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Levitical priests—that is, the whole tribe of Levi—will have no portion or inheritance with Israel. They shall eat the offerings made to the Lord by fire, for that is their inheritance. 2 They shall have no inheritance among their brothers; the Lord is their inheritance, as He promised them.
3 “This is the priest’s share from the people who offer a sacrifice, whether it is an ox or a sheep: they are to give to the priest the shoulder, the two cheeks, and the stomach. 4 You are to give him the firstfruits of your grain, your new wine, and your oil, and the first of the wool sheared from your sheep. 5 For the Lord your God has chosen him and his sons from all your tribes to stand and minister in the name of the Lord, him and his sons for all time.
6 “If a Levite decides to move from one of your towns from where he lives in Israel, and goes in all earnestness to the place the Lord chooses, 7 then he may minister in the name of the Lord his God, like all his fellow Levites who are in attendance there in the presence of the Lord. 8 They will have equal portions to eat, besides what he has received from the sale of family possessions.
9 “When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you, you must not learn to imitate the detestable practices of the nations there. 10 Let no one be found among you who makes his son or daughter pass through the fire, or anyone who practices divination, or is a soothsayer, or interprets omens, or a sorcerer, 11 or cast spells, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who consults the dead. 12 For whoever does these things is detestable to the Lord, and it is because of these detestable things that the Lord your God will drive out the nations before you. 13 You must be blameless before the Lord your God. 14 For these nations that you are about to dispossess have listened to soothsayers and diviners; but as for you, the Lord your God has not permitted you to do this.
15 “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own brothers. You must listen to him. 16 For this is what you asked of the Lord your God in 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 again, so we will not die’.
17 “The Lord said to me, ‘They have spoken well. 18 I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers, and I will put My words in his mouth, and he will speak to them everything I command him. 19 If anyone does not listen to My words that the prophet speaks in My name, I will hold him to account. 20 But the prophet who presumes to speak a message in My name that I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet must die’.
21 “You may say to yourselves, ‘How can we recognize a message that the Lord has not spoken?’ 22 When a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, but the thing does not take place or come about, that is a message that the Lord has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously. Do not be afraid of him.”