Deuteronomy 18
New King James Version Par ▾ 

The Portion of the Priests and Levites

1“The priests, the Levites—all the tribe of Levi—shall have [a]no part nor inheritance with Israel; they shall eat the offerings of the Lord made by fire, and His portion. 2Therefore they shall have no inheritance among their brethren; the Lord is their inheritance, as He said to them.

3“And this shall be the priest’s due[b] from the people, from those who offer a sacrifice, whether it is bull or sheep: they shall give to the priest the shoulder, the cheeks, and the stomach. 4The firstfruits of your grain and your new wine and your oil, and the first of the fleece of your sheep, you shall give him. 5For the Lord your God has chosen him out of all your tribes to stand to minister in the name of the Lord, him and his sons forever.

6“So if a Levite comes from any of your [c]gates, from where he dwells among all Israel, and comes with all the desire of his mind to the place which the Lord chooses, 7then he may serve in the name of the Lord his God as all his brethren the Levites do, who stand there before the Lord. 8They shall have equal portions to eat, besides what comes from the sale of his inheritance.

Avoid Wicked Customs

9“When you come into the land which the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the [d]abominations of those nations. 10There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass[e] through the fire, or one who practices witchcraft, or a soothsayer, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, 11or one who conjures spells, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead. 12For all who do these things are [f]an abomination to the Lord, and because of these abominations the Lord your God drives them out from before you. 13You shall be [g]blameless before the Lord your God. 14For these nations which you will dispossess listened to soothsayers and diviners; but as for you, the Lord your God has not [h]appointed such for you.

A New Prophet Like Moses

15“The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your midst, from your brethren. Him you shall hear, 16according to all you desired of the Lord your God in Horeb in the day of the assembly, saying, ‘Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God, nor let me see this great fire anymore, lest I die.’

17“And the Lord said to me: ‘What they have spoken is good. 18I will raise up for them a Prophet like you from among their brethren, and will put My words in His mouth, and He shall speak to them all that I command Him. 19And it shall be that whoever will not hear My words, which He speaks in My name, I will require it of him. 20But 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 prophet shall die.’ 21And if you say in your heart, ‘How shall we know the word which the Lord has not spoken?’— 22when a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the thing does not happen or come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him.

Footnotes:

  1. Deuteronomy 18:1 no portion
  2. Deuteronomy 18:3 right
  3. Deuteronomy 18:6 towns
  4. Deuteronomy 18:9 detestable acts
  5. Deuteronomy 18:10 Be burned as an offering to an idol
  6. Deuteronomy 18:12 detestable
  7. Deuteronomy 18:13 Lit. perfect
  8. Deuteronomy 18:14 allowed you to do so
The Holy Bible, New King James Version, Copyright © 1982 Thomas Nelson. All rights reserved.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             


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