Old Testament · Deuteronomy

Deuteronomy 26

Offering Firstfruits and Tithes

(Leviticus 27:30–34; Deuteronomy 14:22–29; Nehemiah 13:10–14)

1And it shall be, when you come into the land which the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, and you possess it and dwell in it, 2that you shall take of the first of all the fruit of the ground^a, which you bring in from your land that the LORD your God is giving you, and you shall put it in a basket and go to the place which the LORD your God will choose to make His name dwell there. 3And you shall come to the priest who shall be in those days, and say to him, "I declare today to the LORD your God that I have come into the land which the LORD swore to our fathers to give to us."

4And the priest shall take the basket from your hand, and set it down before the altar of the LORD your God. 5And you shall answer and say before the LORD your God, "A wandering Aramean was my father, and he went down into Egypt and sojourned there, few in number, and he became there a nation great, mighty, and populous. 6And the Egyptians dealt ill with us and afflicted us, and laid upon us hard service^b. 7And we cried out to the LORD, the God of our fathers, and the LORD heard our voice and saw our affliction and our toil and our oppression. 8And the LORD brought us out from Egypt with a strong hand and with an outstretched arm and with great terror and with signs^c and with wonders^d. 9And He brought us to this place and gave to us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. 10And now, behold, I have brought the first of the fruit of the ground, which You have given to me, the LORD." And you shall set it down before the LORD your God, and bow down before the LORD your God. 11And you shall rejoice in all the good which the LORD your God has given to you and to your house, you and the Levite and the stranger who is in your midst.

12When you have finished tithing all the tithe of your produce in the third year, the year of the tithe, and have given it to the Levite, to the stranger, to the fatherless, and to the widow, that they may eat within your gates and be satisfied,

13then you shall say before the LORD your God, "I have removed the holy thing from the house, and also have given it to the Levite and to the stranger, to the fatherless and to the widow, according to all Your commandment^e which You commanded me^f; I have not transgressed Your commandments nor have I forgotten. 14I have not eaten of it in my mourning, nor have I removed of it while unclean, nor have I given of it for the dead; I have hearkened to the voice of the LORD my God, I have done according to all that You have commanded me. 15Look down from Your holy habitation, from the heavens, and bless Your people Israel and the ground which You have given to us, as You swore to our fathers, a land flowing with milk and honey."

Obey the LORD’s Commands

16This day the LORD your God commands you to do these statutes^g and the judgments^h; and you shall keep and do them with all your heart and with all your soulⁱ.

17The LORD you have declared this day to be your God, and to walk in His ways and to keep His statutes and His commandments and His judgments, and to hearken to His voice.

18And the LORD has declared you this day to be for Him a treasured people, as He spoke to you, and that you should keep all His commandments; 19and to set you high above all the nations which He has made, for praise and for name and for glory, and that you may be a holy people to the LORD your God, as He has spoken.