¹⁰You must never sacrifice your sons or daughters by burning them alive, practice black magic, be a fortuneteller, witch, or sorcerer, ¹¹cast spells, ask ghosts or spirits for help, or consult the dead. ¹²Whoever does these things is disgusting to the Lord. The Lord your God is forcing these nations out of your way because of their disgusting practices. ¹³You must have integrity ⸤in dealing⸥ with the Lord your God. ¹⁴These nations you are forcing out listen to fortunetellers and to those who practice black magic. But the Lord your God won’t let you do anything like that.

¹⁵The Lord your God will send you a prophet, an Israelite like me. You must listen to him. ¹⁶This is what you asked the Lord your God to give you on the day of the assembly at Mount Horeb. You said, “We never want to hear the voice of the Lord our God or see this raging fire again. If we do, we’ll die!”

¹⁷The Lord told me, “What they’ve said is good. ¹⁸So I will send them a prophet, an Israelite like you. I will put my words in his mouth. He will tell them everything I command him. ¹⁹Whoever refuses to listen to the words that prophet speaks in my name will answer to me. ²⁰But any prophet who dares to say something in my name that I didn’t command him to say or who speaks in the name of other gods must die.”

²¹You may be wondering, “How can we recognize that the Lord didn’t speak this message?” ²²If a prophet speaks in the Lord’s name and what he says doesn’t happen or come true, then it didn’t come from the Lord. That prophet has spoken on his own authority. Never be afraid of him.

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