Deuteronomy 18

18 ¹Levite priests—the whole tribe of Levi—get no portion or inheritance with Israel; they eat the food offerings to our Father—his inheritance. ²They are to have no inheritance among their brothers; our Father is their inheritance, as he promised them. ³This is the priests' right from the people: those sacrificing an ox or sheep must give the priest the shoulder, both cheeks, and the stomach. ⁴Give him the first of your grain, new wine, and oil, and the first fleece of your sheep. ⁵For your Father chose him from all your tribes to stand and serve in the name of our Father, him and his sons, always.

⁶If a Levite leaves any of your towns in Israel where he lives and comes whenever he desires to the place our Father will choose, ⁷then he may serve in our Father's name, like all his fellow Levites who stand there before our Father. ⁸He is to eat equal portions, besides what he receives from the sale of his family possessions.

The Father Forbids Occult Practices

⁹When you enter the land your Father is giving you, don't learn to imitate those nations' detestable practices. ¹⁰No one among you may sacrifice his son or daughter in the fire, practice divination, tell fortunes, read omens, or cast spells, ¹¹a caster of spells, a medium, a spiritist, or one who consults the dead. ¹²For whoever does these things is detestable to our Father; because of these detestable practices, your Father is driving them out before you. ¹³You are to be blameless before your Father. ¹⁴As for these nations you will dispossess—they listen to fortune-tellers and diviners. Your Father has not permitted this to you.

The Father Will Send a Prophet

¹⁵Your Father will raise up a prophet like me for you, from among you, from your brothers—listen to him. ^a a v15 Peter and Stephen name Jesus as the Prophet our Father promised to raise up—the one every Israelite was to listen to (Acts 3:22-23; Acts 7:37). ¹⁶This is what you asked of your Father at Horeb on the day of the assembly: "Let me not hear our Father's voice again, nor see this great fire anymore, or I will die."

¹⁷And our Father said to me, "They are right in what they have spoken. ¹⁸I will raise up a prophet like you for them, from among their brothers. I'll put my words in his mouth; he will tell them all I command him. ¹⁹Whoever doesn't listen to my words he speaks in my name—I myself will hold him accountable. ²⁰But the prophet who dares speak in my name a word I did not command, or speaks in the name of other gods—that prophet must die."

²¹And if you say in your heart, "How can we know the word our Father hasn't spoken?" ²²When a prophet speaks in our Father's name and the word doesn't happen or come true, our Father didn't speak it—the prophet spoke in arrogance. Don't fear him.