Deuteronomy 27 breaks into four parts inside a single chapter: a writing instruction, a building instruction, a tribal arrangement, and a curse-and-amen ceremony. The Deuteronomy 27 quiz below tests how the four parts fit together and what each one specifically required of Israel.
Take it after the Deuteronomy 26 quiz on the firstfruits liturgy, before the Deuteronomy 28 quiz on the long blessings-and-curses chapter, and the entire Bible quiz.
Deuteronomy 27 Quiz Questions and Answers
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Answer 1: C. Bestiality is the seventh curse in the sequence (v.21), placed in the middle of a four-verse cluster on sexual offences (vv.20-23) that mirrors the prohibitions in Leviticus 18 and 20. The verse closes with the customary “And all the people shall say, Amen.”
KJV Reference: Deuteronomy 27:21. “Cursed be he that lieth with any manner of beast. And all the people shall say, Amen.”
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Answer 2: A. Ebal sits to the north of Gerizim with a valley between them. The same mountain receives the curses in the tribal arrangement of v.13 and the altar of unhewn stones in v.5. Joshua 8:30-35 records the historical fulfilment when the entire law was read aloud between the two mountains.
KJV Reference: Deuteronomy 27:4. “thou shalt set up these stones, which I command you this day, in mount Ebal, and thou shalt plaister them with plaister.”
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Answer 3: E. The “secret place” is what sets the first curse apart from public idolatry. The verse targets idolatrous worship that hides from human eyes but cannot hide from God. Job 31:27 and Ezekiel 8:12 develop the same theme of secret idolatry as a category the LORD specifically watches for.
KJV Reference: Deuteronomy 27:15. “Cursed be the man that maketh any graven or molten image… and putteth it in a secret place.”
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Answer 4: B. Four of the six Ebal tribes are sons of Jacob’s handmaids (Bilhah and Zilpah): Gad, Asher, Dan, and Naphtali. The other two are Reuben (the dishonored firstborn whose blessing was forfeited in Genesis 49:4) and Zebulun. The blessing tribes on Gerizim are sons of Leah and Rachel.
KJV Reference: Deuteronomy 27:13. “And these shall stand upon mount Ebal to curse; Reuben, Gad, and Asher, and Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali.”
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Answer 5: C. Three actions in sequence: peace offerings (which involve eating shared meat with the offerer), eating there, and rejoicing. The verse is striking for its joy-language on the very mountain assigned to the curses. Worship at Ebal began with sacrifice and ended in covenantal feasting before the LORD.
KJV Reference: Deuteronomy 27:7. “And thou shalt offer peace offerings, and shalt eat there, and rejoice before the LORD thy God.”
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Answer 6: B. The fourth curse targets cruelty against the disabled. The blind man trusted his guide; misdirecting him is a quiet betrayal that leaves no public evidence of the wrong done. Leviticus 19:14 forbids putting a stumbling block before the blind in similar terms.
KJV Reference: Deuteronomy 27:18. “Cursed be he that maketh the blind to wander out of the way.”
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Answer 7: E. The twelfth curse is a comprehensive seal upon the entire law. Paul cites this exact verse in Galatians 3:10 as proof that “as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse.” The closing curse functions as the legal foundation for Paul’s doctrine of justification by faith apart from law-keeping.
KJV Reference: Deuteronomy 27:26. “Cursed be he that confirmeth not all the words of this law to do them.”
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Answer 8: C. The declaration is one of the most striking covenantal moments in Deuteronomy. Israel’s identity shifts at this specific moment: with the law inscribed in plaster and the altar built, they have “become” the people of the LORD. The chapter treats the law-writing on Ebal as a covenantal turning point, not merely a memorial.
KJV Reference: Deuteronomy 27:9. “Take heed, and hearken, O Israel; this day thou art become the people of the LORD thy God.”
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Answer 9: D. The same prohibition on iron tools appears in Exodus 20:25, where polluting the altar with a tool is the stated concern. Iron was associated with weapons of war; the LORD’s altar was to remain untouched by them. The principle preserved a visible distinction between the place of sacrifice and the instruments of conquest.
KJV Reference: Deuteronomy 27:5. “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.”
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Answer 10: A. The triad (stranger, fatherless, widow) appears throughout Deuteronomy as the fixed category of those without legal protection. The fifth curse targets structural injustice: corruption of the courts at exactly the point where corruption is most damaging, against those who cannot defend themselves.
KJV Reference: Deuteronomy 27:19. “Cursed be he that perverteth the judgment of the stranger, fatherless, and widow.”
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Answer 11: C. Stone for permanence, plaster for legibility. The chapter combines both qualities: the law is meant to last and to be read by ordinary Israelites. The actual writing command appears in v.8 with the qualifier “very plainly,” but the surface preparation is named here in v.2.
KJV Reference: Deuteronomy 27:2. “thou shalt set thee up great stones, and plaister them with plaister.”
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Answer 12: D. The second curse echoes the fifth commandment of the Decalogue (Deut 5:16) but in negative form. Honoring parents was so foundational that its violation appears immediately after idolatry in the curse list. The Hebrew “setteth light by” carries the sense of treating with contempt or accounting as worthless.
KJV Reference: Deuteronomy 27:16. “Cursed be he that setteth light by his father or his mother.”
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Answer 13: A. “Secretly” is the operative word. The tenth curse targets murder by ambush, the kind that could not be brought before earthly judges because no witnesses existed. The chapter refuses to let secrecy serve as defence; the curse extends judgment beyond the reach of human courts to the man who hid his violence.
KJV Reference: Deuteronomy 27:24. “Cursed be he that smiteth his neighbour secretly.”
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Answer 14: E. The Levites’ role was liturgical: they pronounced the curses, and all the people responded “Amen.” The “loud voice” detail emphasises public proclamation. The arrangement reflects covenantal liturgy in which the priestly tribe leads and the assembled nation affirms each curse with audible consent.
KJV Reference: Deuteronomy 27:14. “And the Levites shall speak, and say unto all the men of Israel with a loud voice.”
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Answer 15: B. The landmark was a stone pillar or boundary marker at field corners. Moving it at night could shift property lines without immediate detection, another secret offence the chapter places under public curse. Proverbs 22:28 and 23:10 echo the prohibition with similar gravity.
KJV Reference: Deuteronomy 27:17. “Cursed be he that removeth his neighbour’s landmark.”
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Answer 16: A. The eleventh curse targets paid assassination. The Hebrew word for “reward” implies bribery: the killing is contracted, not personal. The verse closes the moral category of secret violence opened by the tenth curse, expanding it from impulse murder to commercial murder.
KJV Reference: Deuteronomy 27:25. “Cursed be he that taketh reward to slay an innocent person.”
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Answer 17: B. The Gerizim-blessing tribes are all sons of Leah or Rachel, the principal wives of Jacob, in contrast to the Ebal tribes drawn largely from the handmaids’ sons. Joseph here covers both Ephraim and Manasseh as a single bloc, preserving twelve tribal names across both mountains.
KJV Reference: Deuteronomy 27:12. “These shall stand upon mount Gerizim to bless the people… Simeon, and Levi, and Judah, and Issachar, and Joseph, and Benjamin.”
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Answer 18: D. The verse joins becoming the people of the LORD (v.9) to active obedience (v.10). The two are inseparable in the chapter’s logic: identity establishes the basis for obedience, and obedience demonstrates identity. Becoming and obeying belong to the same covenantal moment.
KJV Reference: Deuteronomy 27:10. “Thou shalt therefore obey the voice of the LORD thy God, and do his commandments and his statutes.”
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Answer 19: C. The phrase “very plainly” emphasises legibility for the unlearned. This is law for everyone, not law guarded by a priestly elite. The same principle drives the later command in Habakkuk 2:2, “Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it.”
KJV Reference: Deuteronomy 27:8. “And thou shalt write upon the stones all the words of this law very plainly.”
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Answer 20: E. The stones bear the entire body of legal material, not merely the curse list of vv.15-26. The chapter treats public inscription of the law as a covenantal monument equal in importance to the altar itself. Joshua 8:32 records the actual fulfilment: “he wrote there upon the stones a copy of the law of Moses.”
KJV Reference: Deuteronomy 27:3. “And thou shalt write upon them all the words of this law, when thou art passed over.”
The chapter that writes the law plainly on plastered stones for every eye to read closes by cursing the man whose deeds are kept from every eye.
