Deuteronomy 26

After you arrive and settle in the land that God our God is giving to you to own forever,

each of you must put some of the first crops that you harvest from the land that God our God is giving you in a basket. Take them to the place that God will have chosen for you to worship. \*

Go to the high priest who is serving at that time and say to him, ‘God our God solemnly promised our ancestors to give us this land. Today {by this offering} I declare to him that I am settled here {in fulfillment of his promise}.’

Then the priest must take the basket of food from you and hold it in front of the altar for sacrificing to God our God. \*

There in God our God’s presence you must say this: ‘My ancestor was a nomadic man in Aram. 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 and powerful nation. \*

Then the people of Egypt acted very harshly toward them, and they forced them to become their slaves and to work very hard.

Then our ancestors prayed to you, God our God, and you heard them. You saw that they were suffering, and that the Egyptians were forcing them to work very hard and oppressing them. \*

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

You brought us to this land and gave it to us, a land that is very fertile. \*

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

Then you must celebrate {by eating a meal together} to thank God our God for all the good things that he has given to you and to your family. You must invite the descendants of Levi and the foreigners who are living among you to also rejoice {and eat with you}. \*

Every third year, you must bring to the descendants of Levi, to the foreigners who are living among you, to the orphans, and to the widows the offering of a tenth of your crops, in order that in every town they will have plenty to eat.

Then you must say to God our God, ‘I have brought to you, from my house, all of the tenth from my harvest this year that I have set aside for you. I am giving it to the descendants of Levi, to the foreigners, to the orphans, and to the widows, as you commanded us to do. I have not disobeyed any of your commands {about the tenth portion}, and I have not forgotten any of your commands {about it}. \*

I have not eaten any food from the tenth portion while I was mourning {for someone who died}. I have not taken any of it out of my house while I was in any condition unacceptable to you. I have not offered any of it to spirits of dead people. God my God, I have obeyed you and done everything that you have commanded us concerning the tenth portion.

So please look down from your holy living place in heaven, and bless us, your Israelite people. Also bless this very fertile land which you have given to us, as you promised our ancestors you would give it to us.’ \*

Today God our God is commanding you to obey all these rules and decrees. So obey them faithfully, with all that you are.

Today you have declared that it is God who is your God, and that you will conduct your lives as he wants you to do, that you will obey all his commands, rules, and decrees, and that you will do all that he tells you to do. \*

And today God has declared that you are his people, like a prized possession, which is what he promised that you would be, and he commands you to obey all his commands.

If you do that, he will cause you to become greater than any other nation that he has established. Other nations will consider you famous and beautiful, and they will praise you. You will be a special people to God, set apart and holy to him, just as he promised.” \*