And all Israel, and their elders, and their officers and judges, stood on this side and on that side of the ark before the priests the Levites, who bore the ark of the covenant of Jehovah, as well the stranger as the home-born [Israelite]; half of them toward mount Gerizim, and the other half of them toward mount Ebal; as Moses the servant of Jehovah had commanded, that they should bless the people of Israel, in the beginning.
Most of Canaan is still unconquered, yet the war stops and the whole nation gathers in a valley between two mountains to put itself under the words of God. Why these two hills, why the ark in the middle, why every child and foreigner present?
Israel came to this valley not to fight but to hold a ceremony. So what gave them the right to the land in the first place?
It was not war which drew them to the area of Shechem; it was the ceremony of taking formal possession of the land that had called them there, in obedience to the instructions Moses had given. But their right of possession was not dependent on conquest, though their enjoyment of it required warfare. Their right of possession rested on a gift, a grant by God centuries before to Abraham.
The site was no accident.
It was at Shechem under the oak of Moreh that God first promised to Abraham to give his descendants the land (Gen. 12:7). There, nearly five centuries later, the word of God gathered his descendants, as a sign that He had kept the promise to their father. He who promised was faithful. He had also done it, and their gathering there was the witness of it.
The priests carried the ark down into the valley, between the two halves of the nation. One writer compares this with where the ark had stood on earlier days.
Why was the ark there, with no mention of the tabernacle with it?... Its position changed here again. God was directing all that took place. At the Jordan it had gone before all Israel, and there it must have been alone. At Jericho it followed the armed men in their daily march round the doomed city. God was to be seen with His people in the war. How different it is here. It was in the valley, carried high on the shoulders of some of the priests.
The verse names two mountains with opposite roles. Ebal took the curse — and the law, and the altar.
A mountain in Ephraim. From it came the curses that would fall upon Israel if they disobeyed the Lord. Great stones covered with plaster stood on this mount, with the law written on them. So the law and the curse belonged to the same mountain... but along with these Joshua also erected an altar to the Lord God of Israel, before the blessings on Gerizim and the curses on Ebal were recited.
Why put the altar on the mountain of cursing? One commentator finds grace in that choice.
Why was the altar not put on Mount Gerizim? Because God knew that Israel would not keep the law, and so they were 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.
The verse lists who stood where. The arrangement was practical as well as ceremonial.
The twelve tribes held the steep mountain sides of Ebal and Gerizim, six tribes on each mount. The Levites, we should suppose, filled the narrow plain between. They spoke with a loud voice to all the people both the curses and the blessings of God. Infants as well as warriors were present, "the sojourner as well as the native-born"; no one was left out. And in the clear air of Canaan the words of the law carried easily, rising from the valley up the slopes of the mountains.
Standing around the ark was an act of agreement. The people accepted the terms on which they would live in the land.
As a nation they said Amen to the commandments of God and His law. By their "So be it!" to its curses and its blessings they declared this: their prosperity, or their defeat, in the promised land depended on their obedience or disobedience to God. We may truly say that Israel's history, including their present condition, is simply a commentary on their Amens spoken at Ebal.
The altar itself was the bond in this transaction, and the possession was taken on stated terms.
They had taken possession of Canaan as a land set apart for God. Now they recognise Jehovah as the God of Israel by worshipping Him in the land. The altar was there as a witness, and as a bond between the people and Jehovah who had given them the land... They take the land in connection with Israel's responsibility under the law.
- Gift first. The land was theirs by God's grant to Abraham; conquest only decided how much of it they would enjoy.
- Place proves promise. Israel gathered at Shechem, where God first promised Abraham the land five centuries earlier.
- Curse answered. The law and its curse belonged to Ebal, and God put the altar there too. He meets people where they are, not where they ought to be.
- Nobody excluded. Tribes, elders, judges, children and the sojourner all stood around the ark, and every ear heard the law.
- Amen decides. Israel said "So be it" to both blessing and curse, tying its future to its obedience. Its whole later history reads as a commentary on that day.
And afterwards he read all the words of the law, the blessing and the curse, according to all that is written in the book of the law.
Israel gathered between Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim, and Joshua read the whole law aloud to everyone there. Why read out the curses as well as the blessings, and why on that spot?
Joshua did not choose the place. One writer asks why that mountain:
You may ask why Moses chose Mount Ebal for this deeply impressive ceremony, and what it means. Moses picked the very spot, although he had never seen it: "beyond the Jordan, toward the west, in the land of the Canaanites who live in the Arabah, opposite Gilgal, beside the oak of Moreh." In Deuteronomy 27:1-7 Moses tells them what to do when they get there.
The same writer ties that ground to an older promise:
No other spot in all the land fitted the occasion so well, whether you look at its geography or its history. They stood on the one spot in all the earth that God had sworn to Abraham hundreds of years before to give to his offspring. Now, some five centuries later, they assemble there to read the title deeds of their inheritance.
The verse repeats one word: all. One commentator points them out:
Notice the emphatic "alls" connected with the Scriptures, recorded by the Holy Spirit in the scene now before us. All Israel heard all the words of the law read out, according to all that is written. There was not a word of all that Moses commanded that Joshua failed to read before all the congregation of Israel. May every heart be stirred up to follow all the truth of the Scriptures.
The same writer compares Israel's reading with the way we pick and choose:
Joshua declared all the words of the Lord their God to the people. He did not give the blessings only, as we at times pick our favourite portions, but all the words of the Lord. Their whole prosperity in Canaan hung on their sticking to these words. They would go on enjoying the promised land, with its milk and honey, on one condition only: obedience. This should never be forgotten, for what we sow, we reap.
The reading went wider than threats:
Joshua now reads, before all the people, not only the curses attached to breaking the law. He reads all that made known the ways of God in His government of the people.
Israel answered out loud. One commentator notes which half drew the answer:
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 unanimous Amens. Twelve times they said "Amen" to the twelve curses. The twelfth was this: "Cursed be anyone who does not confirm the words of this law by doing them." It covered every possible neglect or failure they could be capable of. They read the blessings too. But about 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.
The altar stood on Ebal, the mountain of the curses, not on Gerizim. One writer asks what that teaches:
Christ has, by His death, made His people free, for they have died to the law in Him. His cross has cut them off from the law's power and rule, because the law makes no demands of men who are dead — "you also have died to the law through the body of Christ." The altar stood on Ebal, the mountain from which the Amens to the curses came. Can we doubt that it was placed there to teach that Christ has redeemed us by His sacrifice from the curse of the law?
Joshua read from a book that already existed. One writer draws a conclusion from that:
Joshua was also a writer. He wrote on the stones a copy of the law of Moses, which he wrote in the presence of the people of Israel. The account adds that "afterward he read all the words of the law, the blessing and the curse, according to all that is written in the Book of the Law." It is almost impossible to find a clearer testimony to the inspiration and divine authority of the books of Moses.
- Written — Joshua read from a book that already existed. He added nothing and left nothing out. That is a testimony to the inspiration and authority of what Moses wrote.
- All — The verse repeats "all": all the words, all that is written, read before all the congregation. Picking favourite portions is the opposite of what happened at Ebal.
- Both — Joshua read blessing and curse together. Keeping the land hung on one condition: obedience.
- Amen — Israel said "So be it" to the curses. Scripture records no answering Amen to the blessings.
- Altar — The altar stood on Ebal, the mountain of the curses. It points to Christ, who by His sacrifice redeemed His people from the curse of the law.