Cursed be he that lieth with his father's wife; for he uncovereth his father's skirt! And all the people shall say, Amen.
Earlier in this chapter six tribes stood on Mount Gerizim to bless and six on Mount Ebal to curse. Verse 20 is the sixth of the twelve curses read aloud that day. It names a sin inside the family — a man taking his father's wife — and it required the whole nation to answer "Amen."
Verse 20 is one line in a spoken list. The Levites called out each curse, and the whole nation answered.
The Levites read the curses with a loud voice. As each curse for disobedience sounded in Israel's ears, the hundreds of thousands gathered on Mount Ebal answered together with Amens. Twelve times they said "Amen" to the twelve curses. The twelfth one — "Cursed be he who does not confirm all the words of this law to do them" — covered every possible neglect or failure they could be capable of.
The other side of the ceremony stays silent. Six tribes stood ready to bless, but the chapter records no blessing.
In chapter 27:12 we get the six who were to bless, but no blessing. Then in verse 13 we get the six to curse, and then follows: "The Levites shall speak and say to all the men of Israel with a loud voice: Cursed be he," and so on... So those who are of the law are under the curse.
The woman in view is the stepmother, not the man's own mother.
The one who has sexual intercourse with his father's wife is put under the sixth curse (v.20). This would of course be his stepmother, as in the revolting case of the man in 1 Corinthians 5:1, who was put out from Christian fellowship for this evil.
The ban held whether the father was alive or dead, and it was not a standard peculiar to Israel.
A man was not to take his father's wife, that is, his stepmother. This was forbidden whether his father had died or not. Even the Gentile nations saw this as completely wrong (1 Cor. 5:1). How much more so for Christians! Yet a man in the church at Corinth was guilty of this evil and had to be put out (1 Cor. 5:1-13).
The verse says the man has uncovered his father's nakedness. The shame runs deep because the tie is close.
In these near relationships marriage was unnatural and dishonourable in proportion to the nearness. The intercourse that belonged to the married tie was forbidden in every case outside it. Here it was sinful and shameful in the highest degree... It is the man who is forbidden here, but surely the woman is forbidden just as much. The prohibition also goes beyond blood relations. It extends in the same degree to those related by marriage. It was very important to cultivate the warmest affection between all who stood in near kinship or connection. It was even more essential that they keep their love for one another pure.
The sin in this verse happens in private. So do others in the list, and the choice looks deliberate.
The whole ceremony and the special form of the curses are practical, and so is the inward, distinctive nature of the examples chosen. Gross transgressions incur the penalty, but the more secret and refined ones meet with the curse. This is to show that God will visit such sinners in any case, and to fill the hypocrite with terror at his works of darkness.
Ebal was the mountain of the curse. It was also the mountain of an altar.
It says a great deal about the true power of the law that on Mount Ebal it stood permanently identified with the curse and not with the blessing. But side by side with this monument of the law, they were to build their altar and offer their burnt offerings and their peace offerings. It was as if God would not have the connection mistaken even then. On the dreaded mountain itself they were to rejoice before God. They could do so, because the law sanctified this worship, and the death of the victim maintained the righteousness of the law.
The curse was not cancelled. Someone took it.
"Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree." How blessed it is to see this! In 2 Corinthians 5 Scripture says that Christ was made sin. Here it says that "He is made a curse for us."
Kelly quotes Galatians 3:13 from an older translation. The ESV reads, "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us."
- Curse. Verse 20 is the sixth of twelve curses read from Mount Ebal, and Israel said "Amen" to every one of them.
- Silence. Six tribes stood on Gerizim to bless, yet the chapter records no blessing. The law could speak only curse.
- Secrecy. The sins chosen are hidden ones. God reaches what no human court can reach.
- Nearness. The closer the tie, the deeper the dishonour. That is why the verse names the father.
- Altar. On the mountain of cursing God commanded an altar. Christ, made a curse for us, is where the whole list comes to rest.
Cursed be he that lieth with any manner of beast! And all the people shall say, Amen.
This is the ninth of twelve curses shouted from Mount Ebal, and the whole nation had to answer "Amen" to it. Why did Israel enter the land under curses, and why is no matching blessing recorded?
This curse sits in a group dealing with the same kind of evil, and the people were not just listening:
The seventh, eighth and ninth curses are all connected with sexual evil. For each of them the people had to agree that the curse was completely righteous.
Such sins were common among the nations Israel was replacing:
These unnatural brutalities are plain enough. But many do not know how shamelessly the nations practised them, even the Greeks and the Romans. What an abomination! It is confusion, says Jehovah. Israel was not to become unclean through any of these things. The nations of Canaan did all of them, and He drove those nations out before Israel. How much guiltier, then, would Israel be! These sins made the very land unclean… Receiving the good that comes from God — His word and above all His Christ — is what keeps souls from evil.
Many of these curses name sins a person can hide and still keep his good name. One writer says that is exactly why God chose them:
The whole ceremony and the special form of the curses are practical, and so is the inward, particular nature of the examples chosen. Open, gross sins incur the penalty. But the more secret and refined sins meet with the curse too. This shows that God will visit such sinners in any case, and it fills the hypocrite with terror at his works of darkness.
"Amen" means "so be it". The people's own voice sealed each curse against themselves:
The Levites read the curses out loud. As each curse for disobedience sounded in Israel's ears, the hundreds of thousands gathered on Mount Ebal answered with united Amens. Twelve times they said "Amen" to the twelve curses. The twelfth — "Cursed be anyone who does not confirm the words of this law by doing them" — covered every possible neglect or failure they could be capable of. The blessings were read too (Joshua 8:33-34); but about any Amens sounding from Mount Gerizim, Scripture is silent. It records not one answering "So be it" to blessings earned by the obedience of fallen man.
That silence was not an accident. One writer applies it far beyond Israel:
Nor could it be otherwise. Argue for it as people will, nothing but a curse can come on "all who rely on works of the law." It does not only say, "as many as fail to keep the law," though that is true. As if to set the truth before us in the clearest and strongest way, the Holy Spirit declares this: for all, no matter who — Jew, Gentile, or nominal Christian — all who stand on the ground or principle of works of law, there is, and can be, nothing but a curse.
Ebal carried more than the curse. God commanded an altar on that same mountain:
But side by side with this monument of the law they were to build their altar. It was as if God would not let them miss the connection even then. They were to offer their burnt offerings and their peace offerings, and rejoice before God on the dreaded mountain itself. They could do so, because the law itself sanctified this worship: the death of the victim upheld the righteousness of the law. For faith, this completes the testimony.
What the altar pictured, the cross carried out:
We were powerless to redeem ourselves. We had brought the curse on ourselves, but we had no way to escape it… The law had no claim against Him. The law could not curse Him. He had never broken it… But of His own free will He went to the gallows for us. Of His own free will He became a curse to buy you and me out from the curse that lay on us.
- Cursed — the ninth of twelve curses, part of a group aimed at sexual sin, and each one needed the people's spoken agreement.
- Hidden — the sins chosen are ones a man could conceal from his neighbours; God names them aloud to show He will deal with what no court sees.
- Amen — Israel sealed every curse with its own voice; Scripture records no Amen for the blessings from Gerizim.
- Silent — that missing blessing is the point: anyone standing on law-keeping is under curse, not Israel only.
- Altar — on the very mountain of cursing God commanded burnt offerings and joy, pointing to Christ, who became a curse to buy us out of it.
Cursed be he that lieth with his sister, the daughter of his father, or the daughter of his mother! And all the people shall say, Amen.
Deuteronomy 27:22 is the eighth of twelve curses that the Levites shouted from Mount Ebal as Israel entered the land. It names a sin done behind closed doors, inside a family. Why does a national list of blessings and curses stop to name a man and his sister? And why must the whole nation answer "Amen"?
Moses arranged for half the tribes to bless from Gerizim and half to curse from Ebal. Scripture records only one half of that arrangement, and commentators fix on the silence.
How does this come about? Where are the blessings? Nowhere. Nothing remains but the curses. Is this not solemn? ... It is impossible for man to find blessing from the law in the presence of God when we come to its actual application. ... It is not that God is unwilling to bless — far from it; the charge was given to bless as much as to curse. But man was under probation by the law of God, and if it depends on man, the only thing he gets is the curse.
The twelve curses are not the worst crimes imaginable. They are, for the most part, sins nobody sees — things done in secret that no court would ever hear about.
The whole ceremony and the special form of the curses are practical, and so is the inward, particular nature of the examples chosen. Gross transgressions incur the penalty, but the more secret and refined ones meet with the curse. This is to show that God will visit such sinners in any case, and to fill the hypocrite with terror at his works of darkness.
The verse covers a sister by the same father and a sister by the same mother. The law in Leviticus treats both cases the same way.
Incest with a half sister was exactly the same as with a full sister: it demanded death.
The law is not only banning an act. It guards the difference between family trust and marriage.
Leviticus 18 keeps the people from dishonouring themselves in the things that belong to nature itself. It holds them to what man ought to be in his natural relations, so that he would not dishonour himself. ... Verse 6 is the great principle the chapter insists on: do not confuse the intimacies of marriage with the trust of a natural family relationship.
Each curse ended with the whole nation agreeing out loud. That agreement was a sentence they pronounced on themselves.
The Levites read the curses out loud. As each curse for disobedience sounded in Israel's ears, the hundreds of thousands gathered on Mount Ebal answered with united Amens. Twelve times they said "Amen" to the twelve curses. The twelfth — "Cursed be anyone who does not confirm the words of this law by doing them" — covered every possible neglect or failure they could be capable of. The blessings were read too (Joshua 8:33-34), but Scripture says nothing about Amens sounding from Mount Gerizim. It records not one answering "So be it" to blessings earned by the obedience of fallen man.
Israel later saw this sin at the very top of the nation. David's son Amnon assaulted his half sister Tamar.
His oldest son and Tamar, a daughter of David and half sister to Amnon, are the main actors in the first tragedy. Amnon means "faithful." That is what he should have been, but he is the very opposite. He grew up surrounded by scenes of licence, as it must have been in David's harem. The lust of the flesh gets the upper hand, and he commits the terrible deed, a direct transgression of the law (Lev. 20:17).
The chapter leaves Israel under a sentence with no way out. Commentators point to the one place where another bore that sentence.
Here the people must stand themselves on Mount Ebal, where God pronounces His curse on them. Israel could not escape this terrible conclusion of the law. But God has brought it to nothing by the cross of Christ. Christ bore on the cross the curse pronounced at Ebal on man as a responsible being, to redeem us from it.
- The mountain. Moses arranged blessing from Gerizim and cursing from Ebal, but Scripture records only the curses. On the ground of law, nothing else can be said.
- The secret. These twelve curses target sins done out of sight, so the man who thinks he has got away with it has no cover left.
- The sin. A sister by the father or by the mother is a sister just the same. The sin confuses family trust with the intimacy of marriage, and dishonours the man who does it.
- The Amen. Twelve times the nation agreed out loud to its own sentence, and Scripture records no answering Amen for any blessing.
- The cross. Christ bore the curse Israel stood under at Ebal, to redeem those who could never escape it.
Cursed be he that lieth with his mother-in-law! And all the people shall say, Amen.
As Israel entered the land, twelve curses rang out from Mount Ebal, and the whole nation answered each one aloud. This curse names a sin done inside the family, where a man is trusted and nobody is watching.
The place chosen for the reading carried a message of its own. Israel had two mountains before them, and only one of them carried the curses.
Mount Ebal is the mountain where the curses of the law were to be announced, and Mount Gerizim the mountain of the blessings. How telling it is of the true power of the law, that it was to stand there permanently tied to the curse and not to the blessing! "All who rely on works of the law are under a curse" — that is the language of the law itself here. … So the power of the law is lost, because its true power is to destroy self-righteousness and humble people to the gospel.
after_reason_check: keeps author's argument
A mother-in-law is family by marriage, not by birth. One writer shows how far these laws reached, and why.
In these close relationships marriage was unnatural and shameful, and the closer the tie, the worse it was. … The ban also goes beyond blood relations. It reaches just as far to those joined by marriage. It mattered greatly to grow the warmest affection between all who stood close as kin or by connection. But it mattered even more that their love for one another be kept completely pure.
The twelve curses do not cover every crime. They pick out sins a person can keep out of sight, like this one inside the home.
The whole ceremony and the special form of the curses are practical, and so is the inward, unusual nature of the examples chosen. Open, gross crimes carry the legal penalty. But the more secret and refined sins meet with the curse. This shows that God will judge such sinners anyway, and it fills the hypocrite with terror at his own works of darkness.
This verse is one of a run of curses on sexual sin, and each one required the nation's spoken agreement.
The seventh, eighth and ninth curses are all connected with sexual evil too. In every one of them the people were to agree fully that the curse was completely righteous.
Israel said "Amen" to every curse. One commentator notes what Scripture never records them saying.
Twelve times they said "Amen" to the twelve curses. The twelfth one — "Cursed be anyone who does not confirm the words of this law by doing them" — covered every possible neglect or failure they could be guilty of. The blessings were read too (Joshua 8:33-34), but Scripture says nothing about any "Amen" sounding from Mount Gerizim. It records not one answering "So be it" to blessings earned by the obedience of fallen man (Deut. 27). People may rightly agree to all the rules of God's law, but those who stay under the law must stay under its curse (Gal. 3:10).
If the law can only curse, how does anyone escape? Writing on Galatians 3, one commentator shows where the curse fell.
In verse 10 we read that we are "under the curse." Then in verse 13 we read that He became "a curse for us." This literally means "over" or "above" us. So think of the curse as a great sword hanging by a thread over my head. It may fall at any moment and destroy me. Christ came above me, between me and the sword. The sword fell on Him; He received the blow that must have taken us down to hell; He took us out from under the curse.
- Curse chosen. God set His law on Ebal, the mountain of cursing. The law can only condemn anyone who stands on his own record.
- Curse hidden. These are sins a man can keep out of sight. God cursed secret sin to fill the hypocrite with terror.
- Curse near. This one reaches a bond made by marriage, not blood. Every close tie had to stay pure.
- Curse owned. Israel said "Amen" twelve times and agreed the sentence was righteous. Scripture records no such answer to the blessings.
- Curse borne. The sword hanging over the guilty fell on Christ instead. He became a curse and bought us out from under it.
Cursed be he that smiteth his neighbour secretly! And all the people shall say, Amen.
Deuteronomy 27:24 is one of twelve curses proclaimed from Mount Ebal, and it names a crime no court can reach. Why single out the hidden blow, and why did a whole nation answer "Amen" to it?
Moses planned this ceremony to run both ways. The event itself did not.
But in the second half of our chapter we find something quite different. Moses appoints six tribes to stand on Mount Gerizim to bless the people, and six on Mount Ebal to curse. But when we come to the actual history, the facts of the case, there is not a single syllable of blessing. There is nothing but twelve dreadful curses, each confirmed by a solemn "Amen" from the whole congregation.
This is the tenth curse in the list. Who sees a crime designed not to be seen?
The tenth curse is against one who attacks his neighbour secretly. A person may cover up his bad actions toward another, but God discerns such underhand activity and puts the offender under a curse.
The examples in this list were chosen with care. Open crimes already carried a penalty; these curses reach further.
The whole ceremony and the special form of the curses are practical, and so is the inward, distinctive character of the examples chosen. Gross transgressions bring the penalty, but the more secret and refined ones meet with the curse. The purpose is to show that God will visit such sinners in any case, and to fill the hypocrite with terror at his works of darkness.
Israel's own history gives this crime a face.
Amasa suspected nothing… Joab wore battle armour. He had a sword in his left hand, but Amasa did not even notice it, all the more because Joab greeted him in friendly terms, "Is it well with you, my brother?" and came close to kiss him. But "the kisses of an enemy are deceitful" (Prov. 27:6, older translation). At that same moment Joab plunged his sword into Amasa's chest, making sure he killed him with one stroke.
Every curse called for the people's own agreement. In giving it, they signed their own sentence.
The Levites read the curses with a loud voice. As each curse for disobedience sounded in Israel's ears, the hundreds of thousands gathered on Mount Ebal responded with united Amens. Twelve times they said "Amen" to the twelve curses. The twelfth — "Cursed be anyone who does not confirm the words of this law by doing them" — took in every possible neglect or failure they could be capable of. The blessings were read too (Joshua 8:33-34). But about any Amens sounding from Mount Gerizim, Scripture is silent. It records not one answering "So be it" to blessings earned by the obedience of fallen man. A man may rightly agree with all "the judgments" of God's law. But those who remain under the law must remain under its curse (Gal. 3:10).
Ebal was not left bare. The monument of the law stood there, and so did an altar.
But side by side with this monument of the law, they were to build their altar. It was as if God would not have the connection mistaken even then. There they were to offer their burnt offerings and their peace offerings, and rejoice before God on the dreaded mountain itself. They could do so, because the law itself set this worship apart, and the death of the victim maintained the righteousness of the law. For faith, this completes the testimony.
So who stands under this curse, and how does anyone get out from under it?
The curse is not said to fall on those who have broken the law, but on everyone who takes his stand on legal ground. Whoever tries to please God on this principle has fallen under it… It is a great blessing to find that, as 2 Corinthians 5 says Christ was made sin, so here it says, "He is made a curse for us."… Christ came and redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us.
- Secret. The sin here is a blow struck at a neighbour in secret. No witness saw it and no court could punish it.
- Seen. God reaches where human justice cannot. The curse names the hidden and refined sins, so the hypocrite finds no shelter in the dark.
- Sworn. The people answered "Amen" twelve times. They agreed the sentence was right, and so bound it on themselves.
- Silent. Gerizim gave no answering blessing. Standing on the ground of law can produce only curse.
- Substituted. An altar stood on the cursed mountain, and Christ was made a curse for us — the one way out from under the Amen.
Cursed be he that taketh reward to smite mortally [shedding] innocent blood! And all the people shall say, Amen.
The eleventh of the twelve curses at Mount Ebal names a crime that hides behind a payment: money changes hands, and an innocent person dies. Every Israelite had to answer it out loud with "Amen."
The curse names only the one who takes the money. One commentator points out that the guilt does not stop there.
The eleventh curse is against one who takes a bribe to kill an innocent person. We often hear of people hired to kill someone. When a court proves it, it finds both of them guilty of murder. The curse here speaks only of the one who takes the bribe, but before God both are surely guilty.
The list keeps returning to sins arranged in secret, where no witness stands. The choice is deliberate.
Gross transgressions bring the penalty, but the more secret and refined ones meet with the curse. The purpose is to show that God will visit such sinners in any case, and to strike the hypocrite with terror at his works of darkness.
A bribe looks like a private deal between two men. One writer weighs what that secrecy is worth.
A gift that twists the course of judgment blinds the eyes. It marks out as a wicked man the one who takes it, no less than the one who gives it. No other human eye sees, but God, who hates the wrong, is not mocked.
The danger reaches further than open bribery.
The law forbids every form of bribery. A bribe appeals to the feelings of the person who takes it. Where bribery runs wild, justice all but disappears. "A bribe blinds the clear-sighted." Let us read that law in its spirit as well as its letter. Self-interest can blind the eyes of a sincere Christian who would never for a moment consider accepting a bribe.
The nation was not just listening. Each curse required a spoken answer.
The Levites read the curses aloud. As each curse for disobedience sounded in Israel's ears, the hundreds of thousands gathered on Mount Ebal answered with one voice: "Amen." Twelve times they said "Amen" to the twelve curses. The twelfth — "Cursed be anyone who does not confirm the words of this law by doing them" — took in every possible neglect or failure they could be guilty of. Blessings were read too, but about any "Amen" sounding from Mount Gerizim, Scripture is silent. It records not one answering "So be it" to blessings earned by the obedience of fallen man.
Centuries later a man took money and handed over someone innocent. He confessed it in the words of this curse.
Judas brings the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders. He confesses, "I have sinned by betraying innocent blood." They could not deny that this was true. But with complete heartlessness, more hardened if possible than Judas' own heart, they say, "What is that to us? See to it yourself." Many a person sells Jesus in effect, if not literally. Let every soul make sure his sin is not in some way like the sin of Judas.
The curse was assigned to Ebal, and not the blessing. One writer draws out what that says about the law itself.
Notice what this says about the real power of the law! It was to stand there tied for good to the curse and not to the blessing. "For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse" — that is the law speaking about itself. Break that link, and the power of the law is lost. Its true power is to destroy self-righteousness and humble people so they receive the gospel.
But God set something else on that same mountain.
Side by side with this monument of the law, they were to build their altar. There they were to offer their burnt offerings and peace offerings, and rejoice before God on the dreaded mountain itself. It was as if God would not have the connection missed even then. They could do so, because the law itself made this worship holy: the death of the victim upheld the righteousness of the law.
- The bribe. The curse falls on the man who takes money to kill. Before God, the man who pays is just as guilty.
- The dark. These curses reach sins arranged in secret. The hypocrite who escapes human courts has nothing left to hide behind.
- The blindness. A gift that bends justice condemns the giver as much as the taker. Plain self-interest can blind a sincere person who would never touch a bribe.
- The Amen. Israel said "So be it" twelve times to the curse and never once to the blessing. They agreed out loud to their own sentence.
- The altar. On the cursed mountain God set an altar. There a victim died, the law's righteousness stood, and a cursed people could still rejoice before God.
Cursed be he that confirmeth not the words of this law to do them! And all the people shall say, Amen.
Moses ends the twelve curses at Ebal with one that gathers up every other, and the whole nation must answer "Amen" to it. Paul quotes it in Galatians 3 to show that everyone who relies on keeping the law stands under a curse.
This last curse names no particular sin, and that is its terror:
The Levites read the curses out loud. As each curse for disobedience sounded in Israel's ears, the hundreds of thousands gathered on Mount Ebal answered together with united Amens. Twelve times they said "Amen" to the twelve curses, and the twelfth covered every possible neglect or failure they could be capable of… Man may rightly agree with all the judgments of God's law, but those who remain under the law must remain under its curse.
Six tribes stood on Gerizim to bless, six on Ebal to curse. Look for the blessings in this chapter and you will not find them:
In chapter 27:12 we get the six who were to bless, but no blessing. Then in verse 13 the six to curse. Then follows: "The Levites shall declare to all the men of Israel in a loud voice: Cursed be he," and so on — and at the end, the words quoted by the apostle Paul. In the following chapters we get God's ways with Israel in the land of Canaan. But it all stands under the solemn declarations of what comes from being put under the law, and no blessing appears there. So those who are of the law are under the curse.
That silence raises a question about God Himself.
It is not that there is the least unwillingness on God's part to bless — far from it; and the charge was given to bless as much as to curse. But the creature, the first man, was under testing by the law of God. The result is, and can only be, this: if it depends on man, the only thing he gets in the end is the curse.
Paul's quotation reaches further than the lawbreaker:
It does not merely say "as many as fail to keep the law," though that is true. The Holy Spirit sets the truth before us in the clearest and strongest way. He declares that all who stand on the ground or principle of works of law — Jew, Gentile or nominal Christian, no matter who — are under a curse. For them there is, and can be, nothing else.
Law can state a demand. It cannot produce the man who will meet it.
Clearly no one has continued to do all the things the law demands. So the testimony of Moses can lead to only one conclusion: to go back to the law for blessing is to come under the curse. It has been said, "The law demands; it insists that men keep it; it must have obedience. But it gives neither a nature that wants to keep it, nor the strength to do it."
Deuteronomy 28 also lists curses, yet Paul reaches back to this verse. The two chapters are not interchangeable:
Of what is the apostle treating? Not merely of that which belongs to the present life. He is looking at law as that which brings in the curse for ever. So it is not a question of present things, but of a curse in the sight of God. This gives the true key to the passage compared with the next chapter. The blessings and the curses of Deuteronomy 28 belong strictly to the curse man actually lives under here on earth.
One detail earlier in the chapter refuses to fit the gloom. God told Israel to build the altar on Ebal — the cursing side, not the blessing side:
Why was the altar not put on Mount Gerizim? Because God knew that Israel would not keep the law, and were therefore left under a curse (Gal. 3:10). God would meet them in the place they were, not where they ought to be. The altar tells us that God is able to redeem those under the curse by means of the sacrifice of Christ. This is pure grace.
What the altar pictured, the cross carried out.
Christ bore on the cross the curse pronounced at Ebal on man as a responsible being, to redeem us from it… The curses at Ebal close with these words, but the apostle adds: "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us — for it is written, 'Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree.'"
- Ebal speaks. Israel answered twelve curses with "Amen"; the last one swept in every failure the first eleven had not named.
- Gerizim is silent. God commanded the blessing, yet no blessing was ever recorded. He was willing to bless; man on trial gave Him nothing to bless.
- The curse widens. Paul applies the verse not only to those who break the law but to everyone who takes law as the ground of blessing.
- The law cannot help. It demands obedience without giving either the desire or the strength to obey.
- The altar stands on Ebal. God met His people on the cursing side of the valley, where Christ was made a curse for us.