Deuteronomy 18

The Portion of the Priests and Levites

18“The priests, the Levites—all the tribe of Levi—shall have ¹no part nor ^ainheritance with Israel; they shall eat the offerings of the Lord made by fire, and His portion. ²Therefore they shall have no inheritance among their brethren; the Lord is their inheritance, as He said to them.

³“And this shall be the priest’s ^bdue ²from the people, from those who offer a sacrifice, whether it is bull or sheep: they shall give to the priest the shoulder, the cheeks, and the stomach. ^4cThe firstfruits of your grain and your new wine and your oil, and the first of the fleece of your sheep, you shall give him. ⁵For ^dthe Lord your God has chosen him out of all your tribes ^eto stand to minister in the name of the Lord, him and his sons forever.

⁶“So if a Levite comes from any of your ³gates, from where he ^fdwells among all Israel, and comes with all the desire of his mind ^gto the place which the Lord chooses, ⁷then he may serve in the name of the Lord his God ^has all his brethren the Levites do, who stand there before the Lord. ⁸They shall have equal ⁱportions to eat, besides what comes from the sale of his inheritance.

Avoid Wicked Customs

⁹“When you come into the land which the Lord your God is giving you, ^jyou shall not learn to follow the ⁴abominations of those nations. ¹⁰There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter ^kpass ⁵through the fire, ^lor one who practices witchcraft, or a soothsayer, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, ^11mor one who conjures spells, or a medium, or a spiritist, or ⁿone who calls up the dead. ¹²For all who do these things are ⁶an abomination to the Lord, and ^obecause of these abominations the Lord your God drives them out from before you. ¹³You shall be ⁷blameless before the Lord your God. ¹⁴For these nations which you will dispossess listened to soothsayers and diviners; but as for you, the Lord your God has not ⁸appointed such for you.

A New Prophet Like Moses

^15p“The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your midst, from your brethren. Him you shall hear, ¹⁶according to all you desired of the Lord your God in Horeb ^qin the day of the assembly, saying, ^r‘Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God, nor let me see this great fire anymore, lest I die.’

¹⁷“And the Lord said to me: ^s‘What they have spoken is good. ^18tI will raise up for them a Prophet like you from among their brethren, and ^uwill put My words in His mouth, ^vand He shall speak to them all that I command Him. ^19wAnd it shall be that whoever will not hear My words, which He speaks in My name, I will require it of him. ²⁰But ^xthe prophet who presumes to speak a word in My name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or ^ywho speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die.’ ²¹And if you say in your heart, ‘How shall we know the word which the Lord has not spoken?’—^22zwhen a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, ^aif the thing does not happen or come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it ^bpresumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him.