Deuteronomy 26

1When you enter the land that Yahweh your God is giving you as an inheritance, and you possess it and dwell in it,

2You shall take the first of all the fruit of the ground that you bring from your land, which Yahweh your God gives you, put it in a basket, and go to the place Yahweh your God will choose to make his name dwell there.

3You shall come to the priest who serves in those days and say to him, "Today I declare to Yahweh your God that I have entered the land Yahweh swore to our fathers to give us."

4The priest will take the basket from your hand and set it down before the altar of Yahweh your God.

5You shall answer and say before Yahweh your God: "A perishing Aramean was my father; he went down to Egypt and sojourned there with few people, and he became there a great, mighty, and populous nation."

6The Egyptians mistreated us, oppressed us, and imposed hard labor upon us.

7We cried out to Yahweh, God of our fathers, and Yahweh heard our voice and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression.

8Yahweh brought us out from Egypt with a strong hand and an outstretched arm, with great dread, with signs, and with wonders.

9He brought us to this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey.

10And now, see, I have brought the first fruit of the soil that you, Yahweh, have given me, and I place it before Yahweh your God and bow down before Yahweh your God.

11Rejoice in all the good that Yahweh your God has given you and your house—you, the Levite, and the sojourner who is among you.

12When you finish tithing the full tithe of your harvest in the third year, the year of tithing, give it to the Levite, the sojourner, the orphan, and the widow, so they may eat in your gates and be satisfied.

13You shall say before Yahweh your God: "I have cleared the holy portion from the house, and also given it to the Levite, the foreigner, the orphan, and the widow, according to every commandment that you commanded me; I have not turned aside from any of your commandments, nor have I forgotten."

14I have not eaten from it in my mourning, nor removed any of it while unclean, nor given any of it for the dead; I have obeyed the voice of Yahweh my God, and have done according to all that you commanded me.

15Look down from your holy habitation, from heaven, and bless your people Israel and the land you have given us, as you swore to our fathers—a land flowing with milk and honey.

16Today Yahweh your God charges you to perform these decrees and rulings, so keep and carry them out with all your heart and with all your soul.

17Today you have declared Yahweh to be your God, and to walk in his ways, to keep his statutes, his commandments, his judgments, and to obey his voice.

18Yahweh has declared you today to be his treasured people, as he told you, and to keep all his commandments.

19and to set you highest above all the nations that he has made, for praise, renown, and glory, and for you to be a holy people to Yahweh your God, as he has spoken.