A Wandering Aramean
1 It shall be, when you have come in to the land which Yahweh your God gives you for an inheritance, possess it, and dwell in it, 2 that you shall take some of the first of all the fruit of the ground, which you shall bring in from your land that Yahweh your God gives you. You shall put it in a basket, and shall go to the place which Yahweh your God shall choose to cause his name to dwell there. 3 You shall come to the priest who shall be in those days, and tell him, “I profess today to Yahweh your God, that I have come to the land which Yahweh swore to our fathers to give us.” 4 The priest shall take the basket out of your hand, and set it down before Yahweh your God’s altar. 5 You shall answer and say before Yahweh your God, “My father was a Syrian ready to perish. He went down into Egypt, and lived there, few in number. There he became a great, mighty, and populous nation. 6 The Egyptians mistreated us, afflicted us, and imposed hard labor on us. 7 Then we cried to Yahweh, the God of our fathers. Yahweh heard our voice, and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression. 8 Yahweh brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand, with an outstretched arm, with great terror, with signs, and with wonders; 9 and he has brought us into this place, and has given us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. 10 Now, behold, I have brought the first of the fruit of the ground, which you, Yahweh, have given me.” You shall set it down before Yahweh your God, and worship before Yahweh your God. 11 You shall rejoice in all the good which Yahweh your God has given to you, and to your house, you, and the Levite, and the foreigner who is among you.
The confession a farmer recites over his first basket is a national history in the first person, ending with a homeless ancestor.
The code closes with a liturgy, and it is the only one in the book that puts words in an ordinary person's mouth.
A man brings the first of his produce in a basket to the chosen place, and hands it to the priest with a sentence: I profess today to Yahweh your God, that I have come to the land which Yahweh swore to our fathers to give us Deuteronomy 26:3.
Then the recitation, and it begins in the least impressive way possible.
You shall answer and say before Yahweh your God, “My father was a Syrian ready to perish. He went down into Egypt, and lived there, few in number. There he became a great, mighty, and populous nation.
A landowner standing in the sanctuary with the first fruits of his own field opens his statement by describing his ancestor as a wandering man on the edge of starvation. Every year, at the moment of greatest satisfaction, the story starts with someone who had nothing.
What follows is compressed and entirely in the plural. The Egyptians mistreated us... then we cried to Yahweh... Yahweh heard our voice, and saw our affliction Deuteronomy 26:6–7. The speaker was not there. He says us anyway, which is how this book has taught memory from the first chapter.
And the verbs are almost all God's. Heard, saw, brought out, brought in, gave. The only thing the people do is cry.
Then the basket is presented with the point of the whole rite: I have brought the first of the fruit of the ground, which you, Yahweh, have given me Deuteronomy 26:10.
The fruit of his own labor is described as a gift received. He planted it, tended it and harvested it, and hands it over as something that came from somewhere else — which is what the history he has just recited was for. A man who begins with a homeless ancestor cannot end by congratulating himself on a farm.
The last verse turns it into a meal, and the guest list is the book's usual one: you, and the Levite, and the foreigner who is among you Deuteronomy 26:11. The command is rejoice, and the two people named beside him are the two who own no ground at all.
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