Deuteronomy 18
18
Provision for Priests and Levites
1“The Levitical priests, all the tribe of Levi, #See Num. 18:20 shall have no portion or inheritance with Israel. They #Num. 18:8, 9; Josh. 13:14; 1 Sam. 2:28; [1 Cor. 9:13]shall eat the Lord’s food offerings#18:1 Or the offerings by fire to the Lord as their#18:1 Hebrew his inheritance. 2They shall have no inheritance among their brothers; the Lord is their inheritance, as he promised them. 3And this shall be the priests’ due from the people, from those offering a sacrifice, whether an ox or a sheep: #See Lev. 7:30-34they shall give to the priest the shoulder and the two cheeks and the stomach. 4#Num. 18:12; 2 Chr. 31:5The firstfruits of your grain, of your wine and of your oil, and the first fleece of your sheep, you shall give him. 5For the Lord your God has chosen him out of all your tribes #ch. 17:12to stand and minister in the name of the Lord, him and his sons for all time.
6“And if a Levite comes from any of your towns out of all Israel, #Num. 35:2, 3; Judg. 17:7; 19:1 where he lives—and he may come when he desires#18:6 Or lives—if he comes enthusiastically—#See ch. 12:5to the place that the Lord will choose, 7and ministers in the name of the Lord his God, #[1 Chr. 23:6; 2 Chr. 31:2]like all his fellow Levites who stand to minister there before the Lord, 8then he may have equal #2 Chr. 31:4; Neh. 12:44, 47; 13:10portions to eat, besides what he receives from the sale of his patrimony.#18:8 The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain
Abominable Practices
9“When you come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you, #ch. 12:29-31; See Lev. 18:26-30you shall not learn to follow the abominable practices of those nations. 10There shall not be found among you anyone #See Lev. 18:21 who burns his son or his daughter as an offering,#18:10 Hebrew makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire anyone who #2 Kgs. 17:17 practices divination or #See Lev. 19:26 tells fortunes or interprets omens, or #[Ex. 22:18]a sorcerer 11or a charmer or #See Lev. 19:31 a medium or a necromancer or #[1 Sam. 28:7]one who inquires of the dead, 12#ch. 22:5; 25:16 for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord. And #See ch. 9:4because of these abominations the Lord your God is driving them out before you. 13You shall be blameless before the Lord your God, 14for these nations, which you are about to dispossess, listen to fortune-tellers and to diviners. But as for you, the Lord your God has not allowed you to do this.
A New Prophet like Moses
15 #
John 1:21, 25, 45; Cited Acts 3:22; 7:37 “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen— 16just as you desired of the Lord your God at Horeb #See ch. 9:10 on the day of the assembly, when you said, #See Ex. 20:19‘Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God or see this great fire any more, lest I die.’ 17And the Lord said to me, #ch. 5:28‘They are right in what they have spoken. 18#[See ver. 15 above] I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. #Jer. 1:9; 5:14; [John 17:8] And I will put my words in his mouth, and #[John 4:25; 8:28; 12:49, 50]he shall speak to them all that I command him. 19#[Acts 3:23] And whoever will #Jer. 29:19; 35:13not listen to my words that he shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of him. 20#See ch. 13:5But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name that I have not commanded him to speak, or#18:20 Or and who speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die.’ 21And if you say in your heart, ‘How may we know the word that the Lord has not spoken?’— 22#[ch. 13:1-3; Jer. 28:9] when a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that the Lord has not spoken; #[See ver. 20 above]the prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You need not be afraid of him.
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The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.
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Deuteronomy 18
18
Supporting the Priests and Levites
1“The tribe of Levi will not get any share of land in Israel. The priests come from that tribe and they will eat the special sacrifices that are offered as gifts to the Lord. That is the share for the people from the tribe of Levi. 2The tribe of Levi will not get any share of land like the other tribes. Their share is the Lord himself, as he said to them.
3“When you kill one of your sheep or cattle for a sacrifice, you must give the priests these parts: the shoulder, both cheeks, and the stomach. 4You must give the priests the first part of your harvest. You must give them the first part of your grain, your new wine, and your oil. You must give the Levites the first wool cut from your sheep. 5This is because the Lord your God looked at all your tribes and chose Levi and his descendants to serve him as priests forever.
6“Any Levite living in any town anywhere in Israel may leave his home and come to the Lord’s special place. He may do this anytime he wants. 7And this Levite may serve in the name of the Lord his God, the same as all his brother Levites who are on duty before the Lord. 8And that Levite will get an equal share with the other Levites, in addition to the share his family normally gets.#18:8 in addition … gets Or “without regard to gifts from family and friends.”
Israel Must Not Live Like Other Nations
9“When you come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you, don’t learn to do the terrible things the people of the other nations there do. 10Don’t sacrifice your sons or daughters in the fires on your altars. Don’t try to learn what will happen in the future by talking to a fortuneteller or by going to a magician, a witch, or a sorcerer. 11Don’t let anyone try to put magic spells on other people. Don’t let any of your people become a medium or a wizard. And no one should try to talk with someone who has died. 12The Lord hates anyone who does these things. And because these other nations do these terrible things, the Lord your God will force them out of the land as you enter it. 13You must be faithful to the Lord your God, never doing anything he considers wrong.
The Lord’s Special Prophet
14“You will force the other nations out of your land. They listen to people who use magic and try to tell the future. But the Lord your God will not let you do these things. 15The Lord your God will send to you a prophet. This prophet will come from among your own people, and he will be like me. You must listen to him. 16God will send you this prophet because that is what you asked him to do. When you were gathered together at Mount Horeb, you became frightened and said, ‘Don’t let us hear the voice of the Lord our God again! Don’t let us see that great fire or we will die!’
17“The Lord said to me, ‘What they ask for is good. 18I will send them a prophet like you. This prophet will be one of their own people. I will tell him what he must say, and he will tell the people everything I command. 19This prophet will speak for me, and I will punish anyone who refuses to listen to my commands.’
How to Know False Prophets
20“But a prophet might say something that I did not tell him to say. And he might tell people that he is speaking for me. If this happens, that prophet must be killed. Also a prophet might come that speaks for other gods. That prophet must also be killed. 21You might be thinking, ‘How can we know if something a prophet says is not from the Lord?’ 22If a prophet says he is speaking for the Lord, but what he says does not happen, you will know that the Lord did not say it. You will know that this prophet was speaking his own ideas. You don’t need to be afraid of him.
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