Deuteronomy 18

The priests, who are all from the tribe of Levi, will not receive any land in Israel. Instead, they will receive some of the food that other people offer to God.

They will not receive any land like the other tribes will. What they will receive is the honor of being God’s priests, which is what he promised them. \*

This is what the law requires that the people do for the priests. When the people bring an ox or a sheep as a sacrifice, they must give to the priests the shoulder, the cheeks, and the stomach of those animals.

You must also give to them the first part of the grain that you harvest, the wine and olive oil that you make, and the wool that you shear from your sheep.

You must do this because God our God has chosen the tribe of Levi from all of your tribes. He did this so that they would always be the priests who would serve him. \*

Suppose that a man from the tribe of Levi who has been living in one of the towns in Israel wants to live in the place of worship that God has chosen.

In that case, he may serve God there as a priest, just like the other men from the tribe of Levi who have been serving there.

He must receive the same amount of food that the other priests receive. He may keep any money that he gets from selling family possessions. \*

When you enter the land that God our God is giving you, you must not imitate the disgusting things that the people groups who are there now do.

You must not sacrifice any of your children by burning them {on your altars}. Do not try to use magic or omens to discover what will happen in the future. Do not practice sorcery.

Do not put spells on people. Do not try to talk with spirits of dead people. \*

You must not do those things, because God hates people who do any of those disgusting things. He is going to drive out these people groups to benefit you because they do those disgusting things.

But you must be completely pure for God {and avoid doing any of those disgusting things}.

The people groups that you are about to expel from the land rely on fortune-tellers and people who practice divination. But as for you, God our God does not allow you to do that. \*

Some day he will send from your people a prophet like me. You must obey him.

On the day that your ancestors gathered at the bottom of the mountain at Horeb, they begged me for help. They told me that they did not want God to speak to them again. They did not want to see the huge fire {that burned on the mountain}. They were afraid that they would die if God spoke to them again. \*

Then God said to me, ‘I agree with them.

So I will send them a prophet from their people like you. I will tell him what to say, and then he will tell people everything that I tell him to say.

If any person does not obey what I have told him to say, then I myself will punish that person. \*

There could be someone who pridefully says that he is a prophet and that his message comes from me, but I did not send him. Or, there could be someone who speaks a message that he says other gods have revealed to him. You must execute that person.’

Maybe you wonder how you can tell if a message that someone tells you does not come from God. \*

If a person claims to be a prophet who speaks for God, but what that person said will happen does not happen, then {you will know that} God did not reveal that message to him. That person said it just so that others would think that he is important, and you do not need to take that person seriously. \*