| International Standard Version | NET Bible |
| 1"The Levitical priests, the whole tribe of Levi, will not have a portion or an inheritance within Israel. Instead, they will eat the burnt offerings of the LORD, because that is their inheritance. | 1The 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. |
| 2But they will not have an inheritance among their relatives, because the LORD alone is their inheritance—as he promised them." | 2They will have no inheritance in the midst of their fellow Israelites; the LORD alone is their inheritance, just as he had told them. |
| 3"A portion of what the people offer in sacrifice, whether cattle or sheep, is to be due the priests. They must set aside the shoulder, jowls, and stomach for the priest. | 3This 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. |
| 4Give them the first gatherings of your grain, wine, oil, and wool from the shearing of your flock. | 4You 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. |
| 5For the LORD your God has chosen them and their descendants from among your tribes to stand and serve in the name of the LORD all their lives." | 5For the LORD your God has chosen them and their sons from all your tribes to stand and serve in his name permanently. |
| 6"Any descendant of Levi who wishes to do so may come from any city or part of Israel where he resides to the place that the LORD will choose. | 6Suppose 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 |
| 7There he may serve in the name of the LORD his God. Like his fellow descendants of Levi who stand there in the LORD's presence, | 7and serves in the name of the LORD his God like his fellow Levites who stand there before the LORD. |
| 8he may eat the same share as they do regardless of what he receives from his ancestral estate." | 8He must eat the same share they do, despite any profits he may gain from the sale of his family's inheritance. |
| 9"When you enter the land that the LORD your God is about to give you, don't learn the detestable practices of those nations there. | 9When you enter the land the LORD your God is giving you, you must not learn the abhorrent practices of those nations. |
| 10There must never be found among you anyone who sacrifices his son or daughter in fire, practices divination, interprets omens, practices sorcery, | 10There 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, |
| 11casts spells, or who is a medium, an occultist, or a necromancer. | 11one who casts spells, one who conjures up spirits, a practitioner of the occult, or a necromancer. |
| 12Whoever practices these things is detestable to the LORD, and the LORD your God will expel them before you because of these things. | 12Whoever 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. |
| 13You must be completely faithful to the LORD your God, | 13You must be blameless before the LORD your God. |
| 14because those nations that you are about to dispossess listen to those who practice witchcraft and divination. But the LORD does not allow you to act this way." | 14Those 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. |
| 15"The LORD your God will raise up a prophet like me for you from among your relatives. You must listen to him, | 15The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you--from your fellow Israelites; you must listen to him. |
| 16because this is what you asked from the LORD your God at Horeb when you were assembled together: 'Don't let us hear the voice of the LORD our God again, or even see this great fire—otherwise, we will die.' | 16This 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." |
| 17"Then the LORD told me: 'What they have suggested is good. | 17The LORD then said to me, "What they have said is good. |
| 18I will raise up a prophet like you from among their relatives, and I will place my words in his mouth so that he may expound everything that I have commanded to them. | 18I 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. |
| 19But if someone will not listen to those words that the prophet speaks in my name, I will hold him accountable. | 19I will personally hold responsible anyone who then pays no attention to the words that prophet speaks in my name. |
| 20Even then, if the prophet speaks presumptuously in my name, which I didn't authorize him to speak, or if he speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet must die.' | 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. |
| 21Now you may ask yourselves, 'How will we be able to discern that the LORD has not spoken?' | 21Now if you say to yourselves, 'How can we tell that a message is not from the LORD?'-- |
| 22Whenever a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD, and the oracle does not come about or the word is not fulfilled, then the LORD has not spoken it. The prophet will have spoken presumptuously, so you need not fear him." | 22whenever 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." |
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