Deuteronomy 26:12

12 And when thou shalt have completed all the tithings of thy fruits in the third year, thou shalt give the second tenth to the Levite, and stranger, and fatherless, and widow; and they shall eat it in thy cities, and be merry.

Deuteronomy 26:12 Meaning and Commentary

Deuteronomy 26:12

When thou hast made an end of tithing all the tithes of thine
increase
Which, according to Maimonides F11, is to be understood of the feast, in which all tithes are finished, which is the feast of the passover:

the third year, [which is] the year of tithing;
that is, the third from every seventh, when the land lay fallow. Every year a tithe was paid to the Levites; and besides that a second tithe, which was carried to Jerusalem and eaten there; and every third year it was eaten at home, in their towns and cities in the country instead of it, with the Levite, poor and stranger, and was called the poor's tithe; and hence the Targum of Jonathan here calls this year the year of the poor's tithe, as was also the sixth year, and was reckoned not complete till the passover in the following year, as the Jewish writers F12 say:

and hath given it unto the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless, and
the widow;
that is, the poor's tithe of the third year, which these were to eat of with the owner, ( Deuteronomy 14:28 Deuteronomy 14:29 ) ; though the Jews commonly distinguish the Levite from the rest, and suppose that both first and second tithes are meant, the one to be given to the former, and the other to the latter; so the Targum of Jonathan and Jarchi:

that they may eat within thy gates, and be filled:
for this was a considerable entertainment, a sort of a feast, a full meal, however; hence it is concluded, as Jarchi says, that they did not give less of corn to a poor man than half a kab of wheat, which was above three pints.


FOOTNOTES:

F11 In Misn. Maaser Sheni, c. 5. sect. 6.
F12 Misn. ib. & Maimon. & Bartenora in ib.

Deuteronomy 26:12 In-Context

10 And now, behold, I have brought the first of the fruits of the land, which thou gavest me, O Lord, a land flowing with milk and honey: and thou shalt leave it before the Lord thy God, and thou shalt worship before the Lord thy God;
11 and thou shalt rejoice in all the good , which the Lord thy God has given thee, and thy family, and the Levite, and the stranger that is within thee.
12 And when thou shalt have completed all the tithings of thy fruits in the third year, thou shalt give the second tenth to the Levite, and stranger, and fatherless, and widow; and they shall eat it in thy cities, and be merry.
13 And thou shalt say before the Lord thy God, I have fully collected the holy things out of my house, and I have given them to the Levite, and the stranger, and the orphan, and the widow, according to all commands which thou didst command me: I did not transgress thy command, and I did not forget it.
14 And in my distress I did not eat of them, I have not gathered of them for an unclean purpose, I have not given of them to the dead; I have hearkened to the voice of the Lord our God, I have done as thou hast commanded me.

The Brenton translation of the Septuagint is in the public domain.