1 “And it shall be, when you come into the land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, and you possess it and dwell in it,
2athat you shall take some of the first of all the produce of the ground, which you shall bring from your land that the Lord your God is giving you, and put it in a basket and bgo to the place where the Lord your God chooses to make His name abide.
3 And you shall go to the one who is priest in those days, and say to him, ‘I declare today to the Lord1 your God that I have come to the country which the Lord swore to our fathers to give us.’
4 “Then the priest shall take the basket out of your hand and set it down before the altar of the Lord your God.
5 And you shall answer and say before the Lord your God: ‘My father wasa1a Syrian, babout to perish, and che went down to Egypt and dwelt there, dfew in number; and there he became a nation, egreat, mighty, and populous.
6 But the aEgyptians mistreated us, afflicted us, and laid hard bondage on us.
7aThen we cried out to the Lord God of our fathers, and the Lord heard our voice and looked on our affliction and our labor and our oppression.
8 So athe Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and with an outstretched arm, bwith great terror and with signs and wonders.
9 He has brought us to this place and has given us this land, a“a land flowing with milk and honey”;
10 and now, behold, I have brought the firstfruits of the land which you, O Lord, have given me.’ “Then you shall set it before the Lord your God, and worship before the Lord your God.
11 So ayou shall rejoice in every good thing which the Lord your God has given to you and your house, you and the Levite and the stranger who is among you.
12 “When you have finished laying aside all the atithe of your increase in the third year—bthe year of tithing—and have given it to the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, so that they may eat within your gates and be filled,
13 then you shall say before the Lord your God: ‘I have removed the1 holy tithe from my house, and also have given them to the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, according to all Your commandments which You have commanded me; I have not transgressed Your commandments, anor have I forgotten them.
14aI have not eaten any of it when in mourning, nor have I removed any of it2 for an unclean use, nor given any of it for the dead. I have obeyed the voice of the Lord my God, and have done according to all that You have commanded me.
15aLook down from Your holy habitation, from heaven, and bless Your people Israel and the land which You have given us, just as You swore to our fathers, b“a land flowing with milk and honey.” ’
A Special People of God
16 “This day the Lord your God commands you to observe these statutes and judgments; therefore you shall be careful to observe them with all your heart and with all your soul.
17 Today you have aproclaimed the Lord to be your God, and that you will walk in His ways and keep His statutes, His commandments, and His judgments, and that you will bobey His voice.
18 Also today athe Lord has proclaimed you to be His special people, just as He promised you, that you should keep all His commandments,
19 and that He will set you ahigh above all nations which He has made, in praise, in name, and in honor, and that you may be ba holy people to the Lord your God, just as He has spoken.”
DEUTERONOMY, the second law, a title which plainly shows what is the object of this book, namely, a recapitulation of the law. It was given in the form of public addresses to the people; and as Moses spoke in the prospect of his speedy removal, he enforced obedience to it by many forcible appeals to the Israelites, concerning their long and varied experience both of the mercies and the judgments of God. The minute notices of the heathen people with whom they had come in contact, but who afterward disappeared from the pages of history, as well as the accounts of the fertility and products of Canaan, and the counsels respecting the conquest of that country, fix the date of this book and the time of its composition by the hand of Moses. The close, however, must have been added by another; and, indeed, it is supposed by some to have formed the original preface to the Book of Joshua.
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