Deuteronomy 18

CHAPTER 18

The Portion of the Levites

¹“^aThe Levitical priests, the whole tribe of Levi, shall have no portion or inheritance with Israel; they shall eat of the offerings to Yahweh by fire and of His inheritance.

²“^aAnd they shall have no inheritance among their brothers; Yahweh is their inheritance, as He ¹promised them.

³“^aNow this shall be the legal judgment for the priests taken from the people, from those who offer a sacrifice, either an ox or a sheep: they shall give to the priest the shoulder and the two cheeks and the stomach.

⁴“You shall give him the ^afirst fruits of your grain, your new wine and your oil and the first shearing of your sheep.

⁵“^aFor Yahweh your God has chosen him and his sons from all your tribes, to ^bstand to minister in the name of Yahweh all the days.

⁶“Now if a Levite comes from any of your gates of the towns throughout Israel where he ^asojourns and comes ¹whenever he desires to the place which Yahweh chooses,

⁷then he shall minister in the name of Yahweh his God like all his brothers the Levites who stand there before Yahweh.

⁸“^aThey shall eat ¹equal portions, except what they receive from the sale of their fathers’ estates.

Do Not Imitate Abominations

⁹“When you enter the land which Yahweh your God gives you, you shall not learn to ^1aimitate the abominations of those nations.

¹⁰“There shall not be found among you anyone ^awho makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, one who uses divination, one ^bwho practices soothsaying or one who interprets omens or a sorcerer,

¹¹or one who is an enchanter ^aor a medium or a spiritist or one who inquires of the dead.

¹²“For whoever does these things is an abomination to Yahweh; and ^abecause of these abominations Yahweh your God will dispossess them from before you.

¹³“^aYou shall be ¹blameless before Yahweh your God.

¹⁴“For those nations, which you shall dispossess, listen to those who ^apractice soothsaying and to diviners, but as for you, Yahweh your God has not allowed you to do so.

Yahweh Will Raise up a Prophet

¹⁵“^aYahweh your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers; you shall listen to him.

¹⁶“This is ^aaccording to all that you asked of Yahweh your God in Horeb on the day of the assembly, saying, ‘Let me not hear again the voice of Yahweh my God; let me not see this great fire anymore, or I will die.’

¹⁷“^aAnd Yahweh said to me, ‘They have ¹spoken well.

¹⁸‘I will raise up a prophet from among their brothers like you, and ^aI will put My words in his mouth, and ^bhe shall speak to them all that I command him.

¹⁹‘^aAnd it will be that whoever will not listen to My words which he shall speak in My name, I Myself will require it of him.

²⁰‘But the prophet who speaks a word ^apresumptuously in My name which I have not commanded him to speak, or ^bwhich he speaks in the name of other gods, ¹that prophet shall die.’

²¹“Now ¹you may say in your heart, ‘How will we know the word which Yahweh has not spoken?’

²²“^aWhen a prophet speaks in the name of Yahweh, if the thing does not come about or come true, that is the thing which Yahweh has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it ^bpresumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him.