Deuteronomy 26:1-11

Context

Presentation of the First Fruits

26:1 When¹ you enter the land that the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, and you occupy it and live in it, 26:2 you must take the first of all the ground’s produce you harvest from the land the Lord your God is giving you, place it in a basket, and go to the place where he² chooses to locate his name.³ 26:3 You must go to the priest in office at that time and say to him, “I declare today to the Lord your⁴ God that I have come into the land that the Lord⁵ promised⁶ to our ancestors⁷ to give us.” 26:4 The priest will then take the basket from you⁸ and set it before the altar of the Lord your God. 26:5 Then you must affirm before the Lord your God, “A wandering⁹ Aramean¹⁰ was my ancestor,¹¹ and he went down to Egypt and lived there as a foreigner with a household few in number,¹² but there he became a great, powerful, and numerous people. 26:6 But the Egyptians mistreated and oppressed us, forcing us to do burdensome labor. 26:7 So we cried out to the Lord, the God of our ancestors, and he¹³ heard us and saw our humiliation, toil, and oppression. 26:8 Therefore the Lord brought us out of Egypt with tremendous strength and power,¹⁴ as well as with great awe-inspiring signs and wonders. 26:9 Then he brought us to this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. 26:10 So now, look! I have brought the first of the ground’s produce that you, Lord, have given me.” Then you must set it down before the Lord your God and worship before him.¹⁵ 26:11 You will celebrate all the good things that the Lord your God has given you and your family,¹⁶ along with the Levites and the resident foreigners among you.

[26:1] ¹tn Heb “and it will come to pass that.”

[26:2] ²tn Heb “the Lord your God.” The pronoun has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons to avoid redundancy.

[26:2] ³sn The place where he chooses to locate his name. This is a circumlocution for the central sanctuary, first the tabernacle and later the Jerusalem temple. See Deut 12:1-14 and especially the note on the word “you” in v. 14.

[26:3] ⁴tc For the MT reading “your God,” certain LXX mss have “my God,” a contextually superior rendition followed by some English versions (e.g., NAB, NASB, TEV). Perhaps the text reflects dittography of the kaf (כ) at the end of the word with the following preposition כִּי (ki).

[26:3] ⁵tc The Syriac adds “your God” to complete the usual formula.

[26:3] ⁶tn Heb “swore on oath.”

[26:3] ⁷tn Heb “fathers” (also in vv. 7, 15).

[26:4] ⁸tn Heb “your hand.”

[26:5] ⁹tn Though the Hebrew term אָבַד (’avad) generally means “to perish” or the like (HALOT 2-3 s.v.; BDB 1-2 s.v.; cf. KJV “a Syrian ready to perish”), a meaning “to go astray” or “to be lost” is also attested. The ambivalence in the Hebrew text is reflected in the versions where LXX Vaticanus reads ἀπέβαλεν (apebalen, “lose”) for a possibly metathesized reading found in Alexandrinus, Ambrosianus, ἀπέλαβεν (apelaben, “receive”); others attest κατέλειπεν (kateleipen, “leave, abandon”). “Wandering” seems to suit best the contrast with the sedentary life Israel would enjoy in Canaan (v. 9) and is the meaning followed by many English versions.

[26:5] ¹⁰sn A wandering Aramean. This is a reference to Jacob whose mother Rebekah was an Aramean (Gen 24:10; 25:20, 26) and who himself lived in Aram for at least twenty years (Gen 31:41-42).

[26:5] ¹¹tn Heb “father.”

[26:5] ¹²tn Heb “sojourned there few in number.” The words “with a household” have been supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons and for clarity.

[26:7] ¹³tn Heb “the Lord.” See note on “he” in 26:2.

[26:8] ¹⁴tn Heb “by a powerful hand and an extended arm.” These are anthropomorphisms designed to convey God’s tremendously great power in rescuing Israel from their Egyptian bondage. They are preserved literally in many English versions (cf. KJV, NAB, NIV, NRSV).

[26:10] ¹⁵tn Heb “the Lord your God.” See note on “he” in 26:2.

[26:11] ¹⁶tn Or “household” (so NASB, NIV, NLT); Heb “house” (so KJV, NRSV).