He also instructed that great uncut stones be selected, whitewashed with lime, and set on Mount Ebal. An altar was to be erected there, upon which sacrifices were to be presented to Jehovah. Moses also said, “You must write on the stones all the words of this law, making them quite clear.”​—De 27:1-8.

After Israel’s victory at Ai, Joshua complied with Moses’ instructions, building an altar to Jehovah in Mount Ebal. Upon stones (perhaps, but not necessarily, those of the altar itself) he wrote “a copy of the law of Moses that he had written before the sons of Israel.”