Deuteronomy — Chapter 26

When youayou See note at 12.5. enter the land that the ETERNAL your God is giving you as a heritage, and you possess it and settle in it,

you shall take some of every first fruit of the soil, which you harvest from the land that the ETERNAL your God is giving you, put it in a basket and go to the place where the ETERNAL your God will choose to establish the divine name.

You shall go to the priest in charge at that time and say to him, “I acknowledge this day before the ETERNAL your God that I have entered the land that GOD swore to our fathersbfathers See note at 1.35. to assign us.”

The priest shall take the basket from your hand and set it down in front of the altar of the ETERNAL your God.

You shall then recite as follows before the ETERNAL your God: “My father was a fugitive Aramean. He went down to Egypt with meager numbers and sojourned there; but there he became a great and very populous nation.

The Egyptians dealt harshly with us and oppressed us; they imposed heavy labor upon us.

We cried to the ETERNAL, the God of our ancestors, and the ETERNAL heard our plea and saw our plight, our misery, and our oppression.

GOD freed us from Egypt by a mighty hand, by an outstretched arm and awesome power, and by signs and portents,

bringing us to this place and giving us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey.

And so I now bring the first fruits of the soil that You, O ETERNAL One, have given me.”You shall leave the basketcthe basket Heb. “it.” before the ETERNAL your God and bow low before the ETERNAL your God.

And you shall enjoy, together with the Levitedthe Levite See the second note at 12.12. and the stranger in your midst, all the bounty that the ETERNAL your God has bestowed upon you and your household.

When you have set aside in full the tenth part of your yield—in the third year, the year of the titheein the third year, the year of the tithe See 14.28–29.—and have given it to the Levite,fthe Levite See the second note at 12.12. the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, that they may eat their fill in your settlements,

yougyou See note at 12.5. shall declare before the ETERNAL your God: “I have cleared out the consecrated portion from the house; and I have given it to the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, just as You commanded me; I have neither transgressed nor neglected any of Your commandments:

hMeaning of first part of verse uncertain. I have not eaten of it while in mourning, I have not cleared out any of it while I was impure, and I have not deposited any of it with the dead.ideposited any of it with the dead No part of the tithe may be left as food for the dead. I have obeyed the ETERNAL my God; I have done just as You commanded me.

Look down from Your holy abode, from heaven, and bless Your people Israel and the soil You have given us, a land flowing with milk and honey, as You swore to our fathers.”jfathers See note at 1.35.

The ETERNAL your God commands you this day to observe these laws and rules; observe them faithfully with all your heart and soul.

You have affirmedkaffirmed Exact nuance of Heb. heʼemarta uncertain. this day that the ETERNAL is your God—in whose ways you will walk, whose laws and commandments and rules you will observe, and whom you will obey.

And GOD has affirmedlaffirmed See note at v. 17. this day that you are, as promised, God’s treasured people who shall observe all the commandments,

and that you will be set in fame and renown and glory, high above all the nations that [God] has made; and that you shall be, as promised, a holy people to the ETERNAL your God.