Bringing First Fruits and Tithes

1“Then it will be, when you enter the land which Yahweh your God gives you as an inheritance and you possess it and live in it, 2that you shall take some of the first of all the fruit of the ground which you bring in from your land that Yahweh your God gives you, and you shall put it in a basket and go to the place where Yahweh your God chooses for His name to dwell. 3And you shall go to the priest who is in office in those days and say to him, ‘I declare this day to Yahweh [†]my God that I have entered the land which Yahweh 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 Yahweh your God. 5And you shall answer and say before Yahweh your God, ‘My father was a [†]wandering Aramean, and he went down to Egypt and [†]sojourned there, few in number; but there he became a great, mighty, and populous nation. 6And the Egyptians treated us harshly and afflicted us and imposed hard slave labor on us. 7Then we cried out to Yahweh, the God of our fathers, and Yahweh heard our voice and saw our affliction and our toil and our oppression; 8and Yahweh brought us out of Egypt with a strong hand and an outstretched arm and with great terror and with signs and wonders; 9and He has brought us to this place and has given us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. 10So now behold, I have brought the first of the fruit of the ground which You, O Yahweh, have given me.’ And you shall set it down before Yahweh your God and worship before Yahweh your God; 11and you and the Levite and the sojourner who is among you shall be glad in all the good which Yahweh your God has given you and your household.

12“When you have finished [†]paying all the tithe of your produce in the third year, the year of tithing, then you shall give it to the Levite, to the sojourner, to the [†]orphan, and to the widow, that they may eat within your gates and be satisfied. 13Then you shall say before Yahweh your God, ‘I have purged the sacred portion from my house, and I also have given it to the Levite and the sojourner, the [†]orphan and the widow, according to all Your commandments which You have commanded me; I have not trespassed against or forgotten any of Your commandments. 14I have not eaten of it [†]while mourning, nor have I purged any of it while I was unclean, nor have I given any of it to the dead. I have listened to the voice of Yahweh 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 which You have given to us, a land flowing with milk and honey, as You swore to our fathers.’

16“This day Yahweh your God commands you to do these statutes and judgments. You shall therefore be careful to do them with all your heart and with all your soul. 17You have today declared Yahweh to be your God, and [†]that you would walk in His ways and keep His statutes, His commandments, and His judgments, and listen to His voice. 18And Yahweh has today declared you to be His people, a treasured possession, as He promised you, and [†]that you should keep all His commandments; 19and [†]that He will set you high above all nations which He has made, for praise, a name, and beauty; and that you shall be a holy people to Yahweh your God, as He has spoken.”