Deuteronomy 26

Chapter 26

Offering First Fruits

¹“Then it shall be, when you enter the land which the Lord your God gives you as an inheritance, and you possess it and live in it,

²that you shall take some of ^athe first of all the produce of the ground which you bring in from your land that the Lord your God gives you, and you shall put it in a basket and ^bgo to the place where the Lord your God chooses to establish His name.

³“You shall go to the priest who is in office at that time and say to him, ‘I declare this day to the Lord ¹my God that I have entered the land which the Lord swore to our fathers to give us.’

⁴“Then the priest shall take the basket from your hand and set it down before the altar of the Lord your God.

⁵“You shall answer and say before the Lord your God, ‘^aMy father was a ¹wandering Aramean, and he went down to Egypt and ²sojourned there, ^bfew in number; but there he became a ^cgreat, mighty and populous nation.

⁶‘And the ^aEgyptians treated us harshly and afflicted us, and imposed hard labor on us.

⁷‘Then ^awe cried to the Lord, the God of our fathers, and the Lord heard our voice and saw our affliction and our toil and our oppression;

^8aand the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm and with great terror and with signs and wonders;

⁹and He has brought us to this place and has given us this land, ^aa land flowing with milk and honey.

¹⁰‘Now behold, I have brought the first of the produce of the ground ^awhich 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 you and ^athe Levite and the alien who is among you shall ^brejoice in all the good which the Lord your God has given you and your household.

¹²“^aWhen you have finished ¹paying all the tithe of your increase in the third year, the year of tithing, then you shall give it to the Levite, to the stranger, to the ²orphan and to the widow, that they may eat in your ³towns and be satisfied.

¹³“You shall say before the Lord your God, ‘I have removed the sacred portion from my house, and also have given it to the Levite and the alien, the ¹orphan and the widow, according to all Your commandments which You have commanded me; ^aI have not transgressed or forgotten any of Your commandments.

¹⁴‘I have not eaten of it ¹while mourning, nor have I removed any of it while I was unclean, nor offered any of it to the dead. I have listened to the voice of the Lord my God; I have done according to all that You have commanded me.

¹⁵‘^aLook down from Your holy habitation, from heaven, and bless Your people Israel, and the ground which You have given us, ^ba land flowing with milk and honey, as You swore to our fathers.’

¹⁶“This day the Lord your God commands you to do these statutes and ordinances. You shall therefore be careful to do them ^awith all your heart and with all your soul.

¹⁷“^aYou have today declared the Lord to be your God, and ¹that you would walk in His ways and keep His statutes, His commandments and His ordinances, and listen to His voice.

¹⁸“The Lord has today declared you to be ^aHis people, a treasured possession, as He promised you, and ¹that you should keep all His commandments;

¹⁹and ¹that He will ^aset you high above all nations which He has made, for praise, fame, and honor; and that you shall be ^ba consecrated people to the Lord your God, as He has spoken.”