God's New Revelations

The Fifth Book of Moses: Deuteronomy

Unlocked Dynamic Bible :: World English Bible Catholic

- Chapter 26 -

(Leviticus 27:30–34; Deuteronomy 14:22–29; Nehemiah 13:10–14)
1
After you occupy the land that Yahweh our God is giving to you, and you have settled there,
2
each of you must take some of the first crops that you harvest, put it in a basket, and take it to the place that Yahweh will have chosen for you to worship there.
3
Go to the high priest who is serving at that time and say to him, ‘By giving you this first part of my harvest today, I am declaring to Yahweh our God that I have picked it in the land that he solemnly promised to our ancestors to give to us.’
4
Then the priest must take the basket of food from your hand and put it on the altar where sacrifices are offered to Yahweh our God.
5
Then in Yahweh’s presence you must say this: ’My ancestor Jacob was a man from Aram a powerful nation. 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.
6
Then the people of Egypt acted very harshly toward them, and they forced them to become their slaves and to work very hard.
7
Then our ancestors cried out to you, Yahweh our God, and you heard them. You saw that they were suffering, and that they were forced to work very hard, and were being oppressed.
8
Then by your great power and by performing many kinds of miracles, and other terrifying things, you brought them out of Egypt.
9
You brought us to this land and gave it to us, a land that is very fertile.
10
So now, Yahweh, I have brought to you the first part of the harvest from the land that I received.’ Then you must set the basket down in Yahweh’s presence and worship him there.
11
And you must celebrate by eating a meal together to thank Yahweh our God for all the good things that he has given to you and to your family. And you must invite the descendants of Levi and the foreigners who are living among you to also rejoice and eat with you.
12
Every third year, you must bring to the descendants of Levi and to the foreigners who are living among you and the orphans and the widows a tithe of your crops, in order that in every town they will have plenty to eat.
13
Then you must say to Yahweh, ’I have brought to you, from my house, all of the tenth from my harvest this year, the tenth that I have set aside for you. I am giving it to the descendants of Levi, to the foreigners, the orphans, and 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.
14
I declare that I have not eaten any food from the tenth portion while I was mourning for someone who died. And 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. Yahweh, I have obeyed you and done everything that you have commanded us concerning the tenth portion.
15
So please look down from your holy place in heaven, and bless us, your Israelite people. Also bless this very fertile land which you have given to us, which is what you promised our ancestors that you would do.’

Obey the LORD’s Commands

16
Today Yahweh our God is commanding you to obey all these rules and decrees. So obey them faithfully, with all your inner being.
17
Today you have declared that he is your God, and that you will conduct your lives as he wants you to do, and that you will obey all his commands and rules and decrees, and that you will do all that he tells you to do.
18
And today Yahweh has declared that you are his people, which is what he promised that you would be, and he commands you to obey all his commands.
19
If you do that, he will cause you to become greater than any other nation that he has established, and he will enable you to praise him and honor him. You are a special people to Yahweh, set apart and holy to him, just as he promised.”
(Leviticus 27:30–34; Deuteronomy 14:22–29; Nehemiah 13:10–14)
1
It 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,
2
that 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.
3
You 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.”
4
The priest shall take the basket out of your hand, and set it down before the LORD your God’s altar.
5
You shall answer and say before the LORD your God, “My father(a) 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.
6
The Egyptians mistreated us, afflicted us, and imposed hard labor on us.
7
Then we cried to the LORD, the God of our fathers. The LORD heard our voice, and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression.
8
The LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand, with an outstretched arm, with great terror, with signs, and with wonders;
9
and he has brought us into this place, and has given us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey.
10
Now, 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.
11
You 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.
12
When 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.
13
You 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.
14
I 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.
15
Look 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.”

Obey the LORD’s Commands

16
Today 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.
17
You 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.
18
The 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.
19
He 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.

Footnotes

(a)26:5 or, forefather