Deuteronomy 26:1

Offerings of Firstfruits and Tithes

1 "When you come into the land that the LORD your God is giving you for an inheritance and have taken possession of it and live 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 "When you come into the land that the LORD your God is giving you for an inheritance and have taken possession of it and live in it,

2 you shall take some of the first of all the fruit of the ground, which you harvest from your land that the LORD your God is giving you, and you shall put it in a basket, and you shall go to the place that the LORD your God will choose, to make his name to dwell there.

3 And you shall go to the priest who is in office at that time and say to him, 'I declare today to the LORD your God that I have come into the land that the LORD swore to our fathers to give us.'

4 Then the priest shall take the basket from your hand and set it down before the altar of the LORD your God.

5 "And you shall make response before the LORD your God, 'A wandering Aramean was my father. And he went down into Egypt and sojourned there, few in number, and there he became a nation, great, mighty, and populous.