Deuteronomy 26

¹When you come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance and have taken possession of it and live in it,

²you shall take some of the first of all the fruit of the ground , which you harvest from your land that the Lord your God is giving you, and you shall put it in a basket , and you shall go to the place that the Lord your God will choose , to make his name to dwell there .

³And you shall go to the priest who is in office at that time and say to him, I declare today to the Lord your God that I have come into the land that the Lord swore to our fathers to give us.

⁴Then the priest shall take the basket from your hand and set it down before the altar of the Lord your God .

⁵And you shall make response before the Lord your God , A wandering Aramean was my father . And he went down into Egypt and sojourned there , few in number , and there he became a nation , great , mighty , and populous .

⁶And the Egyptians treated us harshly and humiliated us and laid on us hard labor .

⁷Then we cried to the Lord, the God of our fathers , and the Lord heard our voice and saw our affliction , our toil , and our oppression .

⁸And the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm , with great deeds of terror , with signs and wonders .

⁹And he brought us into this place and gave us this land , a land flowing with milk and honey .

¹⁰And behold , now I bring the first of the fruit of the ground , which you, O Lord, have given me. And you shall set it down before the Lord your God and worship before the Lord your God .

¹¹And you shall rejoice in all the good that the Lord your God has given to you and to your house , you, and the Levite , and the sojourner who is among you.

¹²When you have finished paying all the tithe of your produce in the third year , which is the year of tithing , giving it to the Levite , the sojourner , the fatherless , and the widow , so that they may eat within your towns and be filled ,

¹³then you shall say before the Lord your God , I have removed the sacred portion out of my house , and moreover , I have given it to the Levite , the sojourner , the fatherless , and the widow , according to all your commandment that you have commanded me. I have not transgressed any of your commandments , nor have I forgotten them.

¹⁴I have not eaten of the tithe while I was mourning , or removed any of it while I was unclean , or offered any of it to the dead . I have obeyed 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 heaven , and bless your people Israel and the ground that you have given us, as you swore to our fathers , a land flowing with milk and honey .

¹⁶This day the Lord your God commands you to do these statutes and rules . You shall therefore be careful to do them with all your heart and with all your soul .

¹⁷You have declared today that the Lord is your God , and that you will walk in his ways , and keep his statutes and his commandments and his rules , and will obey his voice .

¹⁸And the Lord has declared today that you are a people for his treasured possession , as he has promised you, and that you are to keep all his commandments ,

¹⁹and that he will set you in praise and in fame and in honor high above all nations that he has made , and that you shall be a people holy to the Lord your God , as he promised .