Chapter 18
1 The priests who are Levites,[a] in fact, the whole tribe of Levi, will have no portion nor inheritance with Israel. They can eat from the burnt offerings made to the Lord, that is their inheritance. 2 They will have no inheritance among their brethren; the Lord is their inheritance, as he has promised them. 3 This is the portion due to the priest from the people who offer a sacrifice of either an ox or a sheep: the shoulder, the jowl, and the inner organs. 4 You will give them the firstfruits of the grain, the wine, and the oil, as well as the first sheering of the sheep 5 for the Lord, your God, has chosen him and his sons out of all of the tribes to minister in the Lord’s name forever. 6 If any Levite in all of Israel moves from his town where he had been living and he desires to go to the place that the Lord will choose, 7 then he may minister in the name of the Lord, his God, like all his fellow Levites who serve there in the presence of the Lord. 8 He will be given an equal share in their benefits in addition to the proceeds from the sale of his inheritance.
Forbidden Practices. 9 When you enter the land that the Lord, your God, is giving you, you are not to learn to perform the abominations that those nations do. 10 Let no one among you offer his son or his daughter as a burnt offering, or practice divination, or interpret omens, or practice witchcraft,[b] 11 or cast spells, or act as a medium, or act as a wizard, or seek oracles from the dead. 12 Whoever does any of these things is an abomination to the Lord. It is because of these abominations that the Lord, your God, is driving them out before you.
13 You are to be blameless before the Lord, your God. 14 These nations that you are dispossessing listened to those who practice witchcraft and the diviners. It is not to be that way among you, for the Lord, your God, does not permit it.
15 Prophets. The Lord, your God, will raise up from among your countrymen a prophet who will do what I have done for you, and you will listen to him. 16 This is just as you asked the Lord, your God, at Horeb on the day of the assembly when you said, “Let me not hear the voice of the Lord, my God, anymore, nor look upon this great fire, lest I die.” 17 The Lord said to me, “They have spoken well. 18 I will raise up a prophet from among their countrymen who will be like you. I will place my words in his mouth, and he will tell them all that I command him. 19 I myself will call to account whoever does not heed my words that he will proclaim in my name. 20 But if a prophet presumes to proclaim something in my name that I have not said to him, or he speaks in the names of other gods, that prophet is to be put to death.” 21 You might say to yourself, “How can we know that the Lord did not speak the message?” 22 If what the prophet proclaims in the name of the Lord is not true and it does not happen, then the message was not proclaimed by the Lord. The prophet has spoken presumptuously, you should not fear him.[c]
Footnotes
- Deuteronomy 18:1 The priests who are Levites: an expression characteristic of Deuteronomy (17:9, 18; 21:5; 24:8; 27:9; 31:9). See the distinction between priests and simple Levites in Num 18. In Deuteronomy all the Levites are priests.
- Deuteronomy 18:10 In preparing God’s chosen people to enter the Promised Land, they are warned against adopting heathen practices. Instead, they are to put their full trust in the one true God.
- Deuteronomy 18:22 Then, as now, discerning the true from the false prophet is necessary and simple. If what the prophet proclaims does not happen, they are not of the Lord, and these false prophets were subject to capital punishment.