NETfree - Deuteronomy - 18

18:1  The Levitical priests - indeed, the entire tribe of Levi - will have no allotment or inheritance with Israel; they may eat the burnt offerings of the LORD and of his inheritance.

18:2  They will have no inheritance in the midst of their fellow Israelites; the LORD alone is their inheritance, just as he had told them.

18:3  This shall be the priests' fair allotment from the people who offer sacrifices, whether bull or sheep - they must give to the priest the shoulder, the jowls, and the stomach.

18:4  You must give them the best of your grain, new wine, and olive oil, as well as the best of your wool when you shear your flocks.

18:5  For the LORD your God has chosen them and their sons from all your tribes to stand and serve in his name permanently.

18:6  Suppose a Levite comes by his own free will from one of your villages, from any part of Israel where he is living, to the place the LORD chooses

18:7  and serves in the name of the LORD his God like his fellow Levites who stand there before the Lord.

18:8  He must eat the same share they do, despite any profits he may gain from the sale of his family's inheritance.

18:9  When you enter the land the LORD your God is giving you, you must not learn the abhorrent practices of those nations.

18:10  There must never be found among you anyone who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire, anyone who practices divination, an omen reader, a soothsayer, a sorcerer,

18:11  one who casts spells, one who conjures up spirits, a practitioner of the occult, or a necromancer.

18:12  Whoever does these things is abhorrent to the LORD and because of these detestable things the LORD your God is about to drive them out from before you.

18:13  You must be blameless before the LORD your God.

18:14  Those nations that you are about to dispossess listen to omen readers and diviners, but the LORD your God has not given you permission to do such things.

18:15  The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you - from your fellow Israelites; you must listen to him.

18:16  This accords with what happened at Horeb in the day of the assembly. You asked the LORD your God: "Please do not make us hear the voice of the LORD our God any more or see this great fire any more lest we die."

18:17  The LORD then said to me, "What they have said is good.

18:18  I will raise up a prophet like you for them from among their fellow Israelites. I will put my words in his mouth and he will speak to them whatever I command.

18:19  I will personally hold responsible anyone who then pays no attention to the words that prophet speaks in my name.

18:20  "But if any prophet presumes to speak anything in my name that I have not authorized him to speak, or speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet must die.

18:21  Now if you say to yourselves, 'How can we tell that a message is not from the LORD?' -

18:22  whenever a prophet speaks in my name and the prediction is not fulfilled, then I have not spoken it; the prophet has presumed to speak it, so you need not fear him."