18:1 The priests, who are Levites--indeed the whole tribe of Levi--are to have no allotment or inheritance with Israel. They shall live on the offerings made to the LORD by fire, for that is their inheritance.

18:2 They shall have no inheritance among their brothers; the LORD is their inheritance, as he promised them.

18:3 This is the share due the priests from the people who sacrifice a bull or a sheep: the shoulder, the jowls and the inner parts.

18:4 You are to give them the firstfruits of your grain, new wine and oil, and the first wool from the shearing of your sheep,

18:5 for 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.

18:6 If 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,

18:7 he may minister in the name of the LORD his God like all his fellow Levites who serve there in the presence of the LORD.

18:8 He is to share equally in their benefits, even though he has received money from the sale of family possessions.

18:9 When you enter the land the LORD your God is giving you, do not learn to imitate the detestable ways of the nations there.

18:10 Let no one be found among you who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft,

18:11 or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead.

18:12 Anyone who does these things is detestable to the LORD, and because of these detestable practices the LORD your God will drive out those nations before you.

18:13 You must be blameless before the LORD your God.

18:14 The nations you will dispossess listen to those who practice sorcery or divination. But as for you, the LORD your God has not permitted you to do so.

18:15 The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own brothers. You must listen to him.

18:16 For 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."

18:17 The LORD said to me: "What they say is good.

18:18 I 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.

18:19 If anyone does not listen to my words that the prophet speaks in my name, I myself will call him to account.

18:20 But a prophet who presumes to speak in my name anything I have not commanded him to say, or a prophet who speaks in the name of other gods, must be put to death."

18:21 You may say to yourselves, "How can we know when a message has not been spoken by the LORD?"

18:22 If 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. Do not be afraid of him.