sixth child of the first wife.
EBAL AND GERIZIM
“Imagine that the range of mountains running north and south was cleft open to its base by some tremendous convulsion of nature, at right angles to its own line of extension, and the broad fissure thus made is the vale of Nablûs as it appears to one coming up the plain of Mukhna from Jerusalem. Mount Ebal is on the north, Gerizim on the south, and the city between. Near the eastern end, the vale is not more than sixty rods wide; and just there, I suppose, the tribes assembled to hear the ‘blessings and cursings’ read by the Levites.… This was, beyond question or comparison, the most august assembly the sun has ever shone upon; and I never stand in the narrow plain, with Ebal and Gerizim rising on either hand to the sky, without involuntarily recalling and reproducing the scene. I have shouted to hear the echo, and then fancied how it must have been when the loud-voiced Levites proclaimed from the naked cliffs of Ebal,’Cursed be the man that maketh any graven image, an abomination unto Jehovah.’ And then the tremendous Amen! tenfold louder, from the mighty congregation, rising, and swelling, and re echoing from Ebal to Gerizim, and from Gerizim to Ebal. ‘Amen I even so let him be accursed.’ No, there never was an assembly to compare with this.…
“Moses did not order such a Herculean labour as to grave the whole law in marble, but simply to write it on or in properly prepared cement. In this hot climate, where there is no frost to dissolve the cement, it will continue hard and unbroken for thousands of years. The cement on Solomon’s Pools remains in admirable preservation, though exposed to all the vicissitudes of the climate, and with no protection. The cement in the tombs about Sidon is still perfect, and the writing on them entire, though acted upon by the moist, damp air always found in caverns, for perhaps two thousand years. What Joshua did, therefore, when he erected those great stones at Mount Ebal, was merely to write in the still soft cement, with a stile, or, more likely, on the polished surface, when dry, with red paint, as in ancient tombs. If properly sheltered, and not broken away by violence, they would have remained to this day.”—[The Land and the Book.]
THE PLACE AND USE OF DIVINE THREATENINGS.
A late writer, with some knowledge of mountain vegetation, has said: “While the trees and flowers that clothe the fields of nature are dispersed over the wide surface of the earth, there are mountain regions lying within the tropics, where, in the course of a single day, the traveller finds every vegetable form peculiar to every line of latitude between the equator and the poles. These are all laid out in regular arrangement. Leaving the palms which cover the mountain’s foot, the traveller ascends into the region of the olive; from thence he rises to a more temperate climate, where vines festoon the trees, or trail their limbs along the naked rock; still mounting, he reaches a belt of oaks and chestnuts; from that he passes to rugged heights, shaggy with the hardy pine; by-and-by the trees are dwarfed into bushes; rising higher, his foot presses a soft carpet of lowly mosses; till, climbing the rocks where only lichens live, he leaves all life below, and now, shivering in the cold, panting in the thin air for breath, he stands on those dreary elevations, where eternal winter sits on a throne of snow, and, waving her icy sceptre, says to vegetation, ‘Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further.’ ”
In Bible scenery, to the anxious spiritual climber, the order of the landscape often lies the other way. His spiritual experience begins amid stern and severe threatenings. He endeavours to ascend to more fruitful regions, and comes now to warnings, and now to precepts which he seeks to embody in the duties of his daily life. These affording no peace, he climbs yet further, finding exceedingly great and precious promises, but feeling that he cannot, and must not, call them his own. Rising higher, the love of God breaks upon his view; would that he could find it God’s love to himself! Climbing still, he comes to the cross of a dying Saviour, from which Mercy pleads even for the murderers of the Son of God, saying, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” Forgiveness which can compass and embrace such, can surely include him, and thus he passes into the peace of faith; and henceforth, from his high standpoint, he looks out with the joy of an heir of God, and of a joint-heir with Christ, on the spiritual territory around him. Thus do many, inverting the way of mercy as it is experienced by others, come into the knowledge of forgiveness by starting from the fear wrought by threatenings. Climb to the summit of Bible truth into the rest of faith how he may, that man will have a firmer peace and a broader outlook, who, discarding the sentimental and unintelligent idea that God is unmixed love to everything, finds a richer depth of mercy in contemplating the wrath which, in himself, he so fully merited, and which, through Christ, he has so completely escaped.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 8:32 Joshua fulfilled Moses’ command to set up stones…
8:32 Joshua fulfilled Moses’ command to set up stones and coat them with plaster (Deut 27:2-8). After the plaster hardened, the instructions (Hebrew torah) would permanently be on public display at the first location where Israel formally worshiped the Lord after entering the land. The public display of laws occurred in other places; the best-known example is the famous Code of Hammurabi, which that king set up in Babylon.
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