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Joshua 8 · a question people ask

Why does the chapter move straight from Ai to Mount Ebal?

In the text

The chapter points to what Moses had commanded for the time after the crossing. "It shall be, when you have crossed over the Jordan, that you shall set up these stones… on Mount Ebal" (Deuteronomy 27:4), and "There you shall build an altar to the LORD your God" (Deuteronomy 27:5). Moses had said the same of the blessing and the curse: "when the LORD your God brings you into the land… you shall set the blessing on Mount Gerizim, and the curse on Mount Ebal" (Deuteronomy 11:29). Joshua 8 ties what it tells to that command three times: "as Moses the servant of the LORD commanded" (8:31), "as it is written in the book of the law of Moses" (8:31), and "as Moses the servant of the LORD had commanded at the first" (8:33). The account opens with one word, "Then" (8:30). The chapter doesn't say how long after Ai this was, or how Israel came to the mountain. Why the altar went on the mountain of the curse, Deuteronomy 27 doesn't say either; that chapter looks at it.

The verses

“It shall be, when you have crossed over the Jordan, that you shall set up these stones, which I command you today, on Mount Ebal, and you shall coat them with plaster. There you shall build an altar to the LORD your God, an altar of stones. You shall not use any iron tool on them.”
Deuteronomy 27:4-5 · World English Bible
“It shall happen, when the LORD your God brings you into the land that you go to possess, that you shall set the blessing on Mount Gerizim, and the curse on Mount Ebal.”
Deuteronomy 11:29 · World English Bible
“Then Joshua built an altar to the LORD, the God of Israel, on Mount Ebal, as Moses the servant of the LORD commanded the children of Israel, as it is written in the book of the law of Moses: an altar of uncut stones, on which no one had lifted up any iron. They offered burnt offerings on it to the LORD and sacrificed peace offerings.”
Joshua 8:30-31 · World English Bible
“All Israel, with their elders, officers, and judges, stood on both sides of the ark before the Levitical priests, who carried the ark of the LORD’s covenant, the foreigner as well as the native; half of them in front of Mount Gerizim, and half of them in front of Mount Ebal, as Moses the servant of the LORD had commanded at the first, that they should bless the people of Israel.”
Joshua 8:33 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Joshua 8

Joshua 8: According to the LORD's word

The LORD sent Joshua back to Ai with words Moses had spoken to a generation that wouldn't go up (8:1; Deuteronomy 1:21), and the ambush that took the city was the LORD's own plan (8:2). Then, on Mount Ebal, Joshua read every word Moses commanded to everyone, "with the women, the little ones, and the foreigners who were among them" (8:35).

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions