Deuteronomy 18

₁The Levitical priests – indeed, the whole tribe of Levi – are to have no land allotted to them or any inheritance with Israel. They shall live on the food offerings presented to the Lord, for that is their inheritance. ₂They shall have no inheritance among their fellow Israelites; the Lord is their inheritance, as he promised them.

₃This is the share due to the priests from the people who sacrifice a bull or a sheep: the shoulder, the internal organs and the meat from the head. ₄You are to give them the firstfruits of your corn, new wine and olive oil, and the first wool from the shearing of your sheep, ₅for the Lord your God has chosen them and their descendants out of all your tribes to stand and minister in the Lord’s name always.

₆If a Levite moves from one of your towns anywhere in Israel where he is living, and comes in all earnestness to the place the Lord will choose, ₇he may minister in the name of the Lord his God like all his fellow Levites who serve there in the presence of the Lord. ₈He is to share equally in their benefits, even though he has received money from the sale of family possessions.

₉When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you, do not learn to imitate the detestable ways of the nations there. ₁₀Let no-one be found among you who sacrifices their son or daughter in the fire, who practises divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, ₁₁or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead. ₁₂Anyone who does these things is detestable to the Lord; because of these same detestable practices the Lord your God will drive out those nations before you. ₁₃You must be blameless before the Lord your God.

₁₄The nations you will dispossess listen to those who practise sorcery or divination. But as for you, 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 you, from your fellow Israelites. You must listen to him. ₁₆For this 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 nor see this great fire anymore, or we will die.’

₁₇The Lord said to me: ‘What they say is good. ₁₈I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their fellow Israelites, and I will put my words in his mouth. He will tell them everything I command him. ₁₉I myself will call to account anyone who does not listen to my words that the prophet speaks in my name. ₂₀But a prophet who presumes to speak in my name anything I have not commanded, or a prophet who speaks in the name of other gods, is to be put to death.’

₂₁You may say to yourselves, ‘How can we know when a message has not been spoken by the Lord?’ ₂₂If what a prophet proclaims in the name of the Lord does not take place or come true, that is a message the Lord has not spoken. That prophet has spoken presumptuously, so do not be alarmed.