Charles Ellicott Commentary Deuteronomy 26

Deuteronomy 26:1–11. PRESENTATION OF THE FIRST FRUITS.

When you are come in.: Rashi says they were not bound to perform this duty until they had conquered and divided the land. But the state of things described in the Book of Joshua (Joshua 21:43–45) would demand it.

From the words of Deuteronomy 26:11, you shall rejoice, the Jews infer that the thanksgiving to be said over the firstfruits must be said sometime between the close of the feast of unleavened bread on the twenty-first day of the first month (the solemn assembly of Deuteronomy 16:8) and the Feast of Tabernacles. If firstfruits were presented between the Feast of Tabernacles and the Passover, this formula was not used (Rashi).

The priest who shall be in those days.: No mention is made of the Levite here. The priest (though of the tribe of Levi) has an office distinct from the Levite in the Book of Deuteronomy, just as in the rest of the Old Testament.

I profess.: Literally, I declare. “To show that you are not ungrateful for His goodness” (Rashi, from the Talmud).

This day.: The formula was only used once in the year.

The priest shall take the basket.: “To wave it. The priest put his hand under the hand of the owner, and waved it.”

A Syrian ready to perish.: The reference is to Jacob, more especially when pursued by Laban, who would have taken all he had from him, except for the Divine mercy and protection. We may also recall his danger from Esau (Genesis 31:32), from the Shechemites (Genesis 34 and Genesis 35), and from the famine, until he heard of Joseph.

When we cried unto the Lord.: Samuel in his famous speech (1 Samuel 12:8) takes up the language of this passage, When Jacob was come into Egypt, and your fathers cried unto the Lord, then the Lord ... brought forth your fathers out of Egypt, and made them dwell in this place.

See Exodus 2:25; Exodus 3:9; Exodus 6:5–6 for the source of this confession.

And you shall set it before the Lord your God: i.e., take it up again after it was first waved by the priest, and hold it in the hand while making this confession, and then wave it once more. After this it would become the priest’s.

Deuteronomy 26:12–15. DECLARATION OF THE TITHE.

When you have made an end. —The time fixed for making the confession prescribed in Deuteronomy 26:13-15, according to Jewish usage, was the Passover-eve of the fourth year, i.e., the first feast after the completion of the year of tithing. It would seem that something was still to be gathered from the trees after the Feast of Tabernacles, and thus there would still be some produce untithed at that feast in any given year. But the tithe of the third year must be separated to the very last item before the Passover of the fourth.

The third year, which is the year of tithing. —See Deuteronomy 14:28-29. In the third and sixth years, the second tithe, which in other years was eaten by the owners (in kind or value) at Jerusalem, was given to the poor, and was called the poor’s tithe. In Talmudical language, the Ma’aser ani took the place of Ma’aser shêni in these years.

Thus the words “and have given it to the Levite,” are applied to the first tithe, which was never omitted, and which is prescribed by Numbers 18. The words that follow, “the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow,” are interpreted of the poor’s tithe. The prescribed confession is not to be made until all the tithe has been given, both first and second, i.e., the annual tithe to the Levites, and the second, which was in these years devoted to the poor.

That they may eat within your gates, and be filled. —The quantity with which they were to be satisfied was duly prescribed by the Jewish scribes!

You shall say before the Lord your God, I have brought away. —Literally, I have consumed, or burned out. It is the same strong word used so frequently in this book for “putting away” evil, and from which the name Taberah, “burning,” is derived. It is taken by Jewish commentators to include everything that could possibly be required as holy under any law, whether tithe, or firstfruit of trees not yet made common, or anything that from any cause had not been brought to Jerusalem during the three previous years.

I ... have given ... to the Levite (the first tithe), and to the stranger... (the poor’s tithe).—Rashi.

According to all your commandments —i.e., “giving everything in its due order” (Rashi). The following words are also taken to refer to the details of the law respecting these matters.

I have not eaten of it in my mourning. —“When I was clean and they were unclean, or when they were clean and I was unclean” (Rashi). The tomb or presence of a dead body made both persons and things unclean (Numbers 19).

Neither have I taken away. —Literally, consumed any of them in uncleanness.

Nor given any of it for (or to) the dead. —Rashi explains, “to provide for him a coffin or grave-clothes.” Another explanation, which is certainly possible, is, “I have not made any offering to an idol from them.” They joined themselves to Baal-peor, and ate the sacrifices of the dead (Psalms 106:28).

I have listened ... and have done according to all that you have commanded me. —A claim which might be truly made as to outward observances and requirements. I am therefore the more disposed to take the confession in these verses in its most literal sense, and to limit it to the particular things with which it was connected—the tithes and offerings.

Look down from your holy habitation, from heaven. —A phrase like this occurs frequently in Solomon’s prayer; but there is a difference there in the Hebrew, which is less beautiful than in this place. The exact phrase is found in 2 Chronicles 30:27. And in 2 Chronicles 36:15, we have “His dwelling-place” applied to Jerusalem and the Temple. This suggests that the thought here may be twofold. Look down from the dwelling-place of Your holiness here below, and not only from there, but from Your own dwelling-place in heaven.

And bless your people Israel, and the land (literally, the ground) which you have given us. —“We have done what You have decreed for us. You do that which it rests with You to do” (Rashi).

Deuteronomy 26:16–19. CLOSE OF THE EXHORTATION.

This day the Lord thy God hath commanded thee. These words are not to be taken as part of the service described in the previous verses, but as the words of Moses in bringing his exhortation to a close. Rashi says, “Every day these commandments shall be new before your eyes, as though on that very day you had received them.”

Thou shalt therefore keep and do them. It is a beautiful thought that the form of this command (as of many others) makes it prophetic of its own fulfillment. “It is the voice from heaven blessing you,” says Rashi. (Deuteronomy 30:8.)

Thou hast avouched ... and the Lord hath avouched. The Hebrew word is simply the ordinary word for “to say.” “You have said,” and “He has said.” There is no distinctive word for “to promise” in Hebrew. “To say” is sufficient. “Hath He said, and shall He not do it?” “Let your yea be yea, and your nay nay,” like His. But Rashi says there is no exact parallel to this use of the verb in the Old Testament, except, perhaps, in Psalm 94:4, where it means, “they boast themselves.” Let Israel boast in God, and God will boast Himself of them, as His peculiar people.

And to make thee high. Literally, most high; Hebrew, ‘Elyôn, a well-known name of God. Here, and in Deuteronomy 28:1, it is (prophetically and in the Divine purpose) applied to Israel. “Thou shalt put my Name upon the children of Israel” was the law of blessing for the priests (Numbers 6:27).

In praise, and in name, and in honour. Perhaps, rather, to be a praise, and to be a name, and to be an honour, and to become a people of holiness to Jehovah. There is an allusion to this in Jeremiah 33:9, “And it shall be to me a name of joy, a praise, and an honour before all the nations of the earth;” and in Isaiah 62:6-7, “Ye that make mention of the name of the Lord, keep not silence, and give Him no rest, till He establish, and till He make Jerusalem a praise in the earth.”

But if, as some would have us believe, the Book of Deuteronomy draws these things from the prophets, rather than the prophets from Moses, how is it that there is not the faintest allusion in Deuteronomy to Jerusalem, which in the days of the prophets had become the center of all these hopes?