_EBAL AND GERIZIM._
JOSHUA viii. 30-35.
Commentators on Joshua have been greatly perplexed by the place which
this narrative has in our Bibles. No one can study the map, and take
into account the circumstances of Joshua and the people, without
sharing in this perplexity. It will be observed from the map that Ebal
and Gerizim, rising from the plain of Shechem, are a long way distant
from Ai and Bethel. If we suppose Joshua and not his army only, but
the whole of his people (ver. 33), to have gone straight from Gilgal
to Mount Ebal after the capture of Ai, the journey must have occupied
several days each way, besides the time needed for the ceremony that
took place there. It certainly would have needed an overwhelming
reason to induce him at such a time, first to march a host like this
all the way to Mount Ebal, and then to march them back to their
encampment at Gilgal. Hence many have come to believe that, in some
way which we cannot explain, this passage has been inserted out of its
proper place. The most natural place for it would be at the end of
chap. xi. or chap. xii., after the conquest of the whole country, and
before its division among the tribes. Nearly all the manuscripts of
the Septuagint insert it between vv. 2 and 3 of the ninth chapter,
but this does not go far to remove the difficulty. It has been thought
by some that Joshua left the original Gilgal in the plain of Jordan,
and fixed his camp at another Gilgal, transferring the name of his
first encampment to the second. Mention is certainly made in Scripture
of another Gilgal in the neighbourhood of Bethel (2 Kings ii. 2), but
nothing is said to lead us to suppose that Joshua had removed his
encampment thither.
Some have thought that no record has been preserved of one of Joshua's
great campaigns, the campaign in which he subdued the central part of
the country. A good deal may be said for this supposition. In the list
of the thirty-one kings whom he subdued over the country (chap. xii.)
we find several whose dominions were in this region. For instance, we
know that Aphek, Taanach, and Megiddo were all situated in the central
part of the country, and probably other cities too. Yet, while the
fact is recorded that they were defeated, no mention is made of any
expedition against them. They belonged neither to the confederacy of
Adonizedec in the south nor to that of Jabin in the north, and they
must have been subdued on some separate occasion. It is just possible
that Joshua defeated them before encountering the confederacy of
Adonizedec at Gibeon and Bethhoron. But it is far more likely that it
was after that victory that he advanced to the central part of the
country.
On the whole, while admitting the perplexity of the question, we
incline to the belief that the passage has been transferred from its
original place. This in no way invalidates the authority of the book,
or of the passage, for in the most undoubtedly authentic books of
Scripture we have instances beyond question--very notably in
Jeremiah--of passages inserted out of their natural order.
It has been said that the passage in Deuteronomy (xxvii. 4-19) could
not have been written by Moses, because he had never set foot in
Canaan, and therefore could not have been acquainted with the names or
the locality of Ebal and Gerizim. On the contrary, we believe that he
had very good reason to be acquainted with both. For at the foot of
Ebal lay the portion of ground which Jacob gave to his son Joseph, and
where both Jacob's well and Joseph's tomb are pointed out at the
present day. That piece of ground must have been familiar to Jacob,
and carefully described to Joseph by its great natural features when
he made it over to him. And as Joseph regarded it as his destined
burial-place, the tradition of its situation must have been carefully
transmitted to those that came after him, when he gave commandment
concerning his bones. Joseph was not the oldest son of Jacob, any more
than Rachel was his oldest wife, and for these reasons neither of them
was buried in the cave of Machpelah. Moses therefore had good reasons
for being acquainted with the locality. Probably it was at the time of
the ceremony at Ebal that the bones of Joseph were buried, although
the fact is not recorded till the very end of the book (Josh. xxiv.
32). But that passage, too, is evidently not in its natural place.
It was a most fitting thing that when he had completed the conquest of
the country, Joshua should set about performing that great national
ceremony, designed to rivet on the people's hearts the claims of God's
law and covenant, which had been enjoined by Moses to be performed in
the valley of Shechem. For though Joshua was neither priest nor
prophet, yet as a warm believer and earnest servant of God, he felt
it his duty on all suitable occasions to urge upon the people that
there was no prosperity for them save on condition of loyalty to Him.
He sought to mingle the thought of God and of God's claims with the
very life of the nation; to make it run, as it where, in their very
blood; to get them to think of the Divine covenant as their palladium,
the very pledge of all their blessings, their one only guarantee of
prosperity and peace.
When therefore Joshua conducted his people to the Mounts Ebal and
Gerizim, in order that they might have the obligations of the law set
before them in a form as impressive as it was picturesque, he was not
merely fulfilling mechanically an injunction of Moses, but performing
a transaction into which he himself entered heart and soul. And when
the writer of the book records the transaction, it is not merely for
the purpose of showing us how certain acts prescribed in a previous
book were actually performed, but for the purpose of perpetuating an
occurrence which in the whole future history of the nation would prove
either a continual inspiration for good, or a testimony against them,
so that out of their own life they should be condemned. Knowing Joshua
as we do, we can easily believe that all along it was one of his most
cherished projects to implement the legacy of Moses and superintend
this memorable covenanting act. It must have been a great relief from
the bloody scenes and awful experiences of war to assemble his people
among the mountains, and engage them in a service which was so much
more in harmony with the beauty and sublimity of nature. No critic or
writer who has any sense of the fitness of things can coolly remove
this transaction from the sphere of history into that of fancy, or
deprive Joshua of his share in a transaction into which his heart was
doubtless thrown as enthusiastically as that of David in after times
when the ark was placed upon Mount Zion.
It could not be without thrilling hearts that Joshua and all of his
people who were like-minded entered the beautiful valley of Shechem,
which had been the first resting-place in Canaan of their father
Abraham, the first place where God appeared to him, and the first
place where "he builded an altar unto the Lord" (Gen. xii. 6, 7). By
general consent the valley of Shechem holds the distinction of being
one of the most beautiful in the country. "Its western side," says
Stanley, "is bounded by the abutments of two mountain ranges, running
from west to east. These ranges are Gerizim and Ebal; and up the
opening between them, not seen from the plain, lies the modern town of
Nablous [Neapolis = Shechem].... A valley green with grass, grey with
olives, gardens sloping down on each side, fresh springs running down
in all directions; at the end a white town embosomed in all this
verdure, lodged between the two high mountains which extend on each
side of the valley--that on the south Gerizim, that on the north
Ebal;--this is the aspect of Nablous, the most beautiful, perhaps it
might be said the only very beautiful spot in Central Palestine."
If the host of Israel approached Ebal and Gerizim from the south, they
would pass along the central ridge or plateau of the country till they
reached the vale of Shechem, where the mountain range would appear as
if it had been cleft from top to bottom by some great convulsion of
nature. Then, as now, the country was studded thickly with villages,
the plains clothed with grass and grain, and the rounded hills with
orchards of fig, olive, pomegranate, and other trees. On either side
of the fissure rose a hill of about eight hundred feet, about the
height of Arthur Seat at Edinburgh, Ebal on the north and Gerizim on
the south. It was not like the scene at Sinai, where the bare and
desolate mountains towered up to heaven, their summits lost among the
clouds. This was a more homely landscape, amid the fields and
dwellings where the people were to spend their daily life. If the
proclamation of the law from Sinai had something of an abstract and
distant character, Ebal and Gerizim brought it home to the business
and bosoms of men. It was now to be the rule for every day, and for
every transaction of every day; the bride was now to be settled in her
home, and if she was to enjoy the countenance and the company of her
heavenly Bridegroom, the law of His house must be fully implemented,
and its every requirement riveted on her heart.
The ceremony here under Joshua was twofold: first, the rearing of an
altar; and second, the proclamation of the law.
1. The altar, as enjoined in Exod. xx. 24, was of whole, undressed
stones. In its simple structure it was designed to show that the Most
High dwelleth not in temples made with hands. In its open position it
demonstrated that the most fitting place for His worship was not the
secret recesses of the woods, but the open air and full light of
heaven, seeing that He is light, and in Him is no darkness at all. On
this altar were offered burnt offerings and peace offerings to the
Lord. The sacrificial system had been little attended to amid the
movements of the wilderness, and the warlike operations in which the
people had been more or less engaged ever since their entrance on the
land; but now was the beginning of a more regular worship. The first
transaction here performed was the sacrificial. Here sin was called to
mind, and the need of propitiation. Here it was commemorated that God
Himself had appointed a method of propitiation; that He had thereby
signified His gracious desire to be at peace with His people; that He
had not left them to sigh out, "Oh that we knew where we might find
Him, that we might come even to His seat!"--but had opened to His
people the gates of righteousness, that they might go in and praise
the Lord.
Moreover, we read in Joshua, that "he wrote there upon the stones a
copy of the law of Moses, which he wrote in the presence of the
children of Israel." There is sufficient difference between the
passages in Deuteronomy and Joshua to show that the one was not copied
from the other. From Joshua we might suppose that it was on the stones
of the altar that Joshua wrote, and there is no reference to the
command given in Deuteronomy to plaister the stones with plaister. But
from Deuteronomy it is plain that it was not the stones of the altar
that were plaistered over, but memorial stones set up for the purpose.
There has been no little controversy as to the manner in which this
injunction was carried out. According to Dr. Thomson, in the "Land and
the Book," the matter is very simple. The difficulty in the eyes of
commentators has arisen from the idea that plaister is altogether too
soft a substance to retain the impression of what is written on it.
This Dr. Thomson wholly disputes: "A careful examination of Deut.
xxvii. 4, 8 and Josh. viii. 30-32 will lead to the opinion that the
law was written upon and in the plaister with which these pillars were
coated. This could easily be done; and such writing was common in
ancient times. I have seen numerous specimens of it certainly more
than two thousand years old, and still as distinct as when they were
first inscribed upon the plaister.... In this hot climate, where there
is no frost to dissolve the cement, it will continue hard and unbroken
for thousands of years,--which is certainly long enough. The cement on
Solomon's pools remains in admirable preservation, though exposed to
all the vicissitudes of the climate and with no protection.... What
Joshua did therefore, when he erected those great stones on Mount
Ebal, was merely to write _in_ the still soft cement with a style, or
more likely _on_ the polished surface when dry, with red paint, as in
ancient tombs. If properly sheltered, and not broken by violence, they
would have remained to this day."
Joshua could not have written the whole of the law on his pillars; it
was probably only the ten commandments. As we shall see, another
arrangement was made for the rehearsal of the whole law; it was
solemnly read out afterwards. But now the entire nation, with all the
strangers and followers, took up their position in the valley between
the two mountains. Half of the tribes separated from the rest to the
slopes of Gerizim, and the other half to those of Ebal. From
Deuteronomy we gather that those who were grouped on Gerizim were far
the more important and numerous tribes. They embraced Simeon, Levi,
Judah, Issachar, Joseph, and Benjamin. On Mount Ebal were stationed
Reuben, Gad and Asher, Zebulun, Dan and Naphtali. The priests stood
between, and read out blessings and curses. When blessings were read
out the tribes on Gerizim shouted Amen. When curses were read out
those on Ebal did the same. Let us imagine the scene. A mountain side
covered with people is always a picturesque sight, and the effect is
greatly heightened when the clothing of the multitude is of light,
bright colours, as probably it was on this occasion. "It was," says
Dr. Thomson, "beyond question or comparison the most august assembly
the sun has ever shone upon; and I never stand in the narrow plain,
with Ebal and Gerizim rising on either hand to the sky, without
involuntarily recalling and reproducing the scene. I have shouted to
hear the echo, and then fancied how it must have been when the
loud-voiced Levites proclaimed from the naked cliffs of Ebal, 'Cursed
is the man that maketh any graven image, an abomination to Jehovah.'
And then the tremendous AMEN! tenfold louder from the united
congregation, rising and swelling and re-echoing from Ebal to Gerizim,
and from Gerizim to Ebal. AMEN! Even so, let him be accursed. No,
there never was an assembly to compare with this."
Very explicit mention is made of the fact that "there was not a word
of all that Moses commanded which Joshua read not before all the
congregation of the children of Israel, with the women and the little
ones and the strangers that were conversant among them." This
obviously implies that the law of Moses was in definite form, and that
the reading of it took up a considerable portion of time.
The order of events had been very significant. First, a great work of
destruction--the dispossession of the Canaanites. Next, the erection
of an altar, and the offering up of sacrifices. And, lastly, the
inscribing and proclamation of the law. "The surgeon has done his
duty, and now nature will proceed to heal and comfort and bless. The
enemy has been driven off the field. Now the altar is put up and the
law is promulgated. Society without law is chaos. An altar without
righteousness is evaporative sentiment. Prayer without duty may be a
detachment of the wings from the bird they were designed to assist....
Having done the destructive work, do not imagine that the whole
programme is complete; now begins the construction of the altar. And
having made a place for prayer, do not imagine that the whole duty of
man has been perfected; next put up the law; battle, prayer, law; law,
prayer, battle."[12]
[12] "The People's Bible," by Joseph Parker, D.D.
If the conjecture that this passage originally occupied a later place
in the book be correct, the army was now about to be disbanded, and
the people were about to be settled in homes of their own. It was a
momentous crisis. They were about to lose, in a great degree, the
influence of union, and the presence of men like Joshua and the godly
elders, whose noble example and stirring words had ever been a power
for what was good and true. Scattered over the land, they would now be
more at the control of their own hearts, and often of what in them was
least noble and least godly. On the part of Joshua, everything had
been done, by this solemn gathering, to secure that they should
separate with the remembrance of God's mighty works on their behalf
filling their hearts, and the words of God's law ringing in their
ears.