⁵ And there you shall build an altar to the Lord your God, an altar of stones. ^(A)You shall wield no iron tool on them;

^25 (A)If you make me an altar of stone, ^(B)you shall not build it of hewn stones, for if you wield your tool on it you profane it.

⁴ And ^(A)Moses wrote down all the words of the Lord. He rose early in the morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain, and twelve ^(B)pillars, according to the twelve tribes of Israel.

³¹ Elijah took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of the Lord came, saying, ^(A)“Israel shall be your name,” ³² and with the stones he built an altar in the name of the Lord. And he made a trench about the altar, as great as would contain two seahs^[a] of seed.

Joshua Renews the Covenant

³⁰ At that time Joshua built an altar to the Lord, the God of Israel, ^(A)on Mount Ebal, ³¹ just as Moses the servant of the Lord had commanded the people of Israel, as it is written in the Book of the Law of Moses, “an altar of uncut stones, upon which no man has wielded an iron tool.” And they offered on it burnt offerings to the Lord and sacrificed peace offerings.