18 The Levitical priests and all the tribe of Levi shall have no part or inheritance with Israel; they shall eat the offerings made by fire to the Lord, and His rightful dues.
2 They shall have no inheritance among their brethren; the Lord is their inheritance, as He promised them.
3 And this shall be the priest’s due from the people, from those who offer a sacrifice, whether it be ox or sheep: they shall give to the priest the shoulder and the two cheeks and the stomach.
4 The firstfruits of your grain, of your new wine, and of your oil, and the first or best of the fleece of your sheep you shall give the priest.
5 For the Lord your God has chosen him out of all your tribes to stand to minister in the name [and presence] of the Lord, him and his sons forever.
6 And if a Levite comes from any of your towns out of all Israel where he is a temporary resident, he may come whenever he desires to [the sanctuary] the place the Lord will choose;
7 Then he may minister in the name [and presence of] the Lord his God like all his brethren the Levites who stand to minister there before the Lord.
8 They shall have equal portions to eat, besides what may come of the sale of his patrimony.(A)
9 When you come into the land which the Lord your God gives you, you shall not learn to follow the abominable practices of these nations.
10 There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or daughter pass through the fire, or who uses divination, or is a soothsayer, or an augur, or a sorcerer,
11 Or a charmer, or a medium, or a wizard, or a necromancer.
12 For all who do these things are an abomination to the Lord, and it is because of these abominable practices that the Lord your God is driving them out before you.
13 You shall be blameless [and absolutely true] to the Lord your God.
14 For these nations whom you shall dispossess listen to soothsayers and diviners. But as for you, the Lord your God has not allowed you to do so.
15 The Lord your God will raise up for you [a]a prophet (Prophet) from the midst of your brethren like me [Moses]; to him you shall listen.(B)
16 This is what you desired [and asked] of the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly when you said, Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God or see this great fire any more, lest I die.
17 And the Lord said to me, They have well said all that they have spoken.
18 I will raise up for them a prophet (Prophet) from among their brethren like you, and will put My words in his mouth; and he shall speak to them all that I command him.
19 And whoever will not hearken to My words which he shall speak in My name, I Myself will require it of him.
20 But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in My name which I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die.
21 And if you say in your [minds and] hearts, How shall we know which words the Lord has not spoken?
22 When a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the word does not come to pass or prove true, that is a word which the Lord has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him.
Footnotes
- Deuteronomy 18:15 The insertion of this promise in connection with the preceding prohibition might warrant the application which some make of it to that order of true prophets whom God commissioned in unbroken succession to instruct, to direct, and warn His people; in this view the gist of it is, “there is no need to consult with diviners and soothsayers, for I shall afford you the benefit of divinely appointed prophets, for judging of whose identity a sure clue is given” (Deut. 18:20, 22). But the prophet here promised was preeminently the Messiah, for He alone was “like unto Moses in His mediatorial character; in the peculiar excellence of His ministry; in the number, variety, and magnitude of His miracles; in His close and familiar communion with God; and in His being the author of a new dispensation of religion.” This prediction was fulfilled 1,500 years afterwards, and was expressly applied to Christ by Peter (Acts 3:22, 23) and by Stephen (Acts 7:37) (Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown, A Commentary).