The Bible

Deuteronomy Chapter 26

¹When you have entered the land which ForeverOne your God gives you for an inheritance, possess it and dwell there, ²you shall take of the first of all the fruit of the ground, which you shall bring in from your land that ForeverOne your God gives you; and you shall put it in a basket, and shall go to the place which ForeverOne your God shall choose, to cause his name to dwell there.

³You shall come to the priest who shall be in those days, and tell him, "I profess today to ForeverOne your God, that I am come to the land which ForeverOne swore to our fathers to give us." ⁴The priest shall take the basket out of your hand, and set it down before the altar of ForeverOne your God.

⁵You shall answer and say before ForeverOne your God, "A Syrian ready to perish was my father; and he went down into Egypt, and lived there, few in number; and he became there a nation, great, mighty, and populous.

⁶The Egyptians dealt ill with us, and afflicted us, and laid on us hard slavery: ⁷and we cried to ForeverOne, the God of our fathers, and ForeverOne heard our voice, and saw our affliction, and our toil, and our oppression; ⁸and ForeverOne brought us here out of Egypt with a mighty hand, and with an outstretched arm, and with great terror, and with signs, and with wonders; ⁹and he has brought us into this place, and has given us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey.

¹⁰Now, behold, I have brought the first of the fruit of the ground, which you, ForeverOne, have given me." You shall set it down before ForeverOne your God, and worship before ForeverOne your God.

¹¹You shall rejoice in all the good which ForeverOne your God has given to you, and to your house, you, and the Levite, and the foreigner who is in the midst of you.

¹²When 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.

¹³You shall say before ForeverOne your God, "I have put away the holy things out of my house, and also have given them to the Levite, and 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: ¹⁴I have not eaten of it in my mourning, neither have I put away of it, being unclean, nor given of it for the dead: I have listened to the voice of ForeverOne 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 us, as you swore to our fathers, a land flowing with milk and honey." ¹⁶Today ForeverOne 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.

¹⁷Today you have declared ForeverOne to be your God, and that you would walk in his ways, and keep his statutes, and his commandments, and his ordinances, and listen to his voice: ¹⁸and today ForeverOne has declared you to be a people for his own possession, as he has promised you, and that you should keep all his commandments; ¹⁹and to make you high above all nations that he has made, in praise, and in name, and in honor; and that you may be a holy people to ForeverOne your God, as he has spoken.