Deuteronomy 26 · a question people ask
Was the basket brought once, on coming into the land, or every year?
The chapter says when it begins: "when you have come in to the land which the LORD your God gives you for an inheritance, possess it, and dwell in it" (26:1). It doesn't say how often. Christians read it in two main ways, each resting on verses. Both agree that the first of the harvest was to be brought "into the house of the LORD your God" (Exodus 23:19) and given to the priest (18:4), and that these words were said at the place he would choose (26:2).
How Christians read it
Where Christians differ, Favor sets out the main views side by side and doesn't pick one.
A first harvest in the land
Those who hold this view note what the speaker says to the priest: "I profess today to the LORD your God, that I have come to the land" (26:3), and how the story ends: "he has brought us into this place, and has given us this land" (26:9). These fit the first harvest after Israel has come in, possessed the land and settled in it (26:1). On this reading, the basket and its words mark that first harvest, while the standing laws of first fruits are given elsewhere (Exodus 23:19; 18:4).
Deuteronomy 26:1 · Deuteronomy 26:3 · Deuteronomy 26:9 · Exodus 23:19 · Deuteronomy 18:4
Every harvest
Those who hold this view note that Exodus puts the first fruits among the yearly feasts: "You shall observe a feast to me three times a year" (Exodus 23:14), one of them "the feast of harvest, the first fruits of your labors" (Exodus 23:16), and then, "You shall bring the first of the first fruits of your ground into the house of the LORD your God" (Exodus 23:19). They also note that 26:3 looks ahead to "the priest who shall be in those days", and that the speaker says "us" of Egypt (26:6), so a later speaker could also say, "I have come to the land" (26:3). On this reading, each harvest brought its basket and its words.
Exodus 23:14 · Exodus 23:16 · Exodus 23:19 · Deuteronomy 26:3 · Deuteronomy 26:6
The verses
“It shall be, when you have come in to the land which the LORD your God gives you for an inheritance, possess it, and dwell in it, that you shall take some of the first of all the fruit of the ground, which you shall bring in from your land that the LORD your God gives you. You shall put it in a basket, and shall go to the place which the LORD your God shall choose to cause his name to dwell there. You shall come to the priest who shall be in those days, and tell him, “I profess today to the LORD your God, that I have come to the land which the LORD swore to our fathers to give us.””
“You shall bring the first of the first fruits of your ground into the house of the LORD your God. “You shall not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.”
“You shall give him the first fruits of your grain, of your new wine, and of your oil, and the first of the fleece of your sheep.”