Deuteronomy 18
18
Priests and Levites
1Neither the levitical priests nor any Levite tribe member will have a designated inheritance in Israel. They can eat the sacrifices offered to the LORD, which are the LORD’s portion,#18.1 Heb uncertain 2but they won’t share an inheritance with their fellow Israelites. The LORD alone is the Levites’ inheritance—just as God promised them.
3Now this is what the priests may keep from the people’s sacrifices of oxen or sheep: They must give the priest the shoulder, the jaws, and the stomach. 4You must also give the priest the first portions of your grain, wine, and oil, and the first of your sheep’s shearing 5because the LORD your God selected Levi from all of your tribes to stand and minister in the LORD’s name—both him and his descendants for all time.
6Now if a Levite leaves one of your cities or departs from any location in Israel where he’s been living and, because he wants to, comes to the location the LORD selects 7and ministers in the LORD his God’s name, just like his relatives—the other Levites serving there in the LORD’s presence— 8he is allowed to eat equal portions, despite the finances he has from his family.#18.8 Heb uncertain
Communicating with God
9Once you enter the land that the LORD your God is giving you, don’t try to imitate the detestable things those nations do. 10There must not be anyone among you who passes his son or daughter through fire; who practices divination, is a sign reader, fortune-teller, sorcerer, 11or spell caster; who converses with ghosts or spirits or communicates with the dead. 12All who do these things are detestable to the LORD! It is on account of these detestable practices that the LORD your God is driving these nations#18.12 Or them out before you.
13Instead, you must be perfect before the LORD your God. 14These nations you are displacing listened to sign readers and diviners, but the LORD your God doesn’t permit you to do the same! 15The LORD your God will raise up a prophet like me from your community, from your fellow Israelites. He’s the one you must listen to. 16That’s exactly what you requested from the LORD your God at Horeb, on the day of the assembly, when you said, “I can’t listen to the LORD my God’s voice anymore or look at this great fire any longer. I don’t want to die!”
17The LORD said to me: What they’ve said is right. 18I’ll raise up a prophet for them from among their fellow Israelites—one just like you. I’ll put my words in his mouth, and he will tell them everything I command him. 19I myself will hold accountable anyone who doesn’t listen to my words, which that prophet will speak in my name. 20However, any prophet who arrogantly speaks a word in my name that I haven’t commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods—that prophet must die.
21Now, you might be wondering, How will we know which word God hasn’t spoken? 22Here’s the answer: The prophet who speaks in the LORD’s name and the thing doesn’t happen or come about—that’s the word the LORD hasn’t spoken. That prophet spoke arrogantly. Don’t be afraid of him.#18.22 Or bothered by it (the prophecy)
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Deuteronomy 18: CEB
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2011 Common English Bible. All rights reserved.
Deḇarim (Deuteronomy) 18
18
1“The priests, the Lĕwites, all the tribe of Lĕwi, have no part nor inheritance with Yisra’ĕl. They are to eat the offerings of יהוה made by fire, and His inheritance.
2But among his brothers Lĕwi has no inheritance. יהוה is his inheritance, as He has spoken to him.
3“And this is the priest’s right from the people, from those who slaughter a slaughtering, whether it is bull or sheep: they shall give to the priest the shoulder, and the two cheeks, and the stomach;
4the first-fruits of your grain and your new wine and your oil, and the first of the fleece of your sheep, you give to him.
5“For יהוה your Elohim has chosen him out of all your tribes to stand to serve in the Name of יהוה, him and his sons forever.
6“And when the Lĕwite comes from one of your gates, from where he has sojourned among all Yisra’ĕl, and shall come with all the desire of his being to the place which יהוה chooses,
7then he shall serve in the Name of יהוה his Elohim, like all his brothers the Lĕwites, who are standing there before יהוה.
8“They are to have portion for portion to eat, besides what comes from the sale of his inheritance.
9When you come into the land which יהוה your Elohim is giving you, do not learn to do according to the abominations of those nations.#See footnote at Deu. 12:30
10“Let no one be found among you who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, or one who practises divination, or a user of magic, or one who interprets omens or a sorcerer,
11or one who conjures spells, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead.
12“For whoever does these is an abomination to יהוה, and because of these abominations יהוה your Elohim drives them out from before you.
13“Be perfect before יהוה your Elohim,
14for these nations whom you are possessing do listen to those using magic and to diviners. But as for you, יהוה your Elohim has not appointed such for you.
15יהוה your Elohim shall raise up for you a Prophet#See footnote at Deu. 18:18 like me from your midst, from your brothers. Listen to Him,
16according to all you asked of יהוה your Elohim in Ḥorĕḇ in the day of the assembly, saying, ‘Let me not hear again the voice of יהוה my Elohim, nor let me see this great fire any more, lest I die.’
17“And יהוה said to me, ‘What they have spoken is good.
18I shall raise up for them a Prophet#See also Acts 3:22-26; Acts 7:37 like you out of the midst of their brothers. And I shall put My Words in His mouth, and He shall speak to them all that I command Him.
19And it shall be, the man who does not listen to My Words which He speaks in My Name, I require it of him.
20But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in My Name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other mighty ones, even that prophet shall die.’
21“And when you say in your heart, ‘How do we know the word which יהוה has not spoken?’ –
22when the prophet speaks in the Name of יהוה and the word is not, or comes not, that is the word which יהוה has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously. Do not be afraid of him.
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