Deuteronomy 27:4

4 And it shall be as soon as ye are gone over Jordan, ye shall set up these stones, which I command thee this day, on mount Gaebal, and thou shalt plaster them with plaster.

Deuteronomy 27:4 Meaning and Commentary

Deuteronomy 27:4

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 ) .

---

FOOTNOTES:

F18 Itinerar. p. 40.
F19 Reland. Dissert. 3. de Monte Gerizim, p. 128. See Castel. Lexic. Heptaglott col 2642.

Deuteronomy 27:4 In-Context

2 And it shall come to pass in the day when ye shall cross over Jordan into the land which the Lord thy God gives thee, that thou shalt set up for thyself great stones, and shalt plaster them with plaster.

3 And thou shalt write on these stones all the words of this law, as soon as ye have crossed Jordan, when ye are entered into the land, which the Lord God of thy fathers gives thee, a land flowing with milk and honey, according as the Lord God of thy fathers said to thee.

4 And it shall be as soon as ye are gone over Jordan, ye shall set up these stones, which I command thee this day, on mount Gaebal, and thou shalt plaster them with plaster.

5 And thou shalt build there an altar to the Lord thy God, an altar of stones; thou shalt not lift up iron upon it.

6 Of whole stones shalt thou build an altar to the Lord thy God, and thou shalt offer upon it whole-burnt-offerings to the Lord thy God.