Mount Ebal
About half way between Nablous and Jacob’s Well, Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim so come together as to form a natural amphitheater. Here it is supposed the children of Israel were gathered when a copy of the law of Moses was written upon the twelve stones in the presence of Israel. “Then Joshua built an altar to the Lord God of Israel in Mount Ebal. * * * * And he wrote there upon the stones a copy of the law of Moses, which he wrote in the presence of the children of Israel. And all Israel, and their elders, and officers and their judges, stood on this side the Ark and on that side, before the priests, the Levites, which bear the Ark of the covenant of the Lord, as well the stranger as he that was born among them; half of them over against Mount Gerizim and half of them over against Mount Ebal; as Moses the servant of the Lord had commanded before, that they should bless the people of Israel. And afterwards he read all the words of the law, the blessings and the cursings, according to all that is written in the book of the law.”—Joshua 8:30–34. The acoustic properties of this valley have been tested, and it is said a man’s clear voice uttered in the valley can be distinctly heard across the amphitheater formed here by Ebal and Gerizim. The buildings seen in the picture are the Turkish Barracks, which stand by the roadside to Shechem. We passed here late in the afternoon of May 3rd. The wayside in the spring of the year is illuminated with wild flowers.
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