Deuteronomy 18

Berean Standard Bible

Chapter summary

Deuteronomy 18 outlines the provisions and instructions regarding the Levitical priests, who receive no territorial inheritance in Israel because the Lord is their inheritance and portions from sacrifices and firstfruits belong to them. The chapter then commands the Israelites to avoid the detestable practices of the nations in the land they are entering, such as child sacrifice, divination, sorcery, and consulting mediums. It states that the Lord will raise up a prophet from among their own brothers like Moses, whose words the people must obey. Finally, the text establishes that any prophet who speaks presumptuously in the name of the Lord or in the name of other gods must be put to death, and a false message is identified when the spoken word does not come to pass.

Summary automatically generated from the Bible text.

Words of Jesus in red

¹The Levitical priests—indeed the whole tribe of Levi—shall have no portion or inheritance with Israel. They are to eat the food offerings to the LORD; that is their inheritance. ²Although they have no inheritance among their brothers, the LORD is their inheritance, as He promised them. ³This shall be the priests’ share from the people who offer a sacrifice, whether a bull or a sheep: the priests are to be given the shoulder, the jowls, and the stomach. ⁴You are to give them the firstfruits of your grain, new wine, and oil, and the first wool sheared from your flock. ⁵For the LORD your God has chosen Levi and his sons out of all your tribes to stand and minister in His name for all time. ⁶Now if a Levite moves from any town of residence throughout Israel and comes in all earnestness to the place the LORD will choose, ⁷then he shall serve in the name of the LORD his God like all his fellow Levites who stand there before the LORD. ⁸They shall eat equal portions, even though he has received money from the sale of his father’s estate. ⁹When you enter the land that the LORD your God is giving you, do not imitate the detestable ways of the nations there. ¹⁰Let no one be found among you who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire, practices divination or conjury, interprets omens, practices sorcery, ¹¹casts spells, consults a medium or spiritist, or inquires of the dead. ¹²For whoever does these things is detestable to the LORD. And because of these detestable things, the LORD your God is driving out the nations before you. ¹³You must be blameless before the LORD your God. ¹⁴Though these nations, which you will dispossess, listen to conjurers and diviners, the LORD your God has not permitted you to do so. ¹⁵The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your brothers. You must listen to him. ¹⁶This is what you asked of the LORD your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly, when you said, “Let us not hear the voice of the LORD our God or see this great fire anymore, so that we will not die!” ¹⁷Then the LORD said to me, “They have spoken well. ¹⁸I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. I will put My words in his mouth, and he will tell them everything I command him. ¹⁹And I will hold accountable anyone who does not listen to My words that the prophet speaks in My name. ²⁰But if any prophet dares to speak a message in My name that I have not commanded him to speak, or to speak in the name of other gods, that prophet must be put to death.” ²¹You may ask in your heart, “How can we recognize a message that the LORD has not spoken?” ²²When a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD and the message does not come to pass or come true, that is a message the LORD has not spoken. The prophet has spoken presumptuously. Do not be afraid of him.

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Louis Segond 1910 and Berean Standard Bible: public domain. Cross references: open-cross-ref, Creative Commons BY 4.0.