What is the significance of Mount Ebal in the Bible?

Mountain in Ephraim from which were proclaimed the curses that would fall upon Israel if they disobeyed the Lord. Great stones covered with plaster, on which the law was written, were set up on this mount. Thus the law and the curse were associated with the same mountain, Deut. 11:29; Deut. 27:4, 13; but along with these Joshua also erected an altar unto the Lord God of Israel, before the blessings on Gerizim and the curses on Ebal were rehearsed. Joshua 8:30 , 33. Parties of travellers often separate themselves, some going up mount Ebal, and others on mount Gerizim, and prove that the congregation in the valley could hear the voice from both mountains. Mount Ebal is now called Jebel Eslamiyeh, 32 14' N, 35 16' E. Its highest point is 3077 feet.

Little comment is needed on this chapter. The memorial stones were to be set up on Mount Ebal. Upon that mountain the curses of the law were to be uttered. The blessings were to be pronounced upon Mount Gerizim. However, on Gerizim were no stones with the law written upon it. How strikingly this illustrates the true ministration of the law! It cannot give blessing, but it must curse man. "For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse; for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them" (Gal. 3:10). Then the tribes are divided to stand upon Gerizim to bless and upon Ebal to curse. But where are there words of blessing in connection with Gerizim? Not one. The law cannot give blessing. But the word "cursed" we find twelve times in this chapter. What a confirmation that the law holds out no blessing for man, but can do nothing but curse. But, blessed be God! upon Mount Ebal there stood not alone the great stones with plaster, with the words of the law upon them, but there was also an altar unto Jehovah, for burnt offerings and for peace offerings, for rejoicing before the Lord. And this speaks of Christ, who has redeemed us from the curse of the law.

With the directive again to keep all the commandments of the Lord, Moses gave Israel instructions, when they get into the land, to set up large stones coated with lime, on which the words of the law were to be inscribed (vs.1-3). This was to be done on Mount Ebal and also an altar of stones built there (vs.4-6), on which Israel was to offer peace offerings and rejoice before the Lord.

The significance of these things is very striking, for we are told in verses 12 and 13 that blessings for the people were to be proclaimed from Mount Gerazim and curses from Mount Ebal. Why was the altar not put on Mount Gerizim? Because God knew that Israel would not keep the law, and were thus 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.

Then, after the victory, Joshua built an altar unto the Lord God of Israel, in Mount Ebal. He is doing this in obedience to the previously given command. See Deuteronomy 27:2-8. What an impressive scene it must have been when "he read all the words of the law, the blessings and the cursings, according to all that is written in the book of the law."

"Both mounts belong to the range of Mount Ephraim ; the elevated valley of Shechem lies between them. The transaction probably took place in the following manner. Six tribes occupied each mount; the priests, standing below in the valley with the ark of the covenant in their midst, turned toward Mount Gerizim as they solemnly pronounced the words of blessing, and then, looking towards Mount Ebal, repeated the words of cursing; all the people responded to each of the words, and said: 'Amen!' Ebal, the Mount of cursing, is naked and bald; Gerizim, the mount of blessing, is green and fertile. The circumstance that the mount of cursing was assigned for the writing of the law, the erection of the altar, and the offering of sacrifice, is highly significant; the cause lies in the intimate relations existing between the curse, on the one hand, and the Law and Sacrifice, on the other--the former brings a curse, or gives a sharp point to it, the latter abolishes it" (J.H. Kurtz).

There is one more striking coincidence in the verses we are considering. The gibbet of the king of Ai was the place of the judgment and curse of Israel's enemy. But here the people are obliged to stand themselves on Mount Ebal, where the curse of God is pronounced upon them. This terrible conclusion of the law which Israel could not escape, God had brought to nought by the cross of Christ. Christ bore on the cross the curse which was pronounced at Ebal on man as a responsible being, to redeem us from it. Israel could see in type on the gibbet at Ai, what we see in the cross of Christ, Satan, our chief enemy, defeated and annihilated; but we see also, as has been already remarked, all the curse under which we lay at Ebal, for ever gone in the actual judgment of Him who took this place for us. In Galatians 3:10, 13, we find the same blessed connection between Ebal and the cross. "For it is written" (Deut. 27:26), "Cursed is everyone that continues not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them." The curses at Ebal close with these words, but the apostle adds: "Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangs on a tree." This is the hanging of the king of Ai.

A further result of discipline was that Israel, now humbled, were in a state to worship. "Then Joshua built an altar to the Lord God of Israel in Mount Ebal … and they offered thereon burnt-offerings to the Lord, and sacrificed peace-offerings." With us likewise, there can be no communion without self-judgment, and no worship without communion. The altar in Mount Ebal was the provision in grace for the curse of the law on transgressors. In the altar we have propitiation, which is the basis of all true worship; only here it is in presence of a people threatened by the curse if they do not obey. The cross which has put an end to the curse for us, is the starting-point or centre of our worship, and sheds upon us the full light of divine grace.

Upon Ebal the altar was reared. It was erected to Jehovah, the Lord God of Israel. He was recognized as the Lord God of the nation, and Israel owned thereby their relationship with Him. Around this altar the entire nation assembled; and Christ is the altar and the centre of the circle of God's people, around Whom the saints gather. "An altar of whole stones, over which no man hath lift up any iron," was set up, that that sacred altar might not have upon it the touch of man's tool, for to shape its stones with human hand was to "pollute" it; for Christ is the altar, and He is perfect, and the working of man's hands, man's thoughts respecting Him, do but produce infidelity and dishonour to His Name.

All that Moses had enjoined, Joshua faithfully carried out. But what we read of in Joshua, viz., the prominence given to the Ark, is not mentioned in Deuteronomy. "All Israel," we read, "and their elders, and officers, and their judges, stood on this side the Ark and on that side before the priests the Levites, which bare the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord, as well the stranger, as he that was born among them; half of them over against Mount Gerizim, and half of them over against Mount Ebal; as Moses the servant of the Lord had commanded before, that they should bless the people of Israel. And afterward he read all the words of the law, the blessings and the cursings, according to all that is written in the book of the Law" (Joshua 8:33-34).

Now, what did all this mean? Why was the Ark there and no mention of the Tabernacle with it? Once only was it taken to the valley between Ebal and Gerizim. Its position was here again changed. How plain it is that there was no imitation. God was directing in all that took place. At Jordan, as we have seen, it had preceded all Israel. 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. Here how different. It was in the valley, borne aloft on the shoulders of some of the priests, with half of the tribes on Mount Gerizim on the one hand, and half on Mount Ebal on the other. What were they all doing there? No enemy had concentrated its forces at that spot. It was not war which drew them to the vicinity of Shechem; it was the ceremony of taking formal possession of the land that had called them thither, in obedience to the directions communicated by the lawgiver. They had come to take possession, as one might say, in the presence of their enemies. For as yet the Amorite confederacy in the south had not been crushed, nor had the northern confederacy under Jabin, king of Hazor, been defeated and dispersed. Much the greater part of the land was still unconquered. But their right of possession was not dependent on conquest, though their enjoyment of it necessitated warfare. Their right of possession rested on a gift, a grant by God centuries before to Abraham. Here they had met to read their title deeds, as it were, to their continued enjoyment of it as their home.

But why was this place selected for this purpose? No other spot on the whole earth was so suitable. It was at Shechem under the oak (or, terebinth) of Moreh that God first promised to Abraham to give his seed the land (Gen. 12:7). There, close upon five centuries later, his descendants were assembled by the word of God, and in token of the fulfilment of that promise to their father. Faithful He was who promised. He had also done it, and they were assembled there in witness of it. An oak was there, evidently a well known tree (Joshua 24:26), perhaps the same by which Abraham had pitched his tent, for trees live long. From Shechem Abraham moved to Bethel and Ai. From Bethel and Ai his descendants pass to reach that valley which divides Ebal from Gerizim.

The steep mountain sides of Ebal and Gerizim were held by the twelve tribes, six on each mount, and the narrow plain between was, we should suppose, occupied by the Levites, who spoke and said with a loud voice unto all the people both the curses and the blessings of God. (Deut. 27:11-14.) Infants as well as warriors were present, "the stranger, as he that was born among them;" none were left out. And in the clear atmosphere of Canaan the words of the law would be easily heard, rising from the valley up the slopes of the mountains.

So "all Israel, and their elders, and officers, and their judges," stood around the ark of God, and placed themselves under the commandments of the Lord, while Joshua read "all the words of the law, the blessings and cursings, according to all that is written in the book of the law." They hallowed His Name, in the land where the enemy and the idols still were. As a nation they avowed by their Amens to the commandments of God and His law — by their "So be it!" to its curses and its blessings — that their prosperity, or discomfiture, in the promised land, depended upon their obedience or disobedience to God. It may be truthfully said, Israel's history, including their present condition, is but a comment upon their Amens uttered at Ebal.

The blessing and the curse were to be solemnly rehearsed in the centre of the land when God should give it them, from the slopes respectively of Gerizim and Ebal. The last words which point out the site, "beside the oaks of Moreh," — full of touching recollections for an Israelite, — show that this is the place where Abraham first rested upon entering Canaan. "Moreh" means "teacher," as the oak itself suits well with the robustness of growth where the Word of God is that which teaches. The connection of Moreh with Shechem is seen in Genesis, and this lies between Ebal and Gerizim. "Shechem" means "shoulder," and there Israel as a nation, now brought into the land, were finally to take up the burden of the law; a law which is commonly torah, or "teaching," from the same root as Moreh. These are links which show us how God would carry back His people to the position of their great ancestor, so definitely the man of faith, and set them where he had been. Alas, they had accepted law, to stand in covenant-relation to Jehovah on that ground; and the shadow of this falls darkly over them. Ebal o'ertops Gerizim. Even this should have been but a voice of recall to Abraham's blessing through a faith like his: some surely heard it.

Here we have the summing up of the whole matter. The blessing is linked on to obedience; the curse, to disobedience. Mount Gerazim stands over against mount Ebal — fruitfulness and barrenness. We shall see, when we come to Deuteronomy 27, that mount Gerazim and its blessings are entirely passed over. The curses of mount Ebal fall, with awful distinctness, on Israel's ear, while terrible silence reigns on mount Gerazim. "As many as are of the works of the law are under the curse." The blessing of Abraham can only come on those who are on the ground of faith. But more of this, by-and-by.