Deuteronomy 26

¹ ‘When you come to the land Yahweh your God is giving you for an inheritance, when you have taken possession of it and are living in it,

² you must set aside the first-fruits of all the produce of the soil raised by you in the land Yahweh is giving you. You must put them in a pannier and go to the place where Yahweh your God chooses to give his name a home.

³ You must go to the priest then in office and say to him, “Today I declare to Yahweh my God that I have come to the land Yahweh swore to our fathers he would give us”.

⁴ ‘The priest shall then take the pannier from your hand and lay it before the altar of Yahweh your God.

⁵ Then, in the sight of Yahweh your God, you must make this pronouncement: “My father was a wandering Aramaean. He went down into Egypt to find refuge there, few in numbers; but there he became a nation, great, mighty, and strong.

⁶ The Egyptians ill-treated us, they gave us no peace and inflicted harsh slavery on us.

⁷ But we called on Yahweh the God of our fathers. Yahweh heard our voice and saw our misery, our toil and our oppression;

⁸ and Yahweh brought us out of Egypt with mighty hand and outstretched arm, with great terror, and with signs and wonders.

⁹ He brought us here and gave us this land, a land where milk and honey flow.

¹⁰ Here then I bring the first-fruits of the produce of the soil that you, Yahweh, have given me”. ‘You must then lay them before Yahweh your God, and bow down in the sight of Yahweh your God.

¹¹ Then you are to feast on all the good things Yahweh has given you, you and your household, and with you the Levite and the stranger who lives among you.

¹² ‘In the third year, the tithing year, when you have finished reckoning the tithe of all your produce and have given it to the Levite, the stranger, the orphan and the widow, and they have eaten it in your towns and had their fill,

¹³ you are to say in the sight of Yahweh your God: “I have cleared my house of all that was consecrated. Yes, I have given it to the Levite, the stranger, the orphan and the widow, in accordance with all the commandments you laid on me, not going beyond your commandments, not forgetting them.

¹⁴ I have not eaten any bread of mourning; I have consumed nothing that was unclean; I have offered nothing to the dead. I have obeyed the voice of Yahweh my God and I have done all as you commanded me.

¹⁵ Look down from the dwelling place of your holiness, from heaven, and bless your people Israel and the soil you have given us as you swore to our fathers, a land where milk and honey flow”.

¹⁶ ‘Yahweh your God today commands you to observe these laws and customs; you must keep and observe them with all your heart and with all your soul.

¹⁷ ‘You have today made this declaration about Yahweh; that he will be your God, but only if you follow his ways, keep his statutes, his commandments, his ordinances, and listen to his voice.

¹⁸ And Yahweh has today made this declaration about you: that you will be his very own people as he promised you, but only if you keep all his commandments;

¹⁹ then for praise and renown and honour he will set you high above all the nations he has made, and you will be a people consecrated to Yahweh, as he promised.’