Deuteronomy 18

1 The priests, the Levites, even the whole tribe of Levi, shall have no part nor inheritance with Israel; the burnt offerings of the Lord [are] their inheritance, they shall eat them.

“The priests, who are all from the tribe of Levi, will not receive any land in Israel. Instead, they will receive some of the food that other people offer to be burned [on the altar to be sacrificed] to Yahweh and some of the other sacrifices that will be offered to Yahweh.

2 And they shall have no inheritance amongst their brethren; the Lord himself [is] his portion, as he said to him.

They will not be allotted any land like the other tribes will be. What they will receive is the work/privilege of being Yahweh’s [priests], which is what he said that they should have.

3 And this [is] the due of the priests in the things coming from the people from those who offer sacrifices, whether it be a calf or a sheep; and you shall give the shoulder to the priest, and the cheeks, and the great intestine:

“When the people bring an ox or a sheep to be sacrificed, they must give to the priests the shoulder, the cheeks/jaws, and the stomach of those animals.

4 and the first fruits of your corn, and of your wine, and of your oil; and you shall give to him the first fruits of the fleeces of your sheep:

You must also give to them the first part of the grain that you [harvest], and the first part of the wine [that you make], and the first part of the [olive] oil [that you make], and the first part of the wool that you shear from your sheep.

5 because the Lord has chosen him out of all your tribes, to stand before the Lord your God, to minister and bless in his name, himself and his sons amongst the children of Israel.

You must do this because Yahweh our God has chosen the tribe of Levi from all of your tribes, in order that men [from that tribe] would always be the priests who would serve him.

6 And if a Levite come from one of the cities of all the children of Israel, where he himself dwells, accordingly as his mind desires, to the place which he shall have chosen,

“If any man from the tribe of Levi [who has been living] in one of the towns in Israel wants to come from there to the place of worship that Yahweh has chosen, [and start living there],

7 he shall minister to the name of the Lord his God, as all his brethren the Levites, who stand there present before the Lord your God.

he is permitted to serve Yahweh there as a priest, just like the other men from the tribe of Levi who have been serving there.

8 He shall eat an allotted portion, besides the sale of his hereditary property.

He must be given the same amount of food [that the other priests receive]. He is permitted to keep the money [that his relatives give him] for selling some of their possessions.

9 And when you shall have entered into the land which the Lord your God gives you, you shall not learn to do according to the abominations of those nations.

When you enter the land that Yahweh our God is giving you, you must not imitate the disgusting things that the people-groups who are there now do.

10 There shall not be found in you one who purges his son or his daughter with fire, one who uses divination, who deals with omens, and augury,

You must not sacrifice any of your children by burning them [on your altars]. Do not practice (divination/using supernatural power to reveal [what will happen in] the future). Do not do/practice (soothsaying/magic to find out what will happen in the future). Do not (interpret omens/say that because of something that you have seen you know what will happen). Do not practice sorcery/witchcraft. Do not practice (putting spells on people/saying things to cause bad things to happen to others).

11 a sorcerer employing incantation, one who has in him a divining spirit, and observer of signs, questioning the dead.

Do not try to talk with spirits of dead people. Do not do/practice magic.

12 For every one that does these things is an abomination to the Lord your God; for because of these abominations the Lord will destroy them from before your face.

Yahweh hates people who do any of those disgusting things. And as you advance through that land, he is going to expel the people-groups because they do/practice those disgusting things.

13 You shall be perfect before the Lord your God.

But you must always avoid doing any of those things.

14 For all these nations whose [land] you shall inherit, they will listen to omens and divinations; but the Lord your God has not permitted you so [to do].

The people-groups that you are about to expel [from the land that you will occupy] (consult/seek advice from) soothsayers and those who practice divination. But as for you, Yahweh our God does not allow you to do that.

15 The Lord your God shall raise up to you a prophet of your brethren, like me; him shall you hear:

[Some day] he will send from among you a prophet like me. [He is the one who will tell you what will happen in the future], and he is the one whom you must heed.

16 according to all things which you did desire of the Lord your God in Choreb in the day of the assembly, saying, We will not again hear the voice of the Lord your God, and we will not any more see this great fire, and [so] we shall not die.

On the day that your ancestors were gathered at the bottom of Sinai Mountain, they pleaded with me saying, ‘We do not want Yahweh to speak [MTY] to us again, and we do not want to see this huge fire [that is burning on the mountain]!’ [Your ancestors said that because they were afraid] that they would die [if Yahweh spoke to them again].

17 And the Lord said to me, They have spoken rightly all that they have said to you.

Then Yahweh said to me, ‘What they have said is true/wise.

18 I will raise up to them a prophet of their brethren, like you; and I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them as I shall command him.

So I will send from among them a prophet who will be like you. I will tell him what to say, and then he will tell people everything that I tell him to say.

19 And whatever man shall not listen to whatever words that prophet shall speak in my name, I will take vengeance on him.

He will speak for me. And I will punish anyone who does not heed what he says.

20 But the prophet whoever shall impiously speak in my name a word which I have not commanded him to speak, and whoever shall speak in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die.

But if any other [person says that he is a] prophet [and] dares to speak a message which he falsely says comes from me but which I did not tell him to speak, or if anyone who speaks a message that he says other gods [MTY] have revealed to him, he must be executed [for doing that].’

21 But if you shall say in your heart, How shall we know the word which the Lord has not spoken?

But if you say to yourself, ‘How can we know if a message [that someone tells us] does not come from Yahweh?’

22 Whatsoever words that prophet shall speak in the name of the Lord, and they shall not come true, and not come to pass, this [is] the thing which the Lord has not spoken; that prophet has spoken wickedly: you shall not spare him.

[The answer is that] when someone speaks a message [about what will happen in the future], a message that he says was revealed by Yahweh, if what he says does not happen, [you will know that] the message did not come from Yahweh. That person has wrongly claimed that it was revealed to him by Yahweh. So you do not need to be afraid of [anything that] he [says].”