Deuteronomy 18

1 “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.

The priests, the Levites, that is, all the tribe of Levi, will have no part or heritage with Israel: their food and their heritage will be the offerings of the Lord made by fire.

2 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.

And they will have no heritage among their countrymen: the Lord is their heritage, as he has said to them.

3 “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.

And this is to be the priests' right: those who make an offering of a sheep or an ox are to give to the priest the top part of the leg and the two sides of the head and the stomach.

4 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.

And in addition you are to give him the first of your grain and wine and oil, and the first wool cut from your sheep.

5 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.

For he, and his sons after him for ever, have been marked out by the Lord your God from all your tribes, to do the work of priests in the name of the Lord.

6 “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],

And if a Levite, moved by a strong desire, comes from any town in all Israel where he is living to the place marked out by the Lord;

7 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.

Then he will do the work of a priest in the name of the Lord his God, with all his brothers the Levites who are there before the Lord.

8 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.

His food will be the same as theirs, in addition to what has come to him as the price of his property.

9 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.

When you have come into the land which the Lord your God is giving you, do not take as your example the disgusting ways of those nations.

10 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).

Let there not be seen among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter go through the fire, or anyone using secret arts, or a maker of strange sounds, or a reader of signs, or any wonder-worker,

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

Or anyone using secret force on people, or putting questions to a spirit, or having secret knowledge, or going to the dead for directions.

12 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.

For all who do such things are disgusting to the Lord; and because of these disgusting things the Lord your God is driving them out before you.

13 But you must always avoid doing any of those things.

You are to be upright in heart before the Lord your God.

14 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.

For these nations, whose land you are taking, give attention to readers of signs and to those using secret arts: but the Lord your God will not let you do so.

15 [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.

The Lord your God will give you a prophet from among your people, like me; you will give ear to him;

16 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].

In answer to the request you made to the Lord your God in Horeb on the day of the great meeting, when you said, Let not the voice of the Lord my God come to my ears again, and let me not see this great fire any more, or death will overtake me.

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

Then the Lord said to me, What they have said is well said.

18 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.

I will give them a prophet from among themselves, like you, and I will put my words in his mouth, and he will say to them whatever I give him orders to say.

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

And whoever does not give ear to my words which he will say in my name, will be responsible to me.

20 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].’

But the prophet who takes it on himself to say words in my name which I have not given him orders to say, or who says anything in the name of other gods, will come to his death.

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

And if you say in your hearts, How are we to be certain that the word does not come from the Lord?

22 [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].”

When a prophet makes a statement in the name of the Lord, if what he says does not take place and his words do not come true, then his word is not the word of the Lord: the words of the prophet were said in the pride of his heart, and you are to have no fear of him.