Deuteronomy 26:16-27:10

Revised Standard Version

Concluding Exhortation

¹⁶ “This day the Lord your God commands you to do these statutes and ordinances; you shall therefore be careful to do them with all your heart and with all your soul. ¹⁷ You have declared this day concerning the Lord that he is your God, and that you will walk in his ways, and keep his statutes and his commandments and his ordinances, and will obey his voice; ¹⁸ and the Lord has declared this day concerning you that you are a people for his own possession, as he has promised you, and that you are to keep all his commandments, ¹⁹ that he will set you high above all nations that he has made, in praise and in fame and in honor, and that you shall be a people holy to the Lord your God, as he has spoken.”

The Inscribed Stones and Altar on Mount Ebal

27 Now Moses and the elders of Israel commanded the people, saying, “Keep all the commandment which I command you this day. ² And on the day you pass over the Jordan to the land which the Lord your God gives you, you shall set up large stones, and plaster them with plaster; ³ and you shall write upon them all the words of this law, when you pass over to enter the land which the Lord your God gives you, a land flowing with milk and honey, as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has promised you. ⁴ And when you have passed over the Jordan, you shall set up these stones, concerning which I command you this day, on Mount Ebal, and you shall plaster them with plaster. ⁵ And there you shall build an altar to the Lord your God, an altar of stones; you shall lift up no iron tool upon them. ⁶ You shall build an altar to the Lord your God of unhewn^[a] stones; and you shall offer burnt offerings on it to the Lord your God; ⁷ and you shall sacrifice peace offerings, and shall eat there; and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God. ⁸ And you shall write upon the stones all the words of this law very plainly.”

⁹ And Moses and the Levitical priests said to all Israel, “Keep silence and hear, O Israel: this day you have become the people of the Lord your God. ¹⁰ You shall therefore obey the voice of the Lord your God, keeping his commandments and his statutes, which I command you this day.”