Deuteronomy 14:22-2

Of Tithes

A tithe shall be taken of all the yearly produce of what is sown in the field, further defined as corn, wine and oil, and carried to the Sanctuary and eaten before God by the offerers along with the firstlings of oxen and sheep (Deuteronomy 14:22 f.); but Israelites who dwell too far from the Sanctuary for this may turn their tithes into money, purchase at the Temple whatever they desire, and feast before God along with their households and Levites (Deuteronomy 14:24-27). Every third year, however, they are to retain all the tithe within their gates for the Levites and other landless poor to consume (Deuteronomy 14:28 f.). In the Sg. address throughout, like the third form of the law of the Single Sanctuary, Deuteronomy 12:13 ff., with which also it has in common some phrases and ideas not found in the Pl. form of that law: the definition of the tithe, corn, wine and oil; thou shalt not forsake the Levite(unless this be an addition, see on Deuteronomy 14:27); the wide permission to eat whatsoever thy soul desireth = after all the desire of thy soul, Deuteronomy 12:20 f.; another qualification of the law, in order to meet the needs of those at a distance, with the identical phrase because the place is too far from thee whichetc., Deuteronomy 12:21 (Steuernagel's statement that the phrases eat before Jehovah, eat and be satisfied, etc., are also peculiar to the Sg. is very doubtful).

There is no law of tithes (so-called) in E or J; those in P, Numbers 18:21-32 (with the corresponding practice, Nehemiah 10:37 f.) and Leviticus 27:30 f., fundamentally differ from D's law of tithes. On this and the questions it raises and their solution in the later law of Israel, see Additional Note below.