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Deuteronomy 26

Deuteronomy 26 joins Israel’s harvest offerings and care for the vulnerable to God’s deliverance and the people’s covenant obligations.

Moses instructs Israel how to bring the first produce of the land to YHWH once they have settled there. Each worshiper is to present a basket and recount Israel’s hardship in Egypt, deliverance, and receipt of the promised land. Moses also gives instructions for distributing the third-year tithe so that those without secure provision can eat and be filled. The chapter closes with declarations of covenant belonging: Israel acknowledges YHWH, and YHWH claims Israel as his people.

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1It shall be, when you have come in to the land which the LORD your God gives you for an inheritance, possess it, and dwell in it,
2that you shall take some of the first of all the fruit of the ground, which you shall bring in from your land that the LORD your God gives you. You shall put it in a basket, and shall go to the place which the LORD your God shall choose to cause his name to dwell there.
3You shall come to the priest who shall be in those days, and tell him, “I profess today to the LORD your God, that I have come to the land which the LORD swore to our fathers to give us.”
4The priest shall take the basket out of your hand, and set it down before the LORD your God’s altar.
5You shall answer and say before the LORD your God, “My father was a Syrian ready to perish. He went down into Egypt, and lived there, few in number. There he became a great, mighty, and populous nation.
6The Egyptians mistreated us, afflicted us, and imposed hard labor on us.
7Then we cried to the LORD, the God of our fathers. The LORD heard our voice, and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression.
8The LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand, with an outstretched arm, with great terror, with signs, and with wonders;
9and he has brought us into this place, and has given us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey.
10Now, behold, I have brought the first of the fruit of the ground, which you, the LORD, have given me.” You shall set it down before the LORD your God, and worship before the LORD your God.
11You shall rejoice in all the good which the LORD your God has given to you, and to your house, you, and the Levite, and the foreigner who is among you.
12When you have finished tithing all the tithe of your increase in the third year, which is the year of tithing, then you shall give it to the Levite, to the foreigner, to the fatherless, and to the widow, that they may eat within your gates and be filled.
13You shall say before the LORD your God, “I have put away the holy things out of my house, and also have given them to the Levite, to the foreigner, to the fatherless, and to the widow, according to all your commandment which you have commanded me. I have not transgressed any of your commandments, neither have I forgotten them.
14I have not eaten of it in my mourning, neither have I removed any of it while I was unclean, nor given of it for the dead. I have listened to the LORD my God’s voice. 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 which you have given us, as you swore to our fathers, a land flowing with milk and honey.”
16Today the LORD your God commands you to do these statutes and ordinances. You shall therefore keep and do them with all your heart and with all your soul.
17You have declared today that the LORD is your God, and that you would walk in his ways, keep his statutes, his commandments, and his ordinances, and listen to his voice.
18The LORD has declared today that you are a people for his own possession, as he has promised you, and that you should keep all his commandments.
19He will make you high above all nations that he has made, in praise, in name, and in honor, and that you may be a holy people to the LORD your God, as he has spoken.
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Key verses
Deuteronomy 26:2The basket of first produce acknowledges that Israel’s land and harvest come from YHWH’s gift.
Deuteronomy 26:17Israel’s declaration that YHWH is their God includes a commitment to obey his commands and heed his voice.
Deuteronomy 26:18YHWH claims Israel as his own possession, joining their promised status to the obligation to keep his commandments.
Where this chapter reaches

The harvest confession recalls the ancestral family’s descent into Egypt in Genesis and the oppression and deliverance narrated in Exodus, treating the harvest as part of that shared history. The language of God’s possession and a holy people also appears in 1 Peter.

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Notice

After reading the whole chapter

What does recounting Israel’s hardship and deliverance add to the act of bringing a harvest basket?

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How might the command that others eat and be filled shape your expression of gratitude?

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Questions people ask about Deuteronomy 26

What is the firstfruits offering in Deuteronomy 26?

It is an offering of some of the first produce grown in the land God gives Israel. The worshiper brings it in a basket to the chosen place of worship. Alongside the offering, the worshiper recounts God’s deliverance from Egypt and acknowledges the land and harvest as his gifts.

Who is the Syrian father in Deuteronomy 26:5?

The father is understood to be Jacob, whose family went down into Egypt and grew into the nation of Israel. The description connects him with Syria, or Aram, and stresses his precarious condition. The verse does not name him; his identity is inferred from the family history it recounts.

Who receives the third-year tithe in Deuteronomy 26?

Verse 12 names the Levite, the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow as recipients. The stated aim is that they eat within Israel’s towns and be filled. The giver then declares before YHWH that the sacred portion has been distributed as commanded and asks God to bless Israel and its land.

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Deuteronomy · 34 chapters
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Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).