🚨We FOUND the REAL LOCATION Where Joshua Built His Altar and God Blessed Israel

Added: 2026-05-12

[00:00:08][music] We're here in the heart of Samaria, the world calls the West Bank, right next to Highway 60 and just across from Alone, [music] where God spoke to Abraham. And we're here because I want to get a very specific photo.

[00:00:25]You can't see it yet, but right in front of me are two nearly identical mountains with a [music] narrow valley that separates them.

[00:00:34]These two mountains hold the key to understanding God's covenant with Israel through the ancient [music] concept of blessings and curses.

[00:00:45][music] Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to what the Bible calls the mount of blessing in the [music] mount of cursing or in Hebrew hard grieim and haral [music] [music] >> [music] >> When the children of Israel entered the promised land after coming out of Egypt, they made this important place one of their first destinations.

[00:01:29]They came here to the mount of blessing and the mount of cursing. [music] And here God made a covenant with the nation of Israel.

[00:01:42]>> [music] >> I want you to picture this story happening in the Bible right here on Mount Garazim [music] and Mount Ibal.

[00:01:50]When Joshua and the people of Israel come back into the land after wandering [music] in the desert with Moses for 40 years, they come conquering the land.

[00:01:58]They cross the Jordan. They conquer Jericho. And then it says that they come up here to Sheckchham and half the tribes of Israel, just as Moses commanded back in Deuteronomy, half the tribes of Israel were to stand on the mount of blessing on Mount Garazim right here and half the tribes were to stand on the mount of cursing [music] on Mount Ebal. You had the ark of the covenant and the priests were to stand in the valley in the middle. [music] And then Joshua read the blessings and the curses aloud to the people. [music] In all Israel, sojourer [music] as well as native born with their elders and officers and their judges stood on opposite sides of the ark before the Levitical priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord. Half of them in front of Mount Gerazim, half of them in front of Mount Ebal, just as Moses, the servant of the Lord, had commanded at the first to bless the people of Israel. And afterward he read all the words of the law, the blessings and the curse according to all that is written in the book of the law. There was not a word of all that Moses commanded that Joshua did not read before all the assembly of Israel and the women and the little ones and the sojourers who lived among them.

[00:03:15]And after each blessing was read, the people would respond in unison [music] with, "Amen." And then after each curse was read, the people would respond in unison [music] with, "Amen." And right here, the people were agreeing to that covenant that God made with them that they would follow the God of Israel and bring that blessing into their lives.

[00:03:37]Right here, God made a covenant not just with Abraham, with Isaac, and with [music] Jacob, but he made a covenant with the entire nation of Israel that he would be their God [music] and that he would give them the land of Israel forever.

[00:03:58]>> [music] >> On our way out, we're going to drive through a really unique place. The Samaritans, mentioned in the Bible, actually still exists today. And they have a community right here [music] on Mount Garazim. Besides the Jewish community, the Samaritan community is the oldest existing community here in the land of Israel. These people are not Jewish, but they do claim to have ancient Israelite heritage. They follow parts of the Bible, keep Shabbat, and still do a Passover sacrifice here on Mount Gazim to this very day. Now, there's only about 900 Samaritans left today. About half of which live here on the Mount of Blessing.

[00:04:58][music] You probably remember the story of when Jesus spoke to the woman at the well.

[00:05:05]The woman was a Samaritan. And at that time, one of the main disagreements between the Samaritans and the Jews was that the Samaritans believed that Mount Gerazim was the place where one should worship and not the temple in Jerusalem.

[00:05:19]The Samaritans basically replaced God's chosen location in Jerusalem with the Mount of Blessing. And they even built their own temple right here on the mountain.

[00:05:31][music] Today, the Samaritans are a mix of Israeli and Arab culture. Religiously, they more closely resemble Judaism than Islam, but culturally they are a part of the Palestinian Arab society down in [music] the city of Trem Nabis in the Palestinian villages around the area.

[00:05:58]To continue the story we started earlier about the children of Israel coming into the land after [music] the ceremony with the blessings and the curses. The Bible records that Joshua [music] built an altar on Harval or the mount of cursing. In the book of Joshua 8 it says this. At that [music] time, Joshua built an altar to the Lord, the God of Israel, on Mount Bal, just as Moses, the servant of the Lord, had commanded [music] 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 [music] peace offerings. Back in the 1980s, an archaeologist was digging on Mount Ball and he found an unusual heap of stones on the northeastern slopes of the mountain.

[00:06:50]Upon further investigation of this pile of rocks, they discovered a structure buried beneath the pile. They believe what they found is the remains of the altar that Joshua built on Mount Ebal.

[00:07:04]Now, we're on the road that leads up to Mount Yubal, and we're going to see if we can make it all the way to the top and go and find the altar.

[00:07:14][music] [music] [music] The archaeologists [music] found this large walled structure without a door and without even a floor in the bottom.

[00:07:37]On that side, they found a ramp that goes down. And inside this structure, they found layers of stone and ash and dirt. And in these layers of ash, they dug through it and they found the remains of bones from [music] young kosher animals, confirming without a shadow [music] of a doubt that this is an altar.

[00:08:04]Also confirming the presence of the children of Israel in this exact [music] spot is this low cut stone wall that runs around the entire area of the altar. [music] If you look at it from above, the stone wall is in the shape of a footprint. And you can find these exact footprint [music] markings around the land of Israel in each of the spots where the children of [music] Israel encamped as they conquered the land.

[00:08:30]After nearly 3,500 years, this monumental [music] piece of history was uncovered for the world to see. In this place, the people of Israel encountered the [music] presence of God.

[00:08:49]>> [music] [music] >> Guys, this is one of the many locations that the world falsely calls the West Bank. If a two-state solution were created today, like nearly every world government is pressuring Israel to create, then these houses would be bulldozed, the vineyards uprooted, and the remains of these biblical sites would be destroyed. Just like Gaza back in 2005, these Jewish families would be uprooted from their homes to be replaced by terrorist governments who seek the destruction of the state of Israel.

[00:09:37][music] Is this what should happen to God's land? The land that God promised to the children of Israel as an everlasting possession.

[00:09:47]Amos tells us what God's plan of redemption is [music] for this area. It says in Amos 9:14, "I will restore the fortunes of my people Israel, and they shall rebuild the ruined cities and inhabit [music] them. They shall plant vineyards and drink their wine. They shall make gardens and eat their fruit. I will plant them on their land and they shall never again be uprooted out of the land that I have given [music] them, says the Lord your God.

[00:10:16][music] [music] >> [music] [music] [music] >> Hey guys, thanks for watching. If you want to come and experience these amazing biblical sites for yourself and to be a part of the story that's happening today, you can go to the Israel guys.com and check out all our volunteer trips that we bring to Israel.

[00:11:11]We're one of the only organizations that brings people to these sites here in the biblical heartland of Israel. If you want to come and be a part of it, just go to theisraelu.com.