After the victory at Ai, Joshua led the Israelites farther north into the land of Canaan, to a place where Abraham had long years before this time built an altar to worship God. Moses had commanded Joshua to bring the Israelites to this very spot, and to build an altar there of unbroken stones, and to offer sacrifices to God upon this altar. And now, although Moses was dead, Joshua was careful to do just as he had promised.
All the men of Israel, and all the women, and all the boys and girls went with Joshua to this chosen place. They found a beautiful valley, shaped like a bowl, lying between two mountains—Mount Ebal on the north and Mount Gerizim on the south. Moses had commanded that six of the tribes, or one half of the people of Israel, should stand upon the slope of one of these mountains, and that the six remaining tribes should stand upon the other mountain-slope. Then, in the valley between, Joshua and the Levites should build the altar and offer sacrifices to God. After this the priests and the Levites should take the book in which Moses had written the laws of God and read aloud in the hearing of all the people. And they should hear again the words of the Lord which Moses had spoken to them and which they had promised to obey.
When the priests and the Levites read about the blessings which God promised to give to the Israelites if they should always obey him, the tribes on the mountain-slope of Gerizim shouted, “Amen!” And their voices rang out across the valley to the people who stood on the other mountain-slope. And when the priests and the Levites read about the curses, or the troubles, which should come upon the Israelites if they should refuse to obey God’s words, the people on the mountain-slope of Ebal shouted, “Amen!” And their voices echoed back from the other mountain-side. By saying amen to the words of God’s law the Israelites meant, “Let it be so.”
What a wonderful meeting this must have been! And after the words of the law of God were read aloud to the people, so plainly that even the children understood them, those words were written upon stones where every one might read them. And those stones were left in the valley between the mountains; but the people returned again with Joshua and the priests and the Levites to their camp at Gilgal.