Deuteronomy 27:3

"It shall be on the day when you shall pass over the Jordan to the land which the LORD your God gives you, that you shall set yourself up great stones, and coat them with plaster."

Key Reflection

When the Israelites crossed the Jordan River into the Promised Land, they were instructed to set up large stones and coat them with plaster as a significant ritual. This act served both as a visual reminder of God's covenant and a practical step in establishing their new nation, grounding their identity and laws in divine commandments rather than mere oral tradition.

From the Scholars: Barnes' Notes

All the words of this law -i. e. all the laws revealed from God to the people by Moses, regarded by the Jews as 613 (compareNumbers 15:38note). The exhibition of laws in this manner on stones, pillars, or tables, was familiar to the ancients. The laws were probably graven in the stone (“very plainly,”Deuteronomy 27:8is by some rendered “scoop it out well”), as are for the most part the Egyptian hieroglyphics, the “plaister” being afterward added to protect the inscription from the weather.

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