And therefore it shall be, when ye be gone over Jordan
Some time after they had passed that river:
[that] ye shall set up these stones, which I command you this day, in
Mount Ebal;
a mountain near Shechem in Samaria, and was, as Benjamin of Tudela says F18, dry as stones and rocks itself, and perhaps had its name, as some think F19, from the root in the Arabic language which signifies to strip a tree of its leaves, and a derivative from it, white stones and a mountain in which such are found. Hither the stones commanded to be set up were to be brought, and fixed here; from whence it is not certain; it may be from some part of the mountain. Here the Samaritan version has Gerizim instead of Ebal, which is generally thought to be a wilful corruption of the Samaritans, in favour of their temple built at Gerizim:
and thou shall plaster them with plaster;
as before directed, ( Deuteronomy 27:2 ) .