Deuteronomy 26

1When you have come into the land the LORD your God is giving you for an inheritance, and have taken possession of it and settled in it, 2take some of the first of every crop the ground produces, which you gather from the land that the LORD your God is giving you. Put it in a basket and go to the place that the LORD your God will choose as a dwelling for his name. 3Go to the priest who is in office at that time and say to him, ‘Today I declare to the LORD your God that I have come into the land the LORD swore to our ancestors to give us.’ 4The priest will take the basket from your hand and set it down in front of the altar of the LORD your God. 5Then you shall speak up and declare before the LORD your God: ‘My ancestor was an Aramean, a wanderer. He went down to Egypt and lived there as a foreigner, few in number, and there he became a great nation, strong and numerous. 6But the Egyptians mistreated us and oppressed us, and forced hard labor on us. 7Then we cried out to the LORD, the God of our ancestors, and the LORD heard our cry and saw our misery, our toil and our oppression. 8The LORD brought us out of Egypt by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, by great terror, and by signs and wonders. 9He led us to this place and gave us this land, a land that flows with milk and honey. 10And now here I have brought the first of the produce of the ground that you, O LORD, have given me.’ Then set it down before the LORD your God and bow down in worship before the LORD your God. 11And you shall rejoice in all the good things that the LORD your God has given to you and your household, you together with the Levite and the outsider living among you.

12When you have finished setting aside the full tithe of your produce in the third year, the year of the tithe, and have given it to the Levite, the outsider, the fatherless and the widow, so that they can eat their fill in your towns, 13then say in the presence of the LORD your God: ‘I have removed the holy portion from my house and have given it to the Levite, the outsider, the fatherless and the widow, just as you commanded me. I have not turned aside from any of your commandments, and I have not forgotten them. 14I have not eaten any of it while in mourning, I have not removed any of it while I was unclean, and I have not given any of it for the dead. I have done what the LORD my God said; I have done all that you commanded me. 15Look down from heaven, your holy dwelling place, and bless Israel, your people, and the land you have given us, as you promised on oath to our ancestors, a land flowing with milk and honey.’

16Today the LORD your God commands you to keep these statutes and rulings. Be careful to keep them with all your heart and with all your soul. 17Today you have declared that the LORD is your God, and that you will follow his ways, keep his statutes, commandments and rulings, and listen to his voice. 18And today the LORD has declared that you are his people, his treasured possession, as he promised you, and that you are to keep all his commandments, 19and that he will set you high above all the nations he has made, to be praised, famous and honored, and that you will be a people holy to the LORD your God, as he promised.”