Bible Strands
Deuteronomy 27:5
Moreover, you are to build there an altar to the LORD your God, an altar of stones. You must not use any iron tool on them.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Moses instructs the Israelites to construct an altar on Mount Ebal immediately following their crossing of the Jordan.
The words — וּבָנִיתָ (u.va.Ni.ta) translates to "and you will build," while מִזְבַּח אֲבָנִים (miz.Bach a.va.Nim) means "an altar of stones."
The thread — The restriction on shaping altar stones with tools appears in Exodus 20:25, and the use of twelve stones for an altar is recorded in 1 Kings 18:31.
Why it lands — The passage commands the builder to use uncut stones and explicitly forbids iron tools, requiring the altar to remain in its natural, unworked state.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And there shalt thou build an altar unto the Lord thy God, an altar of stones: thou shalt not lift up any iron tool upon them.
Cross-references
- Exodus 20:25 Now if you make an altar of stones for Me, you must not build it with stones shaped by tools; for if you use a chisel on it, you will defile it.
- Exodus 24:4 And Moses wrote down all the words of the LORD. Early the next morning he got up and built an altar at the base of the mountain, along with twelve pillars for the twelve tribes of Israel.
- 1 Kings 18:31 And Elijah took twelve stones, one for each tribe of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of the LORD had come and said, “Israel shall be your name.”
- Joshua 8:30 At that time Joshua built an altar on Mount Ebal to the LORD, the God of Israel,