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Upon this the priest would take the basket and set it down before the altar, and the
offerer then would solemnly say before YEHOVAH God, (Deuteronomy 26:5-10):

"A Syrian ready to perish was my father, and he went down into Egypt, and
sojourned there, few in number; and he became there a nation, great, mighty, and
populous: and the Egyptians evil entreated us, and afflicted us, and laid upon us
hard bondage: and we cried unto the Lord, the God of our fathers, and the Lord
heard our voice, and saw our affliction, and our toil, and our oppression: and the
Lord brought us forth out of Egypt with a mighty hand, and with an outstretched
arm, and with great terribleness, and with signs, and with wonders: and He hath
brought us into this place, and hath given us this land, a land flowing with milk
and honey. And now, behold, I have brought the first of the fruit of the ground,
which Thou, O Lord, hast given me."

The first fruits thus dedicated, the offerer would worship before YEHOVAH, in
gratitude and acknowledgment of all the good given to him, his family, the Levite, and
the stranger, (Deuteronomy 26:2-11).

This beautiful form was provided for yearly use, whilst every third year,a third
tenth having been set apart for the local poor, our pious Israelite would solemnly declare
before YEHOVAH:

"I have put away the hallowed things out of mine house, and also have given them
unto the Levite, and unto the stranger, to the fatherless, and to the widow,
according to all Thy commandment which Thou hast commanded me: I have not
transgressed any of Thy commandments, neither have I forgotten them: I have not
eaten thereof in my mourning, neither have I put away thereof, being unclean, nor
given thereof for the dead: I have hearkened to the voice of the Lord my God, I
have done according to all that Thou hast commanded me. Look down from Thy
holy habitation, from heaven, and bless Thy people Israel, and the ground which
Thou hast given us, as Thou swearest unto our fathers, a land flowing with milk
and honey," (Deuteronomy 26:13-15).

Having now collected various pieces of information concerning Mosaic tithes and
offerings, we will do well to notice the nature of the evidence thus brought together.
Professor Driver, in his Commentary on Deuteronomy (p. 172), would have us to believe
that "the data at our disposal do not enable us to write a history of the Hebrew tithe." But
this is not sufficient reason why we should not make the most of the information we
have, remembering, however, that the evidence is not primary, direct, and complete, so
much as subsidiary, indirect, and fragmentary.

We have not, for instance, throughout the Pentateuch so much as a single chapter
-- or even a long paragraph -- dealing with tithe as a whole. We have had to collect our
information mainly from three short passages in Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy --
these passages being there introduced not so much for their own sakes as for their bearing
upon other things.