The altar on Mount Ebal

27 Moses and the elders of Israel commanded the people: ‘Keep all these commands that I give you today. ² When you have crossed the Jordan into the land the Lord your God is giving you, set up some large stones and coat them with plaster. ³ Write on them all the words of this law when you have crossed over to enter the land the Lord your God is giving you, a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the Lord, the God of your ancestors, promised you. ⁴ And when you have crossed the Jordan, set up these stones on Mount Ebal, as I command you today, and coat them with plaster. ⁵ Build there an altar to the Lord your God, an altar of stones. Do not use any iron tool on them. ⁶ Build the altar of the Lord your God with stones from the field and offer burnt offerings on it to the Lord your God. ⁷ Sacrifice fellowship offerings there, eating them and rejoicing in the presence of the Lord your God. ⁸ And you shall write very clearly all the words of this law on these stones you have set up.’

Curses from Mount Ebal

⁹ Then Moses and the Levitical priests said to all Israel, ‘Be silent, Israel, and listen! You have now become the people of the Lord your God. ¹⁰ Obey the Lord your God and follow his commands and decrees that I give you today.’

The covenant renewed at Mount Ebal

³⁰ Then Joshua built on Mount Ebal an altar to the Lord, the God of Israel, ³¹ as Moses the servant of the Lord had commanded the Israelites. He built it according to what is written in the Book of the Law of Moses – an altar of uncut stones, on which no iron tool had been used. On it they offered to the Lord burnt offerings and sacrificed fellowship offerings. ³² There, in the presence of the Israelites, Joshua wrote on stones a copy of the law of Moses. ³³ All the Israelites, with their elders, officials and judges, were standing on both sides of the ark of the covenant of the Lord, facing the Levitical priests who carried it. Both the foreigners living among them and the native-born were there. Half of the people stood in front of Mount Gerizim and half of them in front of Mount Ebal, as Moses the servant of the Lord had formerly commanded when he gave instructions to bless the people of Israel.

³⁴ Afterwards, Joshua read all the words of the law – the blessings and the curses – just as it is written in the Book of the Law. ³⁵ There was not a word of all that Moses had commanded that Joshua did not read to the whole assembly of Israel, including the women and children, and the foreigners who lived among them.