We’re going through a quarter at Hillside called “Q&A Night,” where anyone who wants to can write down a question, submit it (anonymously), and I will try to answer them during class.
So far, it’s been great. We’ve had some great questions, some marginally decent answers, but fantastic discussion.
Truth be told, there were a lot of questions that I didn’t know the answer to, nor had I really thought of, until this quarter.
But try as I might, there were some questions that I just didn’t know the answer to. And for those questions, I had no problem standing in front of the group of people and saying, “Here’s what I think, but I don’t know.”
I’m gonna have to do that again today, because the arrangement of the tribes on Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal makes no sense to me. Nor, as it appears, does it make sense to hardly anyone else.
The distributions are as follows. On Mount Gerizim, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph, and Benjamin will represent the blessings. On Mount Ebal, Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan, and Napthali will represent the curses.
Let’s be honest here: It doesn’t really matter too much why certain tribes were placed on certain mountains. The important thing here is that the nation heard the words and the nation was bound by the covenant.
But it does make you wonder—why those tribes?
Historically, scholars have argued that the sons of the actual wives (Rachel and Leah) were given position on Gerizim, whereas the sons of the maidservants (Bilhah and Zilpah) were placed on Ebal. But that doesn’t hold up; after all, Reuben and Zebulun were both of Leah, so why are they on Ebal?
Because, as they’ll argue, Reuben was demoted for sleeping with his father’s concubine (Genesis 35:22). Zebulun was the youngest, so he was just moved because it was convenient and/or to protect the seniority of the older brothers.
(As a youngest brother myself, I am appalled by such treatment).
Still others argue for more of a geographical split. The six tribes that stood on Ebal all settled north of the Jezreel Valley or east of the Jordan—all of which later became part of Israel. Except for Issachar, the tribes on Gerizim all settled in central or southern Judah.
See? Even the geographic argument doesn’t really hold up either.
I’m okay with not knowing, and I’m okay with telling you that I don’t know, because the Text seems to be okay with not knowing. While we can conjecture all we want, any arguments are only as valid as we want them to be. The Ebal tribes were no worse because they represented the curses, nor were the Gerizim tribes any better.
But if either side didn’t listen to what the other side said, then they would all surely perish.