and you are to declare before the LORD your God, "My father was a wandering Aramean, and he went down to Egypt few in number and lived there and became a great nation, mighty and numerous. But the Egyptians mistreated us and afflicted us, putting us to hard labor. So we called out to the LORD, the God of our fathers; and the LORD heard our voice and saw our affliction, toil, and oppression. Then the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with great terror, signs, and wonders. And He brought us to this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. And now, behold, I have brought the firstfruits of the land that You, O LORD, have given me." Then you are to place the basket before the LORD your God and bow down before Him.
Now there was a famine in the land. So Abram went down to Egypt to live there for a while because the famine was severe.
Significance
Genesis 12:10 narrates Abram's descent to Egypt due to famine, initiating a pattern of the patriarchal family going down (יָרַד, yarad) to Egypt under duress. Deuteronomy 26:5 incorporates this narrative into Israel's firstfruits liturgy: "My father was a wandering Aramean, and he went down (וַיֵּרֶד, vayyered) to Egypt few in number." The liturgical confession compresses the entire patriarchal sojourn -- from Abraham's famine-driven descent through Jacob's migration -- into a single confessional statement that each Israelite recites when offering firstfruits. By embedding the Genesis narrative into a prescribed worship formula, Deuteronomy transforms private patriarchal history into corporate liturgical identity: every Israelite who brings firstfruits reenacts and claims the story of descent, oppression, deliverance, and land-gift as their own. The movement from famine in Genesis 12:10 to "a land flowing with milk and honey" in Deuteronomy 26:9 traces God's faithfulness across the entire arc of redemptive history.
