Firstfruits and Tithes

1When you have come in to the land that YHWH your God is giving you for an inheritance, and you possess it and dwell in it, 2you are to take some of the first of all the fruit of the ground which you bring in from your land that YHWH your God is giving you. You are to put it in a basket and go to the place that YHWH your God chooses for ʜɪꜱ name to dwell. 3You are to come to the priest who is serving in those days and tell him, “I declare today to YHWH your God, that I have come to the land that YHWH swore to our ancestors to give us.” 4the priest is to take the basket out of your hand, and set it down before the altar or YHWH your God. 5You are to answer and say before YHWH your God, “My father was a wandering Aramean, and he went down into Egypt, and lived there as a foreigner with few others. There he became a great, mighty, and populous nation. 6But the Egyptians mistreated us, oppressed us, and imposed hard labor on us. 7Then we cried to YHWH, the God of our fathers. YHWH heard our voice and saw our misery, toil, and oppression. 8YHWH brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand, with an outstretched arm, great terror, signs, and wonders; 9and ʜᴇ has brought us into this place, and has given us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. 10Now, look, I have brought the first of the fruit of the ground, which you, YHWH, have given me.” You are to place it before YHWH your God, and worship YHWH your God. 11You will rejoice in all the good which YHWH your God has given to you and your house, along with the Levite and the foreigners among you.

12When you have finished tithing all the tithe of your increase in the third year, which is the year of tithing, then you are to give it to the Levite, the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow, so that they may eat within your gates and be filled. 13You are to say before YHWH your God, “I have removed the holy things from my house, and have given them to the Levite, the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow, according to all your commandment you gave me. I have not transgressed any of your commandments, nor have I forgotten them. 14I 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 YHWH my God’s voice. 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 us, as you swore to our fathers, a land flowing with milk and honey.”

Affirmation of the Commands

16Today YHWH your God commands you to do these statutes and ordinances. You are to keep them and do them with all your heart and with all your soul. 17You have declared today that YHWH is your God, and that you will walk in his ways, keep his statutes, his commandments, and his ordinances, and listen to his voice. 18YHWH has declared today that you are a people for ʜɪꜱ own possession, as ʜᴇ has promised you, and that you are to keep all ʜɪꜱ commandments. 19Hᴇ will make you high above all nations that ʜᴇ has made, in praise, in name, and in honor, and that you may be a holy people to YHWH your God, as ʜᴇ has spoken.