Deuteronomy 18

The Portion of the Priests and Levites

1“The Levitical priests, all the tribe of Levi, shall have no portion or inheritance with Israel. They shall eat the offerings by fire to the LORD and his inheritance. 2They shall have no inheritance among their brothers. The LORD is their inheritance, as he spoke to them. 3And this shall be the priest’s due from the people, from those who sacrifice an ox or sheep: they shall give the priest the shoulder, the two cheeks, and the stomach. 4The first of your grain, your new wine, and your oil, and the first fleece of your sheep, you shall give him. 5For the LORD your God has chosen him and his sons from all your tribes to stand and minister in the name of the LORD all the days.

The Levite Who Comes to the Chosen Place

6“And if a Levite comes from one of your gates, from anywhere in Israel where he sojourns, and comes with all the desire of his life to the place that the LORD will choose, 7then he may minister in the name of the LORD his God like all his brothers the Levites who stand there before the LORD. 8They shall eat equal portions, besides what he receives from the sale of his ancestral property.

Do Not Learn the Detestable Practices of the Nations

9“When you enter the land that the LORD your God is giving you, you shall not learn to do according to the detestable practices of those nations. 10There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or daughter pass through the fire, one who practices divination, an omen-reader, a fortune-teller, a sorcerer, 11one who casts spells, one who consults a medium or a spiritist, or one who inquires of the dead. 12For everyone who does these things is detestable to the LORD, and because of these detestable things the LORD your God is dispossessing them before you. 13You shall be blameless with the LORD your God. 14For these nations whom you are dispossessing listen to fortune-tellers and diviners, but as for you, the LORD your God has not permitted you to do so.

A Prophet Like Moses

15“The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your midst, from your brothers. To him you shall listen, 16according to all that you asked from the LORD your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly, saying, ‘Let me not continue to hear the voice of the LORD my God or see this great fire any more, lest I die.’ 17Then the LORD said to me, ‘What they have spoken is good. 18I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him. 19And it will be that whoever does not listen to my words that he speaks in my name, I myself will require it from him. 20But the prophet who acts presumptuously and speaks a word in my name that I did not command him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die.’

How to Recognize a False Word

21“And if you say in your heart, ‘How shall we know the word that the LORD has not spoken?’ 22when a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD and the thing does not happen or come to pass, that is a word the LORD has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You shall not fear him.