Deuteronomy



Chapter 18

Provision for Priests and Levites

   1 The Levitical priests - indeed, the entire tribe of Levi - will have no allotment or inheritance with Israel; they may eat the burnt offerings of the LORD and of his inheritance. 2 They will have no inheritance in the midst of their fellow Israelites; the LORD alone is their inheritance, just as he had told them. 3 This shall be the priests' fair allotment from the people who offer sacrifices, whether bull or sheep - they must give to the priest the shoulder, the jowls, and the stomach. 4 You must give them the best of your grain, new wine, and olive oil, as well as the best of your wool when you shear your flocks. 5 For the LORD your God has chosen them and their sons from all your tribes to stand and serve in his name permanently. 6 Suppose a Levite comes by his own free will from one of your villages, from any part of Israel where he is living, to the place the LORD chooses 7 and serves in the name of the LORD his God like his fellow Levites who stand there before the LORD. 8 He must eat the same share they do, despite any profits he may gain from the sale of his family's inheritance.

Provision for Prophetism

   9 When you enter the land the LORD your God is giving you, you must not learn the abhorrent practices of those nations. 10 There must never be found among you anyone who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire, anyone who practices divination, an omen reader, a soothsayer, a sorcerer, 11 one who casts spells, one who conjures up spirits, a practitioner of the occult, or a necromancer. 12 Whoever does these things is abhorrent to the LORD and because of these detestable things the LORD your God is about to drive them out from before you. 13 You must be blameless before the LORD your God. 14 Those nations that you are about to dispossess listen to omen readers and diviners, but the LORD your God has not given you permission to do such things.
   15 The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you - from your fellow Israelites; you must listen to him. 16 This accords with what happened at Horeb in the day of the assembly. You asked the LORD your God: "Please do not make us hear the voice of the LORD our God any more or see this great fire any more lest we die." 17 The LORD then said to me, "What they have said is good. 18 I will raise up a prophet like you for them from among their fellow Israelites. I will put my words in his mouth and he will speak to them whatever I command. 19 I will personally hold responsible anyone who then pays no attention to the words that prophet speaks in my name.
   20 "But if any prophet presumes to speak anything in my name that I have not authorized him to speak, or speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet must die. 21 Now if you say to yourselves, 'How can we tell that a message is not from the LORD?' - 22 whenever a prophet speaks in my name and the prediction is not fulfilled, then I have not spoken it; the prophet has presumed to speak it, so you need not fear him."