The Pulpit Commentary — Deuteronomy — Section 408

mntion of the Low when they should it was borrnwed by the HP,hrcws. It baa havu entered Canonn. Those instructions been suggested by KenuicQtt that tho Moses gives in conjunction with the elders writing was to be in relievo, and that Urn spaces between the letters were fille<l 11 p hy of Isro.el, who are nssoci11t,,d with him here, tho mortar or cement. This is pnssil,lc hecrLUse on them would devolve the obliga- but it is not such a process as this that th~ tion to see to the fulfilment of wh11t the Law words of the text suggest. "A c1trefu\ ex- enjoined after Mosea hod ceased to be the amination of eh. xxv-ii. 4, 8, and ,Josh. viii. ruler and lender of the people. 30-22, will lead to the opinion that the Law was written upon or in the plaBler with Vers.1-8.-The first instruction respects which these pillars were conted. This tho setting up of pillnrs on which the Law could easily be done, and such writino- was to be inscribed. Bnch a mode of pub- was common in ancient times. I have see~ lishing laws or edicts was common in specimen~ of it certainly more than two ancient times. Pillars of stone or metal, thousand years old, and still as distinct as on which le.we were inscribed, ore frequently when they were first inscribed on tho mentioned by the classical writers. Lysias plaster" (Thomson, 'Land and the Book ' quotes e. law from such o. pillar in the ii. p. 204 ). ' Areopagus o.t Athens (' Ero.tosth.,' 31, 12); at Eleusis there were pillars on which Ver. 3.-All the words of this law; i.e. laws were inscribed (Pollux, 10, 97); Plato all the purely legislative parts of the Mosaic speaks of pillars set up in the market-place, institute. By the "Law" here can not be on which were laws for tile regulation of intended merely the blessings and the curses traffic(' De Legg.,' xi. p. 916 E); and Poly- afterwards mentioned (vers. 14-26); nor is bius even uses the word "pillar" (,r-rf,>..71) there any reason why this term should be o.s synonymous with ''law" or "condi- restricted to the precepts of this Book of tions of treaty" (' Hist.,' xxiv. 4, 12; xxvi. Deuteronomy, as if they only were to be in- I, 4, etc. Comp. also Plato, 'Crit.,' p. 119 scribed on the stones: the term must be C, E; 120 A; Ps.-Demosth., p. 1370, 25; extended so as to cover a.11 that ~Iose8 h::cl 1381, 10; Cicero,' Cat.,' iii. 8; 'Phil.,' xiii. 3; at any time delivered to Israel as a law 'Fam. Epp.,' xii. 1; Ovid, 'Met.,' i. 3). from Goel. It is not necessary, however, Ver. 1.-All the commandments, etc.; to suppose that all the reasons and exhorta- nll that up to this time I have enjoined tions with which the delivery of these as upon you. 'l'he reference is to the entire recorded. in the Penta.tench, was acc~m- Law e.s given by Moses. panied were to be inscribed alono- with the Ver. 2.-0n the day when ye shall pass Law; still less that the histori;al details over Jordan; i.e. at the time; "day '' is here amidst which the record of these laws is used in e. wide sense (of. Gen. ii. 4; Numb. embedded should be given. It may be iii. 1 ; 2 Sam. xxii 1 ; Eccles. xii. 3 ; Isa.. xi. questioned even whether each and all of 10, eto. ). Thon aha.It set thee np great stones, the legislative enactments of the Torah, and pla.ister them with plaister. The stones, reckoned by the ,Jews to be 613, were to Le the number of which is nQt specified, were recorded; for it migbt be deemed enoucrh to be large, because much we..s to be in- that the substance and essence of the Lrw scribed upon them, and they were to be should.be thus preseuted. But even if the co~ere~ with a coating of lime or gypsum • whole was to be inscribed, there would be (1't?"), lil order to secure n smooth white no_ se~ious difficulty !n the way of carrying this mto effect, seewg there is no limita- surface on which the inscription mi"Qt be tion as to the number of the stones to bti clearly depicted. That the words we';.~not, set up. aij Michaelis, Rosenmiiller, and otbers sup- Ver. 4.-The stone~ were lo be set np on pose, cut in the stone, and al'terw,uds Mount Ebal (cf. eh. :u. W). The Samo.ritan covered with plaster in order' to prcser\'0 Codex and Version have Geriziru tore, in them, is plain from its being enjoined that placo of Ebal ; but though some critics they were to be written upon 6v) the stones have accep~ed this, it is ~enerally regarded so prepared ; and besides, o.s this was ns an arbitrary alterat10n introduced to intended to be e. proclamation of the Law favour Samaritan pretensions (see the ex- the main purpose of the erection would haustive and conclusive Dissertation of have been frustrated had the inscription Gesenius, 'De Pen tat. Samw,it.'). All the been oonoealed by suoh a covering ns that nncient versions, as well as all the Hebrew supposed. Among the ancient Egyptians manuscripts, support the received text. the practice of depicting records on walls Vers. 5-7.-Besidcs the monumental or monuments covered wilh a. coo.ting of stoues, nn alto.r of whole stones, on which no plnster was common (see Hen"stenbcr" tool hnd passed ( cf. Exod. xx. 22) we.a to be 'Authentie dee Pent.,' i. 464~ Eng&h ~rected, o.nd bw:nt offerings and peace offer- tra.nslo.tion, I. 438); from them, doubtless, rngs were to be presented as at the est.. b-  THE BOOK OF DEUTERONOMY. [cu. xuu, 1-26.