Deuteronomy 18

Offerings for Priests and Levites

The Levitical^a priests—indeed, the whole tribe of Levi—are to have no allotment or inheritance with Israel. They shall live on the food offerings^b presented to the Lord, for that is their inheritance.^c They shall have no inheritance among their fellow Israelites; the Lord is their inheritance,^d as he promised them.^e

This is the share due the priests^f from the people who sacrifice a bull^g or a sheep: the shoulder, the jowls and the internal organs.^h You are to give them the firstfruits of your grain, new wine and olive oil, and the first wool from the shearing of your sheep,ⁱ for the Lord your God has chosen them^j and their descendants out of all your tribes to stand and minister^k in the Lord’s name always.^l

If a Levite moves from one of your towns anywhere in Israel where he is living, and comes in all earnestness to the place the Lord will choose,^m he may minister in the nameⁿ of the Lord his God like all other Levites who serve there in the presence of the Lord. He is to share equally in their benefits, even though he has received money from the sale of family possessions.^o

Occult Practices

When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you, do not learn to imitate^a the detestable ways^b of the nations there. Let no one be found among you who sacrifices their son or daughter in the fire,^c who practices divination^d or sorcery,^e interprets omens, engages in witchcraft,^f or casts spells,^g or who is a medium or spiritist^h or who consults the dead. Anyone who does these things is detestable to the Lord, and because of these detestable practices the Lord your God will drive out those nations before you.ⁱ You must be blameless^j before the Lord your God.^k

The Prophet

The nations you will dispossess listen to those who practice sorcery or divination.^a But as for you, the Lord your God has not permitted you to do so. The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your own people.^b You must listen to him. For this is what you asked of the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly when you said, “Let us not hear the voice of the Lord our God nor see this great fire anymore, or we will die.”^c

The Lord said to me: “What they say is good. I will raise up for them a prophet^d like you from among their people, and I will put my words^e in his mouth.^f He will tell them everything I command him.^g I myself will call to account^h anyone who does not listenⁱ to my words that the prophet speaks in my name.^j But a prophet who presumes to speak in my name anything I have not commanded, or a prophet who speaks in the name of other gods,^k is to be put to death.”^l

You may say to yourselves, “How can we know when a message has not been spoken by the Lord?” If what a prophet proclaims in the name of the Lord does not take place or come true,^m that is a message the Lord has not spoken.ⁿ That prophet has spoken presumptuously.^o No one should be alarmed.