{{short description|Mountain in the West Bank}} {{redirect|Ebal|the California high school athletic league|East Bay Athletic League}} {{Infobox mountain | name = Ebal | other_name = | image = File:Mount ebal, near nablus 4.jpg | image_caption = View of Mount Ebal | elevation_m = 935 | elevation_ref = | location = | map = Palestine#West Bank | map_caption = Location of Mount Ebal within [[Palestine]]##Location of Nablus within the West Bank, [[Palestine]] | coordinates = {{coord|32.234|N|35.2733|E|source:kolossus-hewiki|display=inline,title}} | range = | topo = | type = | mapframe = yes | mapframe-zoom = 12 | mapframe-wikidata = yes }}
'''Mount Ebal''' ({{langx|he|הַר עֵיבָל|Har ʿĒḇāl}}; {{langx|ar|جَبَل عَيْبال|Jabal ʿAybāl}}) is one of the two mountains near the city of [[Nablus]] ([[Bible|biblical]] ''[[Shechem]]'') in the [[West Bank]], and forms the northern side of the valley in which Nablus is situated, the southern side being formed by [[Mount Gerizim]].<ref>[http://biblicalstudies.info/top10/ebal-from-east-tb.gif Photograph of the southern face of the mountain]</ref> The mountain is one of the highest peaks in the West Bank and rises to {{convert|935|m|abbr=on}} above [[sea level]], some {{convert|60|m|abbr=on}} higher than Mount Gerizim.<ref name="Sturgis">[[Matthew Sturgis]], ''It Ain't Necessarily So'', {{ISBN|0-7472-4510-X}}</ref> Mount Ebal is approximately {{convert|17|km2|abbr=on}} in area,<ref name="Sturgis"/> and is composed primarily of limestone.<ref name="Cheyne">Cheyne and Black, ''[[Encyclopedia Biblica]]''</ref> The slopes of the mountain contain several large caverns which were probably originally quarries,<ref name="Cheyne"/> and at the base towards the north are several tombs.<ref name="Jewish Encyclopedia">''[[Jewish Encyclopedia]]''</ref> [[File:View of Mount Ebal from the city of Nablus.jpg|thumb|View of Mount Ebal from the city of Nablus]]
==Biblical account== In advance of the [[Israelites]]' entry to the [[Promised Land]], {{bibleverse||Deuteronomy|11:29|HE}} 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 [[Masoretic Text]] and the [[Septuagint]] version of [[Deuteronomy]] 27, an instruction is given to build an [[Altar (Bible)|altar]] on Mount Ebal, constructed from natural (rather than cut) stones, to place stones there and whiten them with lime,<ref>{{bibleverse||Deuteronomy|27:4-6|HE}}</ref><ref name="Jewish Encyclopedia" /> to make [[korban|peace offerings on the altar]], eat there, and write the words of ''this law'' on the stone.<ref>{{bibleverse||Deuteronomy|27:4-8,29|HE}}</ref> According to the [[Samaritan Pentateuch]] and a [[Qumran]] fragment, this instruction actually concerns [[Mount Gerizim]], which the [[Samaritan]]s view as a holy site;<ref name="Peake" /><ref>{{Cite book|last=Ulrich|first=Eugene|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=riNKCAAAQBAJ&pg=PA221|title=The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Developmental Composition of the Bible|date=2015-05-20|publisher=BRILL|isbn=978-90-04-29603-9|pages=221|language=en}}</ref> 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.<ref name="Peake" /> 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.<ref>Charlesworth, James H. [http://blogs.owu.edu/magazine/2012/07/16/the-discovery-of-an-unknown-dead-sea-scroll-the-original-text-of-deuteronomy-27/ "The Discovery of an Unknown Dead Sea Scroll: The Original Text of Deuteronomy 27?"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151126051707/http://blogs.owu.edu/magazine/the-discovery-of-an-unknown-dead-sea-scroll-the-original-text-of-deuteronomy-27/ |date=2015-11-26 }} ''OWU Magazine''; 2012/07/16</ref> A study published in 2018 asserts that the Mt. Gerizim reading is older than that referring to Mt. Ebal, which likely represents a later, polemical revision."<ref name="Nihan">{{cite book |author1=Christophe Nihan |author2=Herve Gonzalez |editor1-last=Kartvelt |editor1-first=Magnar |editor2-last=Knoppers |editor2-first=Gary N. |title=The Bible, Qumran, and the Samaritans |date=9 July 2018 |publisher=Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG |isbn=978-3-11-058141-6 |page=98 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KotsDwAAQBAJ&dq=Dead+Sea+Scrolls+Samaritan+Pentateuch+Mount+Gerizim+Mount+Ebal+altar&pg=PA98 |language=en |chapter=Competing Attitudes toward Samaria in Chronicles and Second Zechariah}}</ref>
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.<ref name="Deu_27_11_13">Deuteronomy 27:11-13</ref> The tribes of [[Tribe of Simeon|Simeon]], [[Tribe of Levi|Levi]], [[Tribe of Judah|Judah]], [[Tribe of Issachar|Issachar]], [[Tribe of Joseph|Joseph]] and [[Tribe of Benjamin|Benjamin]] were to be sent to Gerizim, while those of [[Tribe of Reuben|Reuben]], [[Tribe of Gad|Gad]], [[Tribe of Asher|Asher]], [[Tribe of Zebulun|Zebulun]], [[Tribe of Dan|Dan]] and [[Tribe of Naphtali|Naphtali]], were to remain on Ebal.<ref name="Deu_27_11_13" /> 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.<ref name="Peake">''Peake's Commentary on the Bible''</ref>
The text goes on to list twelve curses, which were to be pronounced by the [[Levite]] priesthood and answered by the people with ''[[Amen]]''.<ref>Deuteronomy 27:15–26</ref> These ''curses'' heavily resemble laws (e.g. ''cursed be he who removes his neighbour's landmark''), and they are not followed by a list of blessings described in a similarly liturgical framework; scholars believe that these more likely represent what was written on the stones, and that the later list of six explicit blessings,<ref>Deuteronomy 28:3–6</ref> six near-corresponding explicit curses,<ref>Deuteronomy 28:16–19</ref> were originally in this position in the text.<ref name="Peake" /> The present position of these explicit blessings and curses, within a larger narrative of promise, and a far larger narrative of threat (respectively), is considered to have been an editorial decision for the post-exilic second version of Deuteronomy (''Dtr2''), to reflect the [[deuteronomist]]'s worldview after the [[Babylonian Captivity|Babylonian exile]] had occurred.<ref name="Peake" />
In the [[Book of Joshua]], after the Battle of [[Ai (Bible)|Ai]], Joshua built an altar of unhewn stones there, the Israelites then made peace offerings on it, the ''[[Law of Moses]]'' was written onto the stones, and the Israelites split into the two groups specified in Deuteronomy and pronounced blessings and cursings as instructed there.<ref>Joshua 8:31-35</ref> There is some debate between [[textual criticism|textual scholars]] as to whether this incident in Joshua is one account or spliced together two different accounts, where one account refers to Joshua building an altar, and making sacrifices on it, while the other account refers to Joshua placing large stone slabs there that had been whitened with lime and then had the ''[[Torah]]'' inscribed on them.<ref>''Jewish Encyclopedia''</ref> Either way there is general agreement that the sources of Joshua predate Deuteronomy, and hence that the order to build the altar and make the inscription is likely based on these actions in the sources of Joshua, rather than the other way round, possibly to provide an [[aetiology]] for the site acceptable to the deuteronomist's theology.<ref>[[Richard Elliott Friedman]], ''Who wrote the Bible''; ''Jewish Encyclopedia'', ''Book of Joshua'', ''Deuteronomy''</ref>
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''.<ref>Joshua 24:1-27</ref> 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.<ref name="Peake" />
In the Biblical narrative, the ''[[terebinth]]'', seemingly next to the sanctuary, was evidently in existence as early as the time of the [[Biblical Patriarchs|Patriarchs]], as [[Jacob]] is described in the [[Book of Genesis]] as having buried the [[cult image|idols]] of ''strange gods'' (belonging to his uncle [[Laban (Bible)|Laban]]) beneath it.<ref>[http://bible.cc/genesis/35-4.htm Genesis 35:4]</ref> According to a [[midrash]], one of these idols, in the shape of a [[dove]], was later recovered by the Samaritans, and used in their worship on Mount Gerizim.<ref name="ReferenceB">Jewish Encyclopedia</ref> [[File:MountEivalView.JPG|thumb|[[Tel Aviv]], the [[Gush Dan]] metropolitan area and the [[Mediterranean Sea]] as seen from Mount Ebal]]
==Archaeology== ===Mount Ebal site (Northern el-Burnat)=== {{Main|Mount Ebal site}} In 1980, a structure on Mount Ebal was discovered by Israeli archaeologist [[Adam Zertal]] during the [[Manasseh Hill Country Survey]].<ref name=":0">{{cite book |title=The Iron Age I Structure on Mt. Ebal: Excavation and Interpretation |last=Hawkins |first=Ralph K. |publisher=Eisenbrauns |year=2012 |isbn=978-1-57506-243-3 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dzRULwEACAAJ}}</ref> The [[University of Haifa]] and the [[Israel Exploration Society]] excavated the structure over eight seasons from 1982 to 1989, and uncovered [[Scarab (artifact)|scarabs]], seals, and animal bones dating to the [[Iron Age in Israel|Iron Age I]] period.<ref name=":0" /> Today, most archeologists agree that the structure was a site of an early [[Israelites|Israelite]] [[Place of worship|cultic activity]].<ref>{{cite book |title=Biblical Peoples and Ethnicity: An Archaeological Study of Egyptians, Canaanites, and Early Israel, 1300-1100 B.C.E. |last=Killebrew |first=Ann E. |publisher=Society of Biblical Lit. |year=2005 |isbn=978-1-58983-097-4 |pages=160 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VtAmmwapfVAC&pg=PA160 |quote=... 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).}}</ref> 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 [[Mosaic covenant|Covenant]] in a large ceremony. This identification has been disputed by a number of archaeologists.<ref name="Ulrich">{{cite book |last1=Ulrich |first1=Eugene |title=The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Developmental Composition of the Bible |date=14 April 2015 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=978-90-04-29603-9 |page=61 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=riNKCAAAQBAJ&pg=PA61 |access-date=14 July 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author1=Antti Laato |editor1-last=Koskenniemi |editor1-first=Erkki |editor2-last=Vos |editor2-first=Jacobus Cornelis de |title=Holy Places and Cult |date=2014 |publisher=Pennsylvania State University Press |isbn=978-952-12-3046-2 |page=55 |chapter-url=https://www.academia.edu/11077633 |access-date=14 July 2023 |chapter=The Cult Site on Mount Ebal: A Biblical Tradition Rewritten and Reinterpreted}}</ref>
In February 2021 a portion of the site was destroyed by the [[Palestinian National Authority|Palestinian Authority]] and the stones were ground up and used to pave the road.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Lazaroff |first1=Tovah |title=Prophet Joshua's Mount Ebal altar site harmed by Palestinian road work |url=https://www.jpost.com/archaeology/joshuas-mount-ebal-altar-site-harmed-by-palestinian-road-work-658521 |access-date=23 June 2025 |work=[[The Jerusalem Post]] |date=10 February 2021 |language=en |issn=0792-822X }}</ref>[[File:IHM_מזבח_הר_עיבל.jpeg|thumb|The structure on Mount Ebal]]
===Western sites=== The higher part of the mountain, on the west, contains the ruins of massive walls called ''Al-Kal'ah'', and east of this, a site called ''Kunaisah''.<ref name="ReferenceB" />
==References== {{reflist|24em}}
==External links== *[https://www.thetorah.com/article/joshuas-altar-on-mount-ebal-israels-holy-site-before-shiloh The viewpoint of the archaeologists who excavated the site] *[http://ebal.haifa.ac.il/ebal01.html University of Haifa site] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090408060848/http://ebal.haifa.ac.il/ebal01.html |date=2009-04-08 }} *[https://web.archive.org/web/20060218130953/http://www.christusrex.org/www1/ofm/mad/sources/sources042.html Franciscan site] *[[Wikiversity:Bible, English, King James, Documentary Hypothesis, Deuteronomist source, First Deuteronomist Version, Curse blessing pairs|The curses and blessings of Ebal and Gerizim, in isolation, at wikiversity]] *[[Wikiversity:Bible, English, King James, Documentary Hypothesis, Deuteronomist source, First Deuteronomist Version, Mount Ebal Curse List|The list of curses for Ebal, in isolation, at wikiversity]] *[http://www.pbase.com/rdavid/eival Photos of Mount Ebal]
{{Wikiquote}} {{Religious sites in Palestine}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ebal}} [[Category:Mount Ebal| ]] [[Category:Hebrew Bible mountains]] [[Category:Book of Deuteronomy locations]] [[Category:Sacred mountains of West Asia|Ebal]] [[Category:Samaritan culture and history]] [[Category:Mountains of Nablus]] [[Category:Archaeological sites in the West Bank]]