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Deuteronomy 26

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The Offering of Firstfruits 1–11

1
And it shall be, when thou art come in unto the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee for an inheritance, and possessest it, and dwellest therein;
2
That thou shalt take of the first of all the fruit of the earth, which thou shalt bring of thy land that the LORD thy God giveth thee, and shalt put it in a basket, and shalt go unto the place which the LORD thy God shall choose to place his name there. ​
3
And thou shalt go unto the priest that shall be in those days, and say unto him, I profess this day unto the LORD thy God, that I am come unto the country which the LORD sware unto our fathers for to give us.
4
And the priest shall take the basket out of thine hand, and set it down before the altar of the LORD thy God.
5
And thou shalt speak and say before the LORD thy God, A Syrian ready to perish was my father, and he went down into Egypt, and sojourned there with a few, and became there a nation, great, mighty, and populous: ​
6
And the Egyptians evil entreated us, and afflicted us, and laid upon us hard bondage:
7
And when we cried unto the LORD God of our fathers, the LORD heard our voice, and looked on our affliction, and our labour, and our oppression:
8
And the LORD brought us forth out of Egypt with a mighty hand, and with an outstretched arm, and with great terribleness, and with signs, and with wonders:
9
And he hath brought us into this place, and hath given us this land, even a land that floweth with milk and honey.
10
And now, behold, I have brought the firstfruits of the land, which thou, O LORD, hast given me. And thou shalt set it before the LORD thy God, and worship before the LORD thy God:
11
And thou shalt rejoice in every good thing which the LORD thy God hath given unto thee, and unto thine house, thou, and the Levite, and the stranger that is among you. ​

Declaration After the Triennial Tithe 12–15

12
When thou hast made an end of tithing all the tithes of thine increase the third year, which is the year of tithing, and hast given it unto the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, that they may eat within thy gates, and be filled; ​
13
Then thou shalt say before the LORD thy God, I have brought away the hallowed things out of mine house, and also have given them unto the Levite, and unto the stranger, to the fatherless, and to the widow, according to all thy commandments which thou hast commanded me: I have not transgressed thy commandments, neither have I forgotten them: ​
14
I have not eaten thereof in my mourning, neither have I taken away ought thereof for any unclean use, nor given ought thereof for the dead: but I have hearkened to the voice of the LORD my God, and have done according to all that thou hast commanded me. ​
15
Look down from thy holy habitation, from heaven, and bless thy people Israel, and the land which thou hast given us, as thou swarest unto our fathers, a land that floweth with milk and honey. ​

Covenant Commitment and Reciprocal Oaths 16–19

16
This day the LORD thy God hath commanded thee to do these statutes and judgments: thou shalt therefore keep and do them with all thine heart, and with all thy soul. ​
17
Thou hast avouched the LORD this day to be thy God, and to walk in his ways, and to keep his statutes, and his commandments, and his judgments, and to hearken unto his voice: ​
18
And the LORD hath avouched thee this day to be his peculiar people, as he hath promised thee, and that thou shouldest keep all his commandments; ​
19
And to make thee high above all nations which he hath made, in praise, and in name, and in honour; and that thou mayest be an holy people unto the LORD thy God, as he hath spoken. ​

Bible text: King James Version (1769 Blayney text) · Public domain

Study Notes for Deuteronomy 26

Verse 2

the first of all the fruit of the earth — Reshith is the first and best part of the harvest, carried in a teneh, a woven basket (the word occurs only here, in v.4 and in Deut 28:5, 17). It goes to the place which the LORD shall choose ‘out of all your tribes to put his name there’ (Deut 12:5), and the priest sets it ‘before the altar’ (v.4).

Verse 5

A Syrian ready to perish — Arammi is the word used of ‘Laban the Syrian’ (Gen 25:20; 31:20), in whose house Jacob lived. ‘Ready to perish’ is abad, perishing or wandering. The father ‘went down into Egypt… with a few’ (Gen 46:27: ‘threescore and ten’) and there ‘became… a nation, great, mighty, and populous’.

Verse 11

rejoice in every good thing — Samach, to be glad, is the festival verb of Deut 16:11, which names the same company: ‘the Levite that is within thy gates, and the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow’. The first-fruits confession ends with the harvest enjoyed ‘thou, and the Levite, and the stranger’ together.

Verse 12

the third year, which is the year of tithing — This is the tithe of Deut 14:28–29, laid up ‘within thy gates’ every three years so that the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless and the widow ‘shall come, and shall eat and be satisfied’. ‘Be filled’ here is the same verb (saba), and the year is named for the gift.

Verse 13

the hallowed things — Qodesh, the holy portion set apart. ‘Brought away’ is baar, to clear out, the verb of ‘so shalt thou put the evil away from the midst of thee’ (Deut 13:5). The worshipper states that he neither ‘transgressed’ nor ‘forgotten’, the lapse against which Moses warned: ‘Beware that thou forget not the LORD thy God’ (Deut 8:11).

Verse 14

in my mourning — Three disclaimers guard the holy portion. Food eaten in sorrow was defiled: ‘the bread of mourners; all that eat thereof shall be polluted’ (Hos 9:4). The ‘unclean use’ (tame) and the gift ‘for the dead’ bring to mind the ‘sacrifices of the dead’ eaten at Baal-peor (Ps 106:28).

Verse 15

Look down from thy holy habitation — Maon is a dwelling-place; the prayer asks the LORD to look down (shaqaph) from heaven and ‘bless thy people Israel’ on the strength of his oath, ‘which he sware unto thy fathers’ (Deut 6:10). ‘A land that floweth with milk and honey’ is the description first given to Moses at the burning bush.

Verse 16

with all thine heart, and with all thy soul — This closes the body of statutes that opened at Deut 12:1, ‘These are the statutes and judgments, which ye shall observe to do in the land’. The phrase is the measure of the command to love: ‘thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul’ (Deut 6:5).

Verse 17

Thou hast avouched the LORD — Amar, to say, in the causative form: Israel has caused the LORD to be declared ‘thy God’. The same form occurs only in the next verse, where the LORD makes the matching declaration. Israel’s part is a promise ‘to walk in his ways’, answering ‘All that the LORD hath said will we do’ (Ex 24:7).

Verse 18

his peculiar people — Segullah, a treasure laid up as one’s own possession. It was given at Sinai: ‘a peculiar treasure unto me above all people’ (Ex 19:5), and Deuteronomy repeats it at 7:6, 14:2 and here. Peter gives the title to the church, ‘an holy nation, a peculiar people’ (1 Pet 2:9).

Verse 19

in praise, and in name, and in honour — The three words are tehillah, shem and tiphereth, the same three that the LORD uses of Israel in Jer 13:11, ‘for a people, and for a name, and for a praise, and for a glory’. Being set ‘on high above all nations’ (Deut 28:1) goes with being ‘an holy people unto the LORD’.