Original Meaning

THE GRAMMATICAL CONSTRUCTION OF the beginning of verse 29 signals the beginning of a new, albeit short, section.1 Now Moses’ attention shifts from the present covenant renewal ceremony to an anticipated event on the other side of the Jordan. The opening clause sets the temporal context: when the Israelites have arrived at their destination. As always, Moses is careful to credit Yahweh for their arrival in the land to which they have been headed (v. 29).

Moses’ description of the ceremony is sketchy in the extreme, consisting of only nine words in the Hebrew (v. 29b). Interpreted literally, Moses seems to envisage “the blessing” and “the curse” as tangible if not concrete objects to be carried across the Jordan and deposited on Mounts Gerizim and Ebal. From the Plains of Moab he could undoubtedly see these twin peaks, some forty miles to the northwest. This enigmatic text leaves unanswered many questions concerning the nature of the event. These questions will not be answered until chapter 27, which the editor of Moses’ addresses has inserted near the end of this second address.

Geography is the key to the significance of these verses. Having identified Mounts Gerizim and Ebal as the place for the ceremony, by means of a complex rhetorical question (not apparent in most Eng. translations, but see KJV) Moses offers a convoluted description of the location. It is across the Jordan,2 beyond the road that leads west from the Jordan River to Shechem, between Gerizim and Ebal, in the land of the Canaanites, who live in the Arabah opposite Gilgal north of Jericho, next to the great trees of Moreh. Although the Arabah obviously refers to the Jordan Valley gorge that runs from the Sea of Galilee in the north to the Red Sea in the south, the remainder of the verse is obscure.3

The phrase “trees of Moreh” may provide a key to the meaning of the ceremony anticipated here. The expression occurs elsewhere only in Genesis 12:6, marking the spot near Shechem where Abraham first camped when he entered the land. At that time Yahweh had appeared to him and confirmed “this land” as the gift that he would give to his descendants. Earlier we noted that Yahweh’s establishment of his covenant with Israel at Sinai, as well as the renewal of that covenant with this generation on the Plains of Moab, represented the fulfillment of Yahweh’s covenant promise to Abraham and his descendants to be their God and to claim them as his covenant people (Gen. 17:7). But these were bilateral ceremonies involving only Yahweh and his people. Since both the ratification of the covenant at Horeb and the renewal ceremonies on the Plains of Moab had transpired on alien soil, the land had yet to be brought into the relationship. Apparently the purpose of this ceremony was to complete the covenantal triangle, though confirmation of this interpretation must await the commentary on chapter 27.

In verse 31 Moses confidently announces the end of the journey for his people. They are about to cross the Jordan to receive their gift of land from Yahweh. His comment that they will possess that land and establish permanent residence there seems redundant, but this should not surprise us if we remember that Moses is speaking pastorally and personally. As a pastoral note, it reminds the people of the significance of the event that lies immediately before them: they will claim what Yahweh in his grace is giving them.

But on the personal level, Moses’ fixation on the crossing betrays his own bitter disappointment at being refused entrance to the land (3:23–26). With this note Moses also reiterates the role of the Jordan as the boundary between alien soil and the Promised Land to be received as a gift. One can only imagine what the two and one-half tribes who had requested the Transjordanian territory as their land might have thought about this.

Moses concludes the first section of his second address (5:1b–11:32) with another appeal for the Israelites “today.” There is no point in dreaming about the future if they do not commit themselves now to full obedience to the decrees and laws that he is giving them.

Bridging Contexts

THESE VERSES ARE CONCERNED with a future one-time ritual on Mounts Gerizim and Ebal. While Moses will expand on this summary charge in chapter 27, it will fall to Joshua to carry out these instructions. According to Joshua 8:30–35, after the Israelites had conquered Jericho and Ai, they gathered at these mountains, where Joshua led them in a ritual observance precisely as Moses had prescribed. When the Israelites headed for this sacred spot, they retraced the steps of their ancestor Abraham (Gen. 12:6–7). At the great trees of Moreh, at the very spot where Yahweh had appeared to Abraham for the first time in the Promised Land, where he had declared, “To your offspring I will give this land,” and where Abraham had built his first altar, there Joshua also built an altar to Yahweh.

With this altar and the accompanying ritual, the Israelites celebrated Yahweh’s faithfulness in fulfilling his promise given centuries earlier, and formally the Promised Land was incorporated into the tripartite covenant relationship involving Yahweh, Israel, and the land. In so doing Joshua laid the foundation not only for Israel’s longstanding claim to the land, which they had received as a grant from their divine Suzerain, but also for the prophetic hope that after the ultimate judgment of exile from the land and the departure of the divine presence, these three parties to the covenant would be reunited.4

Contemporary Significance

THIS PASSAGE HAS PROFOUND significance for contemporary Christians in two particular respects. First, it reminds us that God is faithful; he always keeps his promises. Just as he had held the land of the Canaanites in reserve for his people as their special grant and inheritance, so he holds in reserve for those who believe in Jesus the Christ an eternal heavenly grant (Eph. 1:3–14). Our possession is not an earthly allotment but a spiritual reality; we have been redeemed and have been given the Holy Spirit as a pledge of our inheritance to the praise of his glory. Like every other benefit, this is an unmerited and undeserved gift from God.