Mount Ebal

Coordinates: 32°14′02″N 35°16′24″E / 32.234°N 35.2733°E / 32.234; 35.2733
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"Ebal" redirects here. For the California high school athletic league, see East Bay Athletic League.
Ebal
View of Mount Ebal
Highest point
Elevation935 m (3,068 ft)
Coordinates32°14′02″N 35°16′24″E / 32.234°N 35.2733°E / 32.234; 35.2733
Geography
Ebal is located in State of Palestine
Ebal
Ebal
Location of Mount Ebal within Palestine
Ebal is located in the West Bank
Ebal
Ebal
Location of Nablus within the West Bank, Palestine
Map

Mount Ebal (

Arabic: جَبَلُ عَيْبال Jabal ‘Aybāl) is one of the two mountains in the immediate vicinity of the city of Nablus in the West Bank (biblical Shechem), and forms the northern side of the valley in which Nablus is situated, the southern side being formed by Mount Gerizim.[1] The mountain is one of the highest peaks in the West Bank and rises to 935 m (3,068 ft) above sea level, some 60 m (200 ft) higher than Mount Gerizim.[2] Mount Ebal is approximately 17 km2 (6.6 sq mi) in area,[2] and is composed primarily of limestone.[3] The slopes of the mountain contain several large caverns which were probably originally quarries,[3] and at the base towards the north are several tombs.[4]

View of Mount Ebal from the city of Nablus

Biblical account

In advance of the Israelites' entry to the Promised Land, Deuteronomy 11:29 records Moses' direction that "when the Lord your God has brought you into the land which you go to possess, that you shall put the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal".

In the

Samaritans view as a holy site;[7][8] some scholars believe that the Samaritan version is probably more accurate in this respect, the compilers of the masoretic text and authors of the Septuagint being likely to be biased against the Samaritans.[7] Recent Dead Sea Scrolls work supports the accuracy of the Samaritan Pentateuch's designation of Mount Gerizim rather than Mount Ebal as the sacred site.[9] Christophe Nihan and Herve Gonzalez wrote in 2018 that it is now widely agreed that the reading "on Mt. Gerizem" is older than that referring to Mt. Ebal which they say "arguably represents a later, polemical revision."[10]

An instruction immediately subsequent to this orders that, once this is done, the Israelites should split into two groups, one to stay on Mount Ebal and pronounce curses, while the other goes to Mount Gerizim and pronounces blessings.[11] The tribes of Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph and Benjamin were to be sent to Gerizim, while those of Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan and Naphtali, were to remain on Ebal.[11] No attempts to explain this division of tribes either by their Biblical ethnology or by their geographical distribution have been generally accepted in academic circles.[7]

The text goes on to list twelve curses, which were to be pronounced by the

Babylonian exile had occurred.[7]

In the

aetiology for the site acceptable to the deuteronomist's theology.[17]

Much later in the Book, when Joshua was old and dying, he gathered the people together at Shechem, and gave a farewell speech, and then wrote these words in the book of the Torah of God, and took a great stone, and set it under the doorpost which is in the sanctuary of the Lord.[18] Depending on the way in which the sources of Joshua were spliced together, this may just be another version of the earlier narrative of Joshua placing the whitened stones slabs with the Torah inscribed on them, and some scholars believe that this narrative may have originally been in an earlier location within the Book of Joshua.[7]

In the Biblical narrative, the

dove, was later recovered by the Samaritans, and used in their worship on Mount Gerizim.[20]

Tel Aviv and Gush Dan as seen from Mount Ebal

Archaeology

Mount Ebal site (Northern el-Burnat)

Main article: Mount Ebal site

In 1980, a structure on Mount Ebal was discovered by Israeli archaeologist

Iron Age I period.[21] Today, most archeologists agree that the structure was a site of an early Israelite cultic activity.[22] Zertal suggested that the structure was possibly the altar described in the Book of Joshua as where Joshua built an altar to Yahweh and renewed the Covenant in a large ceremony. This identification is controversial and has been disputed by a number of archaeologists.[23][24]

In February 2021 a portion of the site was destroyed by the Palestinian Authority and the stones were ground up and used to pave a nearby road.[25]

The structure on Mount Ebal

Western sites

The higher part of the mountain, on the west, contains the ruins of some massive walls called Al-Kal'ah, and east of this are other ruins now called Kunaisah.[20]

References

  1. ^ Photograph of the southern face of the mountain
  2. ^
    ISBN 0-7472-4510-X
  3. ^
    Encyclopedia Biblica
  4. ^
    Jewish Encyclopedia
  5. ^ Deuteronomy 27:4–6
  6. ^ Deuteronomy 27:4–8,29
  7. ^ a b c d e f Peake's Commentary on the Bible
  8. ISBN 978-90-04-29603-9
    .
  9. ^ Charlesworth, James H. "The Discovery of an Unknown Dead Sea Scroll: The Original Text of Deuteronomy 27?" Archived 2015-11-26 at the Wayback Machine OWU Magazine; 2012/07/16
  10. ISBN 978-3-11-058141-6
    .
  11. ^ a b Deuteronomy 27:11-13
  12. ^ Deuteronomy 15–26
  13. ^ Deuteronomy 28:3–6
  14. ^ Deuteronomy 28:16–19
  15. ^ Joshua 8:31-35
  16. ^ Jewish Encyclopedia
  17. ^ Richard Elliott Friedman, Who wrote the Bible; Jewish Encyclopedia, Book of Joshua, Deuteronomy
  18. ^ Joshua 24:1-27
  19. ^ Genesis 35:4
  20. ^ a b Jewish Encyclopedia
  21. ^
    ISBN 978-1-57506-243-3
    .
  22. ISBN 978-1-58983-097-4
    . ... the consensus today tends to support the cultic interpretation of this early Iron I site, if not the biblical one (see Mazar 1990a, 348–50; Coogan 1987; 1990; Zevit 2001, 196–201).
  23. ISBN 978-90-04-29603-9
    . Retrieved 14 July 2023.
  24. ISBN 978-952-12-3046-2
    . Retrieved 14 July 2023.
  25. JPost
    . Retrieved 11 February 2021.

External links
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