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Deuteronomy 26

Deuteronomy book home•Chapter 26 of 34•19 verses

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Deuteronomy 26 Overview

When Israel settles in the land, each worshiper is to bring firstfruits to the LORD and confess the nation’s story: a wandering father, descent into Egypt, oppression, divine deliverance, and gift of the land. The chapter also gives the third-year tithe confession and ends with a mutual covenant affirmation—Israel has avouched the LORD to be its God, and the LORD has avouched Israel to be his peculiar people.

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Before you read Deuteronomy 26

Coming from

Chapter 25 closed the main sequence of daily-life laws with honest commerce and the command to remember Amalek.

In this chapter

The law collection culminates in worshipful confession: Israel’s harvest is interpreted through God’s saving acts, and covenant identity is verbally reaffirmed.

Leads into

Chapter 27 prepares for covenant ratification in Canaan through written law, an altar on Ebal, and publicly pronounced curses.

Key understandingExplore deeper

The firstfruits confession teaches Israel how to read prosperity historically. The basket of produce is not simply agricultural success; it represents a land and harvest received after God preserved the fathers, delivered the nation from Egypt, and brought them to Canaan. The third-year tithe confession likewise connects giving with obedience and care for Levite, stranger, fatherless, and widow. The chapter closes the central law code before the covenant ceremonies and sanctions of chapters 27–30.

Major truths in this chapterExplore deeper

Truth 1

Worship should remember concrete acts of God rather than treat present blessings as self-created.

Truth 2

Firstfruits express gratitude for both land and harvest.

Truth 3

Covenant giving includes provision for people without ordinary social or landed security.

Truth 4

Israel’s covenant identity includes both privilege and the obligation to walk in God’s ways.

Connections to the rest of ScriptureExplore deeper

Connection 1

Genesis 46 tells how Jacob’s household went down into Egypt; Exodus 1–15 recounts oppression and deliverance summarized in the firstfruits confession.

Connection 2

Joshua 5 marks Israel’s first Passover in the land and the transition to eating Canaan’s produce.

Connection 3

1 Peter 2:9 uses 'peculiar people' language for the New Testament people of God, drawing on Old Testament covenant vocabulary while applying it in a new-covenant setting.

What is clear, and where care is neededExplore deeper

Keep this clear 1

The phrase 'a Syrian ready to perish was my father' is a covenant-historical confession and should not be forced into speculative identifications beyond Jacob/Israel’s ancestral story.

Keep this clear 2

Firstfruits and third-year tithes belong to Israel’s land-and-Levite system; they should not be made conditions for eternal life.

Keep this clear 3

Covenant privilege does not mean Israel has earned God’s favor by prior merit; the confession itself centers God’s gracious acts.

Read Deuteronomy 26 watching for…

The historical sequence recited with the firstfruits.

Who shares in the rejoicing.

Who receives the third-year tithe.

The worshiper’s claim that he has followed the tithe instructions.

The two-sided covenant affirmation at the chapter’s end.

Chapter outline3 sections

1-11Israel is to bring firstfruits and confess God’s faithfulness 12-15The third-year tithe is confessed before the LORD 16-19Israel and the LORD affirm the covenant relationship

And 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;

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.

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.

And the priest shall take the basket out of thine hand, and set it down before the altar of the LORD thy God.

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:

And the Egyptians evil entreated us, and afflicted us, and laid upon us hard bondage:

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:

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:

And he hath brought us into this place, and hath given us this land, even a land that floweth with milk and honey.

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:

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.

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;

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:

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.

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.

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.

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:

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;

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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Deuteronomy 26:4

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