27:2 plaster them with plaster. Moses provides for the publication of the law at the covenant renewal ceremony on Mount Ebal (vv. 3, 8). Large stones were to be whitewashed and the words of the law written on them. This technique of writing upon a whitewashed surface is typically Egyptian (the Canaanite and Mesopotamian practice was to inscribe words into stone surfaces). Because Moses was intimately familiar with Egypt and its practices, these verses provide another indication that the text of Deuteronomy dates to the Mosaic era.