Deuteronomy 26:1

1 "{And then} when you come to the land that Yahweh your God [is] giving to you [as an] inheritance, and you take possession of it and you settle in it,

Deuteronomy 26:1 Meaning and Commentary

Deuteronomy 26:1

And it shall be, when thou [art] come in unto the land
The land of Canaan, which they were now on the borders of, and just entering into:

which the Lord thy God giveth thee [for] an inheritance;
which is often mentioned, to observe that it was not through their merits, but his gift, that they should enjoy the land; and the rather here to enforce the following law concerning the basket of firstfruits:

and possessest it, and dwellest therein;
not only had entered into it, but got the possession of it, and settled there. This shows as Jarchi observes, that they were not bound to the firstfruits till they had subdued the land and divided it; not as soon as they were in it.

Deuteronomy 26:1 In-Context

1 "{And then} when you come to the land that Yahweh your God [is] giving to you [as an] inheritance, and you take possession of it and you settle in it,

2 then you shall take from the firstfruit of all the fruit of the ground that you harvest from your land that Yahweh your God [is] giving to you, and you shall put [it] in a basket, and you shall go to the place that Yahweh your God will choose to make his name to dwell there.

3 And you shall go to the priest who is [in office] in those days, and you shall say, 'I declare {today} to Yahweh your God that I have come into the land that Yahweh swore to our ancestors to give to us.'

4 Then the priest takes the basket from your hand and places it {before} the altar of Yahweh your God.

5 And {you shall declare} and you shall say {before} your God, 'My ancestor [was] a wandering Aramean, and he went down to Egypt, and there he dwelt as an alien {few in number}, and there he became a great nation, mighty and numerous.

Footnotes

• [a]. Literally "And it shall happen"