Deuteronomy 26

1 “After you occupy the land that Yahweh our God is giving to you, and you (have settled/are living) there,

“And it has been, when you come into the land which your God YHWH is giving to you [for] an inheritance, and you have possessed it and dwelt in it,

2 [each of] you must take some of the first crops that you harvest, put them in a basket, and take them to the place that Yahweh will have chosen for you to worship [MTY] there.

that you have taken from the first of all the fruits of the ground, which you bring in out of your land which your God YHWH is giving to you, and have put [it] in a basket, and gone to the place which your God YHWH chooses to cause His Name to dwell there.

3 Go to the Supreme Priest who is serving at that time and say to him, ‘[By giving you this first part of my harvest] today, I am declaring to Yahweh our God that I have [picked it in] the land that he vowed to our ancestors to give to us.’

And you have come to the priest who is in those days, and have said to him, I have declared to your God YHWH today that I have come into the land which YHWH has sworn to our fathers to give to us;

4 Then the priest must take the basket of food from your hand and put it on the altar where sacrifices are offered to Yahweh our God.

and the priest has taken the basket out of your hand and placed it before the altar of your God YHWH.

5 Then in Yahweh’s presence you must say this: ‘My ancestor [Jacob] was a man from Aram/Syria who was continually wandering [from one place to another]. He took his family to Egypt. They were a small group [when they went there], but they lived there and their descendants became a very large/populous [DOU] and powerful nation.

And you have answered and said before your God YHWH, My father [is] a perishing Aramean! And he goes down to Egypt, and sojourns there with few men, and becomes a great, mighty, and populous nation there;

6 Then the people of Egypt treated them very harshly [DOU], and they forced them to become their slaves and to work very hard.

and the Egyptians do us evil, and afflict us, and put hard service on us;

7 Then our ancestors cried out to you, Yahweh our God, and you heard them. You saw that they were suffering, and that they were forced to work very hard, and were being oppressed.

and we cry to YHWH, God of our fathers, and YHWH hears our voice, and sees our affliction, and our labor, and our oppression;

8 Then by your great power [MTY] and by performing many kinds of miracles [DOU], and other terrifying things, you brought them out of Egypt.

and YHWH brings us out from Egypt by a strong hand, and by an outstretched arm, and by great fear, and by signs, and by wonders,

9 You brought us to this land and gave it to us, a land that is very fertile [IDM].

and He brings us to this place, and gives this land to us—a land flowing with milk and honey.

10 So now, Yahweh, I have brought to you the first part of the harvest from the land that I received.’ Then you must set the basket down in Yahweh’s presence and worship him there.

And now, behold, I have brought in the first of the fruits of the ground which you have given to me, O YHWH. (And you have placed it before your God YHWH, and bowed yourself before your God YHWH,

11 And you must celebrate [by eating a meal together to thank] Yahweh our God for all the good things that he has given to you and to your family. And you must invite the descendants of Levi and the foreigners who are living among you to also rejoice [and eat] with you.

and rejoiced in all the good which your God YHWH has given to you and to your house—you, and the Levite, and the sojourner who [is] in your midst.)

12 Every third year, you must bring to the descendants of Levi and to the foreigners [who are living among you] and the orphans and the widows (a tithe/10 percent) of your crops, in order that in every town they will have plenty to eat.

When you complete to tithe all the tithe of your increase in the third year, the year of the tithe, then you have given to the Levite, to the sojourner, to the fatherless, and to the widow, and they have eaten within your gates and been satisfied,

13 Then you must say to Yahweh, ‘I have brought to you, from my house, all of the sacred tithe [from my harvest this year]. I am giving it to the descendants of Levi, to the foreigners, the orphans, and the widows, as you commanded us to do. I have not disobeyed any of your commands [about the tithes], and I have not forgotten any of your commands [about tithes].

and you have said before your God YHWH, I have put away the separated thing out of the house, and have also given it to the Levite, and to the sojourner, and to the orphan, and to the widow, according to all Your command which You have commanded me; I have not passed over from Your commands, nor have I forgotten.

14 [I declare that] I have not eaten any food from the tithe while I was mourning [for someone who died]. And I have not touched any of it while I was unacceptable to you; I have not offered any of it to [spirits of] dead people. Yahweh, I have obeyed you and done everything that you have commanded us [concerning the tithe].

I have not eaten of it in my affliction, nor have I put away of it for uncleanness, nor have I given of it for the dead; I have listened to the voice of my God YHWH; I have done according to all that You have commanded me;

15 So [please] look down from your holy place in heaven, and bless us, your Israeli people. Also bless this very fertile [IDM] land which you have given to us, which is what you promised our ancestors that you would do.’

look from Your holy habitation, from the heavens, and bless Your people Israel and the ground which You have given to us, as You have sworn to our fathers—a land flowing [with] milk and honey.

16 Today Yahweh our God is commanding you to obey all these rules and regulations. So obey them faithfully, with your entire inner being [DOU].

This day your God YHWH is commanding you to do these statutes and judgments; and you have listened and done them with all your heart and with all your soul.

17 Today you have declared that Yahweh is your God, and that you will conduct your lives as he wants you to do, and that you will obey all his commands and rules and regulations, and that you will do all that he tells you to do.

Today you have proclaimed YHWH to be to you for God, that [you are] to walk in His ways, and to keep His statutes, and His commands, and His judgments, and to listen to His voice.

18 And today Yahweh has declared that you are his people, which is what he promised that you would be, and he commands you to obey all his commands.

And today YHWH has proclaimed you to be to Him for a people, a peculiar treasure, as He has spoken to you, that [you are] to keep all His commands,

19 If you do that, he will cause you to become greater than any other nation that he has established, and he will enable you to praise him and honor him [DOU]. You will truly belong to Yahweh our God, which is what he has promised.”

so as to make you highest above all the nations whom He has made for a praise, and for a name, and for beauty, and for your being a holy people to your God YHWH, as He has spoken.”