Wesley Corpus

Built an altar - Namely, for the offering of sacrifices, as appears from the following verse. Mount Ebal - God's altar was to be but in one place, Deut 12:13,14, and this place was appointed to he mount Ebal, Deut 27:4,5, which also seems most proper, that in that place whence the curses of the law were denounced against sinners, there might also be the tokens and means of grace, and peace, and reconciliation with God, for the removing of the curses, and the procuring of God's blessing to sinners. Upon the stones - Not upon the stones of the altar, which were to be rough and unpolished, ver.31, but upon other stones, smooth and plaistered, as is manifest from Deut 27:2. The law of Moses - Not certainly the whole five books of Moses, for what stones and time would have sufficed for this, but the most weighty parts of the law, and especially the law of the ten commandments. All Israel - That is, the whole congregation, old and young, male and female. That side - Some on one side of it, and some on the other. Mount Gerizim - These two places were in the tribe of Ephraim, not far from Shechem, as appears both from scripture, and from other authors. Bless - Or curse, which is easily understood out of the following verse. Afterward - After the altar was built, and the stones plaistered and writ upon. He read - That is, he commanded the priests or Levites to read, Deut 27:14. Blessings and cursings - Which words came in not by way of explication, as if the words of the law were nothing else besides the blessings and curses; but by way of addition, to note that these were read over and above the words of the law. Read not - Therefore he read not the blessings and curses only, as some think, but the whole law, as the manner was when all Israel, men and women, were assembled together, or the ten commandments. Among them - Who were proselytes, for no others can be supposed to be with them at this time.