Deuteronomy 27:2

on the day on which ye shall pass over Jordan The Heb. idiom (cp. 2 Samuel 19:20; Esther 9:1) implies the very day on which they were crossing, and not (vaguely) the time when they crossed; and this is confirmed by 3 bwhich indicates that the stones were to be set up when Israel crossed Jordan but before they entered upon their occupation of the land, in order that thou mayest go in(similarly Dillm. and Dri.).

and plaister them with plaister A whitewash of lime or chalk, as a background for the writing in black or another colour. The practice was Egyptian, and in Egypt the climate was not hostile to the result. But such writing would not survive the winters of Palestine, where not even inscriptions engraved in limestone, but only those in basalt have endured. It is possible therefore that we have here a very ancient fragment incorporated in D. Cp. E, Exodus 24:4-7 where the writing of the words of the Lordby Moses is associated with the erection of twelve maṣṣebôth.

all the word; of this law Heb. Tôrah(see on Deuteronomy 1:5; Deuteronomy 31:9, etc.). How much is comprised in this phrase we cannot say, for we are not sure of the exact size of the original code of D.

It was a widespread custom in antiquity to engrave laws upon stone pillars. The Code of Ḫammurabi is engraved on a pillar of black diorite in -about 49 columns, 4000 lines and 8000 words" (Johns, Hastings" D.B., Extra Vol.). The local tariff of Palmyra contains about 260 lines in Greek and 163 in Aramaic (Cooke, N. Semit. Inscr.313 ff.). The regulations for sacrifices at Carthage (CIS.i. i. 166 ff.) were graven on stone. For Greece cp. Apollodorus in the Schol. to l. 447 of the Cloudsof Aristophanes: οἱ ἀρχαῖοι λίθους ἱστάντες εἰώθεσαν τὰ δόξαντα ἐν αὐτοῖς ἀναγράφειν. These pillars were called στῆλαι and the phrase παραβῆναι τὰς στήλας (Polyb. xxvi. 1, 4) = to transgress the laws (Knobel).

when thou art passed over LXX, ye are.

that thou mayest go in, etc.] Cp. Deuteronomy 4:40; Deuteronomy 6:3; Deuteronomy 7:1, etc. LXX B, etc., read that ye may go in, but most MSS have Sg.