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Deuteronomy 26 · a question people ask

"I have not transgressed any of your commandments" (26:13). How could anyone say that?

In the text

These are words Israel is told to say: "You shall say before the LORD your God" (26:13). The lines around them are about the tithe of the third year. Before: "I have put away the holy things out of my house, and also have given them to the Levite, to the foreigner, to the fatherless, and to the widow, according to all your commandment which you have commanded me" (26:13). After: "I have not eaten of it in my mourning, neither have I removed any of it while I was unclean, nor given of it for the dead" (26:14), where "it" is what was set apart. The verses don't say how far "any of your commandments" reaches beyond this tithe. Elsewhere the Bible says plainly, "there is no man who doesn’t sin" (1 Kings 8:46). And the words end with a prayer: "Look down from your holy habitation, from heaven, and bless your people Israel" (26:15). The thread to Jesus in this chapter sets these words beside what Jesus taught his apostles to say after doing all that was commanded (Luke 17:10).

The verses

“If they sin against you (for there is no man who doesn’t sin), and you are angry with them and deliver them to the enemy, so that they carry them away captive to the land of the enemy, far off or near;”
1 Kings 8:46 · World English Bible
“Even so you also, when you have done all the things that are commanded you, say, ‘We are unworthy servants. We have done our duty.’””
Luke 17:10 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Deuteronomy 26

Deuteronomy 26: The first of the fruit

The words over the basket of first fruits tell Israel's whole story, from "My father was a Syrian ready to perish" to "I have brought the first of the fruit" (26:5-10), and the one speaking says "us" of Egypt. And the statutes close with a declaration made both ways: Israel says the LORD is its God, and the LORD says Israel is his own people (26:17-18).

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions