Deuteronomy 26 KJV
Firstfruits and Tithes
Deuteronomy Chapter 26: Firstfruits and Tithes
The firstfruits confession (vv. 5-9) functions as one of the Bible's earliest compact historical creeds, deliberately linking Israel's identity to a 'wandering Aramean' ancestor and framing settlement in Canaan as the direct outcome of divine oath rather than military conquest.
1nd 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.
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.
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.
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Did You Know?
The firstfruits confession (vv. 5-9) functions as one of the Bible's earliest compact historical creeds, deliberately linking Israel's identity to a 'wandering Aramean' ancestor and framing settlement in Canaan as the direct outcome of divine oath rather than military conquest.
Verse 14's triple oath denying that any tithe was eaten in mourning, removed while unclean, or offered to the dead constitutes a rare Deuteronomic polemic against funerary cults and ancestor veneration common in Late Bronze Age Canaan.
The chapter's closing reciprocal formula (vv. 17-19) transforms the earlier Sinai covenant language of Exodus 19 into a bilateral declaration made after Israel's arrival in the land, making possession of Canaan contingent on ongoing verbal and ritual reaffirmation.
By requiring the basket of firstfruits to be set 'before the altar' at the single sanctuary, the ritual enacts centralized worship while converting an ordinary agricultural act into a public rehearsal of the Exodus narrative for the entire household.
The tithe declaration's insistence that the gifts have been fully distributed to Levite, stranger, orphan, and widow embeds social ethics inside the cultic act itself, making economic justice toward the marginalized a prerequisite for the land's continued fertility.
Commentary & Study Notes Jamieson-Fausset-Brown (1871) ยท Public Domain Thou shalt take of the first of all the fruit of the earth โ The Israelites in Canaan, being God's tenants-at-will, were required to give Him tribute in the form of first-fruits anโฆ
Classic verse-by-verse commentary on Deuteronomy 26 from Jamieson, Fausset & Brown (1871). Covers: The confession of him that offers the basket of first fruits.
- 2
- Thou shalt take of the first of all the fruit of the earth โ The Israelites in Canaan, being God's tenants-at-will, were required to give Him tribute in the form of first-fruits and tithes. No Israelite was at liberty to use any productions of his field until he had presented the required offerings. The tribute began to be exigible after the settlement in the promised land, and it was yearly repeated at one of the great feasts (Le 2:14; 23:10; 23:15; Nu 28:26; De 16:9). Every master of a family carried it on his shoulders in a little basket of osier, peeled willow, or palm leaves, and brought it to the sanctuary.
- 5
- thou shalt say... A Syrian ready to perish was my father โ rather, "a wandering Syrian." The ancestors of the Hebrews were nomad shepherds, either Syrians by birth as Abraham, or by long residence as Jacob. When they were established as a nation in the possession of the promised land, they were indebted to God's unmerited goodness for their distinguished privileges, and in token of gratitude they brought this basket of first-fruits.
Read all 6 notes on Deuteronomy 26 โ