Deuteronomy 26
A Basket of Firstfruits and a Wandering Father
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The Offering of Firstfruits
26:1When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you as an allotment, inherit it, and settle in it,
26:2take some of the firstfruits of your land’s produce, which the Lord your God is giving you. Put it in a basket and go to the place the Lord your God chooses for His name to be invoked there.
26:3Go to the priest serving in those days and say: Today I declare to the Lord my God that I have entered the land the Lord swore to our fathers to give us.
26:4The priest shall take the basket from your hands and set it before the altar of the Lord your God.
26:5Then declare before the Lord your God: My father abandoned Syria and went down to Egypt. He lived there as a foreigner, few in number; there he became a great nation and a numerous and great multitude.
26:6The Egyptians mistreated and humiliated us and imposed hard labors upon us.
26:7We cried to the Lord, the God of our fathers. The Lord heard our voice and saw our humiliation, toil, and distress.
26:8The Lord Himself brought us out of Egypt with great strength, a mighty hand, His uplifted arm, great visions, signs, and wonders.
26:9He brought us to this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey.
26:10Now, look, I have brought the firstfruits of the produce of the land that You gave me, Lord, a land flowing with milk and honey. Leave them before the Lord your God and bow down there before the Lord your God.
26:11Rejoice in all the good the Lord your God has given you and your household—you, the Levite, and the resident foreigner among you.
The Third-Year Tithe Declaration
26:12When you finish setting aside the entire tithe of your land’s produce in the third year, give the second tithe to the Levite, the resident foreigner, the orphan, and the widow, so that they may eat within your cities and be satisfied.
26:13Say before the Lord your God: I have cleared the sacred things from my house and given them to the Levite, the resident foreigner, the orphan, and the widow, according to all the commands You gave me. I have neither transgressed Your command nor forgotten it.
26:14I have not eaten any of them in my grief, offered any for an unclean use, or given any to the dead. I have obeyed the Lord my God and done as You commanded me.
26:15Look down from Your holy house, from heaven, and bless Your people Israel and the land You gave them, as You swore to our fathers to give us a land flowing with milk and honey.
The Covenant Ratified
26:16Today the Lord your God commanded you to perform all these ordinances and judgments. Carefully perform them with all your heart and all your soul.
26:17Today you have chosen God to be your God, undertaking to walk in His ways, keep His ordinances and judgments, and obey His voice.
26:18Today the Lord has chosen you to be His treasured people, as He told you, to keep all His commands,
26:19and to be above all nations, as He made you renowned, a boast, and glorious, so that you may be a people holy to the Lord your God, as He said.
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Saints Translation · Liturgical reading edition · V1 · working draft awaiting specialist review.