Deuteronomy 26:1-11

The Voice

26 Moses: When you go into the land the Eternal your God is giving you to live in, when you’ve taken possession of it and are living there, ² then take some of the very first produce you harvest from the land He is giving you, put it in a basket, and go to the place He will choose for His name. ³ Go to the priest who is serving at the time and say, “The Eternal promised our ancestors He’d give us this land, and I’m here today to acknowledge to the Eternal, my True God—I’ve officially settled in!” ⁴ Then the priest will take the basket from you and set it in front of the altar of the Eternal your God. ⁵ You will then testify in the presence of Him, “I’m descended from an Aramean nomad. The Lord watched over him everywhere he went. When he and his family moved to Egypt, there were only a few of them. But as they lived there as foreigners, they grew into a large, great, and powerful nation. ⁶ The Egyptians mistreated us and oppressed us. They made us their slaves and worked us mercilessly. ⁷ Then we cried out to the Eternal, the God of our ancestors, and He heard us. He saw that we were oppressed and exploited and mistreated. ⁸ He delivered us with overwhelming power, totally terrifying the Egyptians by testing them with plagues and showing He was the true God by doing amazing things to them. ⁹ He brought us to this place and gave us this land flowing with milk and honey. ¹⁰ And now I’ve brought the very first produce from the ground that You, the Eternal, have given to me.” Then present the basket to the Eternal your God, and bow down before Him, ¹¹ and celebrate all the good things He has given to you and your household. Be sure to invite the Levites and the foreigners who live in your town to the feast.