Deuteronomychapter 26
19 verses · Moses, by tradition · 15th to 13th century BC · The Law
And thou shalt speak and say before the Lord thy God, A Syrian ready to perish was my father, and he went down into Egypt, and sojourned there with a few, and became there a nation, great, mighty, and populous:
Introduction
Moses, by tradition, The Law, Deuteronomy Overview.
Moses gives these words to men who do not yet own a field, for a day after their first harvest in the land. The chapter closes the statutes of the long second address, and after it the covenant is put to the people for their answer. It hands the worshipper words to say aloud at the sanctuary, which no earlier law in the book does in this way. Listen for the change of voice in the recital, from one father to the whole people. Listen also for the promises both parties make at the end. The chapter turns law into confession.
Context
- Who
- People who had never brought in a crop of their own
- What
- The rite of the first basket with its spoken creed, the third-year tithe with its declaration, and the closing of the covenant's terms.
- Where
- The plains of Moab, rehearsing a rite to be performed at the sanctuary in the land after the first harvest
- When
- The fortieth year after the Exodus, about 1406 BC on the early date of the Exodus, a date reached from the evidence since the chapter names no year.
- Why
- To make every harvest an act of remembering the Exodus, and to put both the LORD and Israel on record as bound to each other.
Historical context
The chapter is Moses speaking in the fortieth year, and it gives words to be said by men who own no ground yet. The house reading dates it to about 1406 BC, stated as a reading rather than a settled date. The place is the plains of Moab, and the ceremony described belongs to the land across the river once a harvest has been gathered. The occasion is the close of the second address, which ends the statutes and puts the covenant to the people from both sides. A first hearer knew what firstfruits meant, the first of what the ground produced carried in a basket and set down at the sanctuary, offered before anyone knew how good the year would be. A first hearer knew that the words at verses 5 to 10 were his own to say, since the worshipper spoke them rather than the priest. The third-year tithe had a declaration of its own, in which a man stated aloud that he had given the sacred portion to the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless and the widow. A first hearer also knew the language of the close, since a mutual declaration on record by both parties is how a treaty was ratified.
Significance
The confession put every later Israelite farmer inside the same history. However many generations he stood from the Exodus, he said that the Egyptians afflicted us in the first person. It also kept a harvest from becoming a private achievement, since the basket went down before the altar first and the tithe went out to four groups who held no land. The chapter's close then put both parties on record, Israel declaring the LORD its God and the LORD declaring Israel His treasured people.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
The first fruits of this chapter were brought with a set of actions the classical sources describe closely. Only the seven kinds by which the land is distinguished were brought. Rashi derives that by reading the word for land here against the list at Deuteronomy 8:8 (Rashi on Deuteronomy 26:2:1, citing Sifrei Devarim 297:4 and Menachot 84b). The basket was waved with the priest's hand placed beneath the hands of the owner (Rashi on Deuteronomy 26:4:1, citing Sukkah 47b). The owner took it back, held it while he made the declaration, and waved it again (Rashi on Deuteronomy 26:10:1, citing Sukkah 47b and Sifrei Devarim 301:33).
The declaration was made in a raised voice (Rashi on Deuteronomy 26:5:1, citing Sotah 32b). The place named in it is the Temple, where the man bringing the basket stood as he spoke (Rashi on Deuteronomy 26:9:1). The rabbis fixed the season for the recital between Pentecost and the Feast of Tabernacles, while a man is gathering his grain, fruit, wine and oil (Rashi on Deuteronomy 26:11:1, citing Pesachim 36b). Fruit brought after Tabernacles was brought without the words.
The tithe confession of 26:12 to 26:15 was fixed to a date in the same way. The clearing of the tithes out of the house and the confession over them fall on the eve of the Passover of the fourth year. Rashi reaches that by reading this passage against Deuteronomy 14:28 and the public assembly of Deuteronomy 31:10 to 31:11 (Rashi on Deuteronomy 26:12:1, citing Sifrei Devarim 302 and Talmud Yerushalmi Maaser Sheni 5:6). One line of the confession says the man has not eaten of the tithe in his mourning. That is the source of the rule barring a near relative between a death and the burial from sacred gifts (Rashi on Deuteronomy 26:14:1, citing Sifrei Devarim 303:15 and Mishnah Bikkurim 2:2).
How it is read
The opening words of the declaration carry the chapter into the Jewish year. Rashi reads them as a statement about Laban, that he wished to wipe out the whole nation when he pursued Jacob. God counted the intention as the deed, because he counts intention as deed for the nations. Rashi cites the Passover Haggadah at that point, which is where a Jewish household meets these verses each year (Rashi on Deuteronomy 26:5:2, citing Sifrei Devarim 301:3, Onkelos and the Haggadah for Passover). Sforno reads the next verse about the hard labour as turning on the standing of a slave, since gifts made to a slave pass to his master (Sforno on Deuteronomy 26:6:1, Munk translation, CC-BY).
Two smaller readings shape how the chapter is taken. The phrase about the priest in those days tells a man to bring his basket to the priest of his own generation (Rashi on Deuteronomy 26:3:1, citing Sifrei Devarim 298:3 and Rosh Hashanah 25b). He sums up the purpose of the whole declaration in one line, that the man says it to show he is not ungrateful (Rashi on Deuteronomy 26:3:2, citing Sifrei Devarim 299:1). On the two verses that close the chapter he admits the Hebrew has no decisive parallel and offers his own reading. Israel has singled God out from all other gods, and God has singled Israel out from the nations (Rashi on Deuteronomy 26:17:1). The promise behind it is taken from Exodus 19:5 and Leviticus 20:26 (Rashi on Deuteronomy 26:18:1 and 26:19:1, citing the Mekhilta). The corpus also holds Ibn Ezra on Deuteronomy 26:1:1 and 26:7:1, Sforno on Deuteronomy 26:4:1 and Malbim on Deuteronomy 26:8:1 without a text that may be kept here. All four are cited without quotation.
What the rabbis say
The rabbis read the phrase about this day as a rule for the whole life of a commandment. Rashi carries their teaching that the commandments should be new to a man every day, as though he had received them that morning (Rashi on Deuteronomy 26:16:1, citing Midrash Tanchuma, Ki Tavo 1).
On the closing line of the tithe confession the man asks God to look down and bless Israel. Rashi puts the boldness of the request into words. Israel has done what was laid on it, and now asks God to do what he said he would do (Rashi on Deuteronomy 26:15:1). The rabbis also held that the duty of first fruits began only once the land had been conquered and divided (Rashi on Deuteronomy 26:1:1, citing Kiddushin 37b).
The corpus carries more locators on this chapter, given for a reader to follow. Bava Batra 81a:4 and Jerusalem Talmud Bikkurim 2:2:3 stand across 26:1 to 26:11. Arakhin 11a:15 stands at 26:2, Ein Yaakov, Kiddushin 3:5 at 26:3. Chullin 120b:8 and Jerusalem Talmud Bikkurim 1:7:4 stand at 26:4, Aggadat Bereshit 54:2 at 26:5. Devarim Rabbah 4:7 stands at 26:6 and 26:7, Bamidbar Rabbah 10:4 at 26:7. Berakhot 48b:11 stands at 26:11. Bamidbar Rabbah 5:2 and Bava Metzia 11b:6 stand at 26:12, Berakhot 35b:11 at 26:13. Chagigah 12b:9 and Bamidbar Rabbah 11:2 stand at 26:15. Berakhot 6a:21 and Bamidbar Rabbah 14:4 stand at 26:17, Berakhot 6a:24 and Bereshit Rabbah 75:8 at 26:19.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Deuteronomy 26:1 to 26:19, Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, public domain, 1929-1934; Sforno, Sforno on Deuteronomy 26:6:1, Eliyahu Munk, HaChut Hameshulash, CC-BY, with Sforno on Deuteronomy 26:4:1 cited without text; Ibn Ezra, Ibn Ezra on Deuteronomy 26:1:1 and 26:7:1, cited without text; Malbim, Malbim on Deuteronomy 26:8:1, cited without text; The Sefaria corpus on disk, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/deuteronomy/26.json, fetched 2026-09-19, 2026.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
A wandering Syrian was my father
Deuteronomy 26:1-2
The last chapter of the laws opens with a command that cannot be kept until the land is held, given to men who own none of it. The place the LORD will choose is still unnamed when the laws close, and 2 Samuel 24 and 1 Kings 8:16 name it. The Samaritan Pentateuch reads a place already chosen and sets it at Gerizim, the dispute of John 4:20.
Deuteronomy 26:1
“Two liturgical enactments having a clear and close reference to the whole of the preceding legislation, form a most appropriate and significant conclusion to it, namely, (1) the formal acknowledgment in deed and symbol of God’s faithfulness, by presentment of a basket filled with firstfruits, and in word by recitation of the solemn formula prescribed in Deu 26:3, Deu 26:5-10; and (2) the solemn declaration and profession on the part of each Israelite on the occasion of the third tithe Deu 26:12.”
This basket of firstfruits is distinct from the sheaf offered for the whole nation after Passover at Leviticus 23:10, and Henry places it at the Feast of Weeks. No Israelite could use the produce of his soil until it was given. Each head of a household carried his own.
Deuteronomy 26:3-4
Barnes reads verses 1 to 15 as two acts of worship, a basket brought with a spoken formula and a tithe declared with another. The worshiper says the words himself, and what he professes is that an oath sworn to the fathers has been kept in his own lifetime. Gill records the rabbinic tradition, citing Rashi, that the priest put his hand under the owner's hand and waved the basket.
Deuteronomy 26:3
“Note, When God has made good his promises to us he expects that we should own it, to the honour of his faithfulness; this is like giving up the bond, as Solomon does, 1 Kings viii. 56 , There has not failed one word of all his good promise. And our creature-comforts are doubly sweet to us when we see them flowing from the fountain of the promise.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
The priest sets the basket before the altar as a gift to the owner of the land, and Henry calls the LORD Israel's great landlord. Gill reads the placing as giving it the look of a sacrifice, an emblem of the offering of praise. The fruit itself fed the priests, by Numbers 18:12.
Deuteronomy 26:4
“And the priest shall take the basket out of thine hand,.... To wave it, as Jarchi says, putting his hand under the hand of the owner, and so waving it; and this being waved to and fro towards the several corners of the earth, was an acknowledgment of the Lord being the proprietor of it: and set it down before the altar of the Lord thy God; that it might have some appearance of a sacrifice, and be a fit emblem of the spiritual sacrifice of praise, which is accepted upon the altar Christ, which sanctifies every gift.”
A man holding a basket of fruit tells his nation's history in one sentence, from an ancestor who nearly perished. Barnes takes the father to be Jacob, and Jamieson, Fausset and Brown note that the Hebrew can mean ready to perish or wandering, where the Berean reads “a wandering Aramean”. The Passover Haggadah expounds this verse clause by clause, so a farmer's confession shaped the seder's telling.
Deuteronomy 26:5
“A Syrian ready to perish was my father - The reference is shown by the context to be to Jacob, as the ancestor in whom particularly the family of Abraham began to develop into a nation (compare Isa 43:22, Isa 43:28, etc.).”
2 more voices on this verse
Deuteronomy 26:5
“Jacob is here called an Aramite, or Syrian, because he lived twenty years in Padan-Aram; his wives were of that country, and his children were all born there, except Benjamin; and perhaps the confessor means not Jacob himself, but that son of Jacob who was the father of his tribe.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Deuteronomy 26:5
“A Syrian ready to perish was my father--rather, "a wandering Syrian." The ancestors of the Hebrews were nomad shepherds, either Syrians by birth as Abraham, or by long residence as Jacob.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Deuteronomy 26:6-8
The confession turns to the first person plural here and stays there, so a farmer born in the land says the Egyptians “mistreated us and afflicted us”. God's acts come as a chain of hearing, seeing and bringing out, the order of Exodus 2:23-25. The pairing of “a mighty hand and an outstretched arm” is this book's standing phrase for the exodus, at 4:34, 5:15, 7:19 and 11:2.
Deuteronomy 26:6
“And the Egyptians evil entreated us,.... Ordered their male children to be killed by the midwives, and by another edict to be drowned by the people: and afflicted us; by setting taskmasters over them, who put heavy burdens upon them: and laid upon us hard bondage; in mortar and brick, and all manner of field service, in which they made them serve with rigour, and whereby their lives were made bitter; see Exo 1:9.”
The suffering is named three ways, affliction, toil and oppression, and the LORD saw all three. Henry notes that the man bringing his basket owed it to that rescue that he no longer made bricks for Egyptian taskmasters. No Israelite need grudge the basket.
Deuteronomy 26:7
“This was a great salvation, fit to be remembered upon all occasions, and particularly upon this; they need not grudge to bring a basket of first-fruits to God, for to him they owed it that they were not now bringing in the tale of bricks to their cruel task-masters.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Five terms name it, from mighty hand to wonders. Henry calls the seeing of verse 7 an act of pity and this bringing out of Egypt an act of power. Signs and wonders return at 34:11, where they name the work the LORD sent Moses to do in Egypt.
Deuteronomy 26:8
“And the Lord brought us forth out of Egypt,.... After some time: with a mighty hand and with an outstretched arm; by his almighty power, of which full proof was given by what he then did, Deu 5:15, and with great terribleness: to Pharaoh and his people, through the plagues that were inflicted on them, especially the last, the slaying of their firstborn; see Deu 4:34, and with signs and with wonders; wrought by the hands of Moses and Aaron, meaning the ten plagues, often so called.”
1 more voice on this verse
Deuteronomy 26:8
“With a mighty hand, etc. - See on Deu 4:34 (note).”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Deuteronomy 26:9-11
The confession ends on its point, that the fruit in the basket came from a land given to the speaker. Worship follows the basket and rejoicing follows the worship, with the Levite and the foreigner as sharers because neither holds land, as 16:11 and 16:14 order the feasts. Clarke reads verse 11 as God's intent that his people be happy in what he has given.
Deuteronomy 26:9
“Observe, He must not only give thanks for his own lot, but for the land in general which was given to Israel; not only for this year's profits, but for the ground itself which produced them, which God had graciously granted to his ancestors and entailed upon his posterity.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Here the speaker stops telling history and addresses the LORD directly. Henry calls the basket a quit-rent, the small token a tenant pays to acknowledge that the land belongs to his lord. David says at 1 Chronicles 29:14 that all things come from God and Israel gives back only what it received.
Deuteronomy 26:10
“The basket he set before God; and the priests, as God's receivers, had the first-fruits, as perquisites of their place and fees for attending, Num. xviii. The offerer is here appointed, when he has finished the service, 1. To give glory to God: Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
The rejoicing is a feast with friends and Levites after the offering, as at 12:7. Wesley adds that once God has His portion, the owner can enjoy the good things left in his house. The whole household eats with him.
Deuteronomy 26:11
“Thou shalt rejoice - God intends that his followers shall be happy; that they shall eat their bread with gladness and singleness of heart, praising him. Those who eat their meat grudgingly, under the pretense of their unworthiness, etc., profane God’s bounties and shall have no thanks for their voluntary humility. Thou, and the Levite, and the stranger - They were to take care to share God’s bounties among all those who were dependent on them. The Levite has no inheritance, let him rejoice with thee.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Look down from thy holy habitation
Deuteronomy 26:12-13
The third-year tithe goes to the Levite, the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow, and is eaten in a man's own towns, as 14:28-29 ruled. How many tithes Israel paid is an old dispute: Clarke reads one tithe turned to the poor every third year, Jamieson, Fausset and Brown a second tithe apart from Numbers 18:21, and Josephus three. The declaration ends on forgetting, the failure this book names most.
Deuteronomy 26:12
“When thou hast made an end of tithing all the tithes of thine increase,.... Which, according to Maimonides (k), 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.”
2 more voices on this verse
Deuteronomy 26:12
“The third year, which is the year of tithing - This is supposed to mean the third year of the seventh or Sabbatical year, in which the tenths were to be given to the poor. See the law, Deu 14:28. But from the letter in both these places it would appear that the tithe was for the Levites, and that this tithe was drawn only once in three years.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Deuteronomy 26:12
“The first was appropriated to the Levites (Nu 18:21). The second, being the tenth of what remained, was brought to Jerusalem in kind; or it was converted into money, and the owner, on arriving in the capital, purchased sheep, bread, and oil (De 14:22, 23).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
No priest saw the tithe given out at home, so the owner's word was its only check. Wesley has him declare it at home as a private prayer, and Henry places it at the next feast before the LORD as sworn testimony. Jewish custom spoke it in a low voice, Henry reports.
Deuteronomy 26:13
“Before the Lord - In thy private addresses to God; for this is to be said presently upon the distribution of these tithes, which was not done at Jerusalem, but in their own private gates or dwellings. And this is to be spoken before the Lord, that is, solemnly, seriously, and in a religious manner, with due respect to God's presence, and will, and glory.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Deuteronomy 26:14-15
Clarke reads the third denial, offering any of it “for the dead”, as food given to an idol, often a dead man made a god. Gill and Wesley keep it inside Israelite mourning, where holy things were kept from a house with a corpse in it. The prayer then asks blessing on the whole people and land, which Henry takes as the pattern for public-minded prayer.
Deuteronomy 26:14
“I have not eaten thereof in my mourning,.... When in grief and sorrow on account of any afflictive circumstance, for these were to be eaten with joy, Deu 16:11; and especially of the loss of relations by death, when holy things were not to be eaten by such persons; see Lev 10:19; and particularly tithes, though it is said (n),"What is doubtful of tithing (whether it has been tithed or no) might be eaten by a mourner;''and a man was reckoned such an one until his dead was buried.”
1 more voice on this verse
Deuteronomy 26:14
“I have not - given aught thereof for the dead - That is, I have not consecrated any of it to an idol which was generally a dead man whom superstition and ignorance had deified. From 1Co 10:27, 1Co 10:28, we learn that it was customary to offer that flesh to idols which was afterwards sold publicly in the shambles; probably the blood was poured out before the idol in imitation of the sacrifices offered to the true God. Perhaps the text here alludes to a similar custom.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Henry marks the LORD looking down from heaven as a condescension toward even so great a people as Israel. Wesley notes that the prayer to bless comes only after the vow of obedience in verse 14. Psalm 67:6 joins the land's produce to the same blessing.
Deuteronomy 26:15
“Look down - After that solemn profession of their obedience to God's commands, they are taught to pray for God's blessing whereby they are instructed how vain and ineffectual the prayers of unrighteous or disobedient persons are.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Deuteronomy 26:15
“We must learn hence to be public-spirited in prayer, and to wrestle with God for blessings for the land and nation, our English Israel, and for the universal church, which we are directed to have an eye to in our prayers, as the Israel of God, Gal. vi. In this prayer we are taught, 1.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
His own people, set high above the nations
Deuteronomy 26:16-17
Barnes marks verse 16 as the close of the second and longest discourse, so the laws end where they began, on “this day”. Keeping them “with all your heart and with all your soul” takes back the words of 6:5 without the third term, strength. Barnes notes that the verb of verse 17 means caused to say, so Israel has given God occasion to say that he is their God.
Israel first said this at Sinai, at Exodus 24:7. Henry notes that the people renew it here and again at 29:1, and Barnes sets beside it Joshua 24:14-25, where the next generation made the same choice at Shechem.
Deuteronomy 26:17
“Thou hast avouched the Lord this day to be thy God,.... Said, affirmed, protested, and in the most solemn manner declared, that the Lord was their God, and him only; and that they would have no other God, nor worship, serve, or obey any other.”
1 more voice on this verse
Deuteronomy 26:17
“Thou hast avouched the Lord - The people avouch - publicly declare, that they have taken Jehovah to be their God.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Deuteronomy 26:18-19
With verse 17 they give the covenant formula: the people have said the LORD is their God, and the LORD has said this people is his. The phrase “treasured possession” renders segullah, a king's property, used of Israel at Exodus 19:5 and Malachi 3:17 and of the church at Titus 2:14 and 1 Peter 2:9. The promise of praise, name and honor returns at 28:1, and holiness is its purpose.
Deuteronomy 26:18
“These are evidently symbolic—hands, of action; heart, of deliberation; mouth, of speech. There is an excellent text on the subject of the penitent: "You have chosen God today to be your God, and the Lord has chosen you today to be his people." God makes his own the person who is eager to serve truth and reality and comes as a suppliant. Even if he is only one in number, he is honored on equal terms with the whole people. He is a part of the people.”
Clement of Alexandria · written before 215 · The Stromata Book 2patristic
Henry takes the three terms one by one: praise is God's approval, as at Romans 2:29, name is its lasting, and honour is wealth and power above the neighbouring nations. Jeremiah 13:11 returns to these terms when the LORD says He bound Israel to Himself for renown, praise and glory. Jeremiah's next words record Israel's refusal.
Deuteronomy 26:19
“Make thee high above all nations - It is written, Righteousness exalteth a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people, Pro 14:34. While Israel regarded God’s word and kept his testimonies, they were the greatest and most respectable of all nations; but when they forsook God and his law, they became the most contemptible. O Britain, even more highly favored than ancient Israel! learn wisdom by what they have suffered. It is not thy fleets nor thine armies, howsoever excellent and well appointed, that can ultimately exalt and secure thy permanence among the nations. It is righteousness alone.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
How this psalm is built
The form: Two liturgical acts set at the end of the whole legislation, inside the stipulations of a covenant treaty, as Barnes classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| The worshipper says the words himself | Two spoken formulas stand in this chapter and the man bringing the produce speaks both of them, rather than having the priest speak for him. What he professes at verse 3 is that an oath sworn to the fathers has been kept inside his own lifetime.Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament, on Deuteronomy 26:3-4. | Deuteronomy 26:3, Deuteronomy 26:5, Deuteronomy 26:13 |
| My father, then us | The confession opens in the third person about one ancestor at verse 5 and moves into the first person plural at verse 6, where it stays. A farmer born in the land says that the Egyptians afflicted us, so the speaker is placed inside a history he did not live through.John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament, 1748 to 1763, on Deuteronomy 26:6. | Deuteronomy 26:5, Deuteronomy 26:6 |
| Each side declares the other its own | Verse 17 states the covenant from the human side and verses 18 and 19 state it from God's, so the two together are the formula whole. The people have said the LORD is their God, and the LORD has said this people is His.Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch, on Deuteronomy 26:18-19. | Deuteronomy 26:17, Deuteronomy 26:18 |
| This day, closing what this day opened | Albert Barnes marks verse 16 as the close of the second and longest discourse of the book, and the verse turns on the phrase this day, which Deuteronomy uses seventy times. The stipulations therefore end on the words they were framed with.Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament, on Deuteronomy 26:16-17. | Deuteronomy 26:16, Deuteronomy 26:17, Deuteronomy 26:18 |
The place the LORD will choose, for the last time
11 more paragraphs on the patterns
The phrase falls here for the fifteenth and last time in this book, and the statutes close without the place ever being named. 2 Samuel 24 and 1 Kings 8:16 are where the naming happens.
The witnesses to the text at verse 2
The Samaritan Pentateuch reads the phrase as a place already chosen and puts it at Gerizim, where the Masoretic Text leaves the place unnamed here and names Ebal at 27:4. This site's dossier carries the Samaritan Pentateuch among its manuscript witnesses and records that its distinctive addition after the Decalogue commands an altar on Mount Gerizim. The dispute is the one the woman raises at John 4:20, asking which mountain is the place to worship.
The New Testament's use
The treasured people of verse 18 renders the Hebrew segullah, the treasured property of a king. It is used of Israel first at Exodus 19:5, carried on at Malachi 3:17, and taken up of the church at Titus 2:14 and 1 Peter 2:9.
Being set high above all nations in praise and name and honour is the promise 28:1 repeats at the head of the blessings, and holiness is stated here as the purpose the whole arrangement serves.
The debated point: how many tithes Israel paid
How many tithes Israel actually paid is an old dispute and this page states no verdict. Adam Clarke reads one tithe diverted to the poor every third year. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read a second tithe distinct from the Levites' portion of Numbers 18:21. Josephus in the Antiquities counts three.
The third denial at verse 14 is also read two ways. Adam Clarke reads the clause about giving any of it for the dead as food devoted to an idol, which was often a dead man raised to a god. John Gill and John Wesley keep the clause inside Israelite mourning practice, where holy things were not handled by a man with a corpse in his house.
What the confession became
The Passover Haggadah takes verse 5 as the text it expounds clause by clause, so a farmer's confession became the shape of the seder's telling.
Keep studying
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Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The form and classifications
Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament, on Deuteronomy 26:1-15; Meredith G. Kline, Treaty of the Great King: The Covenant Structure of Deuteronomy, 1963; Moshe Weinfeld, Deuteronomy and the Deuteronomic School, 1972 and This site's published guide to Deuteronomy, src/components/book/guides/deuteronomy/DeuteronomyGuide.tsx, the section "The Second Address: the Law Restated" at 4:44 to 26:19.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.