1You will enter the land the LORD your God is giving you as your own. You will take it over. You will make your homes in the land.2When you do, get some of the first share of everything your soil produces. Put it in a basket. It’s from the land the LORD your God is giving you. Take your gifts and go to the special place he will choose. He will put his Name there.3Speak to the priest in office at that time. Tell him, ‘I announce today to the LORD your God that I have come to this land. It’s the land he promised to give us. He promised it to our people of long ago.’4The priest will receive the basket from you. He’ll set it down in front of the altar of the LORD your God.5Then you will speak while the LORD is listening. You will say, ‘My father Jacob was a wanderer from the land of Aram. He went down into Egypt with a few people. He lived there and became the father of a great nation. It had huge numbers of people.6But the people of Egypt treated us badly. They made us suffer. They made us work very hard.7Then we cried out to the LORD. He is the God of our people who lived long ago. He heard our voice. He saw how much we were suffering. The Egyptians were treating us badly. They were making us work very hard.8So the LORD used his mighty hand and powerful arm to bring us out of Egypt. He did great and terrifying things. He did signs and amazing things.9He brought us to this place. He gave us this land. It’s a land that has plenty of milk and honey.10Now, LORD, I’m bringing you the first share of crops from the soil. After all, you have given them to me.’ Place the basket in front of the LORD your God. Bow down to him.11Then you and the Levites and the outsiders among you will be full of joy. You will enjoy all the good things the LORD your God has given to you and your family.12You will set apart a tenth of everything you produce in the third year. That’s the year for giving the tenth to people who have greater needs. You will give it to the Levites, outsiders and widows. You will also give it to children whose fathers have died. Then all of them will have plenty to eat in your towns.13Speak to the LORD your God. Say to him, ‘I have taken your sacred share from my house. I have given it to the Levites, outsiders and widows. I have also given it to children whose fathers have died. I’ve done everything you commanded me to do. I haven’t stopped obeying your commands. I haven’t forgotten any of them.14I haven’t eaten any part of your sacred share while I mourned over someone who had died. I haven’t taken any of it from my house while I was “unclean”. And I haven’t offered any of it to the dead. LORD my God, I’ve obeyed you. I’ve done everything you commanded me to do.15Look down from the holy place where you live in heaven. Bless your people Israel. Bless the land you have given us. It’s the land you promised to give to our people of long ago. It’s a land that has plenty of milk and honey.’
Obey the Lord’s commands
16This day the LORD your God commands you to obey all these rules and laws. Be careful to obey them with all your heart and with all your soul.17Today you have announced that the LORD is your God. You have said you would live exactly as he wants you to live. You have agreed to keep his rules, commands and laws. And you have said you would listen to him.18Today the LORD has announced that you are his people. He has said that you are his special treasure. He promised that you would be. He has told you to keep all his commands.19He has announced that he will make you famous. He’ll give you more praise and honour than all the other nations he has made. And he has said that you will be a holy nation. The LORD your God has set you apart for himself. That’s exactly what he promised to do.
Deuteronomy 26
English Standard Version
Offerings of Firstfruits and Tithes
1“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,2you 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 go to the place that the Lord your God will choose, to make his name to dwell there. (Ex 23:19; Ex 34:26; Nu 15:20; Nu 18:13; De 12:5; De 16:10; Pr 3:9)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 that the Lord swore to our fathers to give us.’ (Ex 13:5; De 1:8)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 wandering Aramean was my father. And he went down into Egypt and sojourned there, few in number, and there he became a nation, great, mighty, and populous. (Ge 43:1; Ge 46:27; De 10:22; Ac 7:14)6And the Egyptians treated us harshly and humiliated us and laid on us hard labor. (Ex 1:11; Ex 1:14; Nu 20:15)7Then we cried to the Lord, the God of our fathers, and the Lord heard our voice and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression. (Ex 2:23; Ex 3:9; Nu 20:16)8And the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with great deeds of terror,[1] with signs and wonders. (Ex 12:37; Ex 12:51; De 4:34)9And he brought us into this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. (Ex 3:8)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 you 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. (De 12:7)12“When you have finished paying all the tithe of your produce in the third year, which is the 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, (Le 27:30; De 14:28; Am 4:4)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, nor have I forgotten them. (Ps 119:141; Ps 119:153; Ps 119:176)14I have not eaten of the tithe while I was mourning, or removed any of it while I was unclean, or offered any of it to the dead. I have obeyed the voice of the Lord my God. I have done according to all that you have commanded me. (Le 7:20; Le 21:1; Le 21:11; Jer 16:7; Ho 9:4)15Look 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.’ (Isa 63:15; Zec 2:13)16“This day the Lord your God commands you to do these statutes and rules. You shall therefore be careful to do them with all your heart and with all your soul.17You have declared today that the Lord is your God, and that you will walk in his ways, and keep his statutes and his commandments and his rules, and will obey his voice. (Ex 24:7)18And the Lord has declared today that you are a people for his treasured possession, as he has promised you, and that you are to keep all his commandments, (Ex 19:5; De 7:6; De 14:2)19and that he will set you in praise and in fame and in honor high above all nations that he has made, and that you shall be a people holy to the Lord your God, as he promised.” (De 7:6; De 28:1; De 32:8; Ps 86:9)