Deuteronomy 27:12, commentary and pictures

This instruction belongs to Moses' directions for Israel's covenant ceremony to take place after crossing the Jordan and entering the promised land, forming part of the plain statement of the blessings of obedience in Deuteronomy 26 through 28. Six tribes — Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph, and Benjamin — were commanded to stand upon Mount Gerizim to bless the people when Israel came over Jordan. The word spoken is the voice of Christ, Jesus enshrouded in the pillar of cloud speaking with His own voice and not the voice of man, to keep the people from forgetting.

Its directions express the principles of God's law, the law of God's kingdom, so that minds are not left in ignorance and uncertainty, and they make the people's continuing obligations clear. The arrangement shows God's particular care over forgetful Israel to make His law familiar and impress it on the people by teaching with repetition from two prominent positions, joined to writing the commandments on plastered stones. In the ceremony the people were to repeat God's commands and hear the advantages of blessing pronounced from Mount Gerizim, appointed as the mount of blessing for the obedient, and the disadvantages of cursing pronounced from Mount Ebal for the disobedient. After each declaration the congregation assented to the specifications and by accepting the conditions placed themselves under solemn responsibility to fulfill them.

It plainly states that obedience to God's commandments brings prosperity and present and future good while disobedience results in a curse. That setting of blessing and curse before the people was meant to deter from transgression and encourage in obedience, because God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked but takes the greatest pleasure in those who turn from sin. It lays a never-ceasing obligation on all whom God has blessed with life and health and temporal and spiritual advantages to keep and do His statutes and judgments with all the heart and soul. When God specially favors His people they are to publicly acknowledge it so that God's name is glorified as a testimony that His Word is verity and truth, and the statement is to be read carefully. Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal later stood as witnesses to Israel's solemn vows, as Joshua rehearsed the blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience before the assembled people in the renewal at Shechem before his death.