Deuteronomy 26:1–15

Offerings of Firstfruits and Tithes

26“When you come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance and have taken possession of it and live in it, ^2wyou shall take some of the first of all the fruit of the ground, which you harvest from your land that the Lord your God is giving you, and you shall put it in a basket, and you shall ^xgo to the place that the Lord your God will choose, to make his name to dwell there. ³And you shall go to the priest who is in office at that time and say to him, ‘I declare today to the Lord your God that I have come into the land ^ythat the Lord swore to our fathers to give us.’ ⁴Then the priest shall take the basket from your hand and set it down before the altar of the Lord your God.

⁵“And you shall make response before the Lord your God, ‘A ^zwandering Aramean was my father. And he went down into Egypt and sojourned there, ^afew in number, and there he became a nation, great, mighty, and populous. ⁶And ^bthe Egyptians treated us harshly and humiliated us and laid on us hard labor. ⁷Then ^cwe cried to the Lord, the God of our fathers, and the Lord heard our voice and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression. ⁸And ^dthe Lord brought us out of Egypt ^ewith a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with great deeds of terror,¹ with signs and wonders. ⁹And he brought us into this place and gave us this land, ^fa land flowing with milk and honey. ¹⁰And behold, now I bring the first of the fruit of the ground, which you, O Lord, have given me.’ And you shall set it down before the Lord your God and worship before the Lord your God. ¹¹And ^gyou shall rejoice in all the good that the Lord your God has given to you and to your house, you, and the Levite, and the sojourner who is among you.

¹²“When you have finished paying all ^hthe tithe of your produce in the third year, which is ⁱthe year of tithing, giving it to the Levite, the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, so that they may eat within your towns and be filled, ¹³then you shall say before the Lord your God, ‘I have removed the sacred portion out of my house, and moreover, I have given it to the Levite, the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, according to all your commandment that you have commanded me. I have not transgressed any of your commandments, ^jnor have I forgotten them. ^14kI have not eaten of the tithe while I was mourning, or removed any of it while I was unclean, or offered any of it ^lto the dead. I have obeyed the voice of the Lord my God. I have done according to all that you have commanded me. ^15mLook down from your holy habitation, from heaven, and bless your people Israel and the ground that you have given us, as you swore to our fathers, a land flowing with milk and honey.’