Deuteronomy 18

The priests, who are Levites, and in fact the whole tribe of Levi, will get no share of land and no family inheritance along with the rest of Israel. They will eat the offerings burned to the LORD; that is their share.

1The priests the Levites, and all the tribe of Levi, shall have no part nor inheritance with Israel: they shall eat the offerings of the LORD made by fire, and his inheritance.

NoteIsrael was made up of twelve tribes, and when the land was divided each tribe received its own territory. Levi did not: the tribe was set apart to serve at the sanctuary and was supported instead by a share of what other Israelites brought as offerings. "Offerings made by fire" are the sacrifices burned on the altar; the priests lived on the portions of them that were not burned.

2They will have no land handed down to them among their fellow Israelites. The LORD himself is their inheritance, just as he told them.

2Therefore shall they have no inheritance among their brethren: the LORD is their inheritance, as he hath said unto them.

Note"The LORD is their inheritance" is a way of saying that what the other tribes got in land, Levi got in the form of a claim on the offerings brought to the LORD.

3When people bring a sacrifice, whether a bull or a sheep, this is what the priest is owed from them: the shoulder, the two cheeks, and the stomach.

3And this shall be the priest’s due from the people, from them that offer a sacrifice, whether it be ox or sheep; and they shall give unto the priest the shoulder, and the two cheeks, and the maw.

NoteThe shoulder, the cheeks (jowls) and the stomach were the priest's fixed fee from an ordinary sacrifice, one in which the worshiper and his family ate most of the meat themselves. The rest of the animal went back to the person who brought it.

4You must also give him the first and best of your grain, your new wine, and your olive oil, and the first wool cut from your sheep.

4The firstfruit also of thy corn, of thy wine, and of thine oil, and the first of the fleece of thy sheep, shalt thou give him.

Note"First and best" translates a word usually rendered "firstfruits": the earliest part of a harvest or a shearing, handed over before the household used any of it. Grain, wine and olive oil were the three staple crops of the region, so this covers a farmer's whole income.

5For out of all your tribes the LORD your God has chosen him to stand and serve in the LORD's name, him and his sons, for all time.

5For the LORD thy God hath chosen him out of all thy tribes, to stand to minister in the name of the LORD, him and his sons for ever.

6Suppose a Levite moves from one of your towns, anywhere in Israel, where he has been living, and comes with all his heart to the place the LORD will choose.

6And if a Levite come from any of thy gates out of all Israel, where he sojourned, and come with all the desire of his mind unto the place which the LORD shall choose;

Note"The place the LORD will choose" is Deuteronomy's standing phrase for the one authorised sanctuary, never named in the book itself. The point of this law is that a Levite living out in the country towns could come to that sanctuary and take his turn serving there on equal terms.

7Then he may serve in the name of the LORD his God, just like all his fellow Levites who stand and serve there before the LORD.

7Then he shall minister in the name of the LORD his God, as all his brethren the Levites do, which stand there before the LORD.

8They are to eat equal shares, apart from any money he has from selling the property he inherited from his family.

8They shall have like portions to eat, beside that which cometh of the sale of his patrimony.

NoteThe Hebrew of the last clause is obscure and disputed; it seems to mean that his equal share of the offerings is his regardless of any private income he has, whether from selling family property or from some other family entitlement.

9When you come into the land the LORD your God is giving you, do not learn to copy the disgusting practices of the nations there.

9When thou art come into the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of those nations.

Note"Disgusting practices" translates a Hebrew word for something religiously off-limits and repellent, not merely distasteful. It marks out conduct treated as unacceptable in the presence of the LORD.

10No one among you may sacrifice his son or his daughter in the fire. No one may practice divination, tell fortunes, read omens, or work magic.

10There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch.

NoteThe Hebrew literally says to make a son or daughter "pass through the fire." It is generally understood as child sacrifice, though some read it as a fire ritual short of killing. The four practices that follow are all ways of trying to learn hidden things or bend events: divination (seeking answers by casting lots, arrows or the like), fortune-telling, reading omens in natural signs, and sorcery. The exact difference between the terms was already blurred in antiquity.

11No one may cast spells, or consult ghosts or spirits, or try to get messages from the dead.

11Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer.

NoteCasting spells means binding someone by a spoken charm. Consulting ghosts or spirits refers to mediums who claimed to call up and question the dead, the practice Saul later uses at Endor.

12Everyone who does these things is disgusting to the LORD. It is because of these disgusting practices that the LORD your God is driving those nations out ahead of you.

12For all that do these things are an abomination unto the LORD: and because of these abominations the LORD thy God doth drive them out from before thee.

13You must be completely loyal to the LORD your God, with nothing held back.

13Thou shalt be perfect with the LORD thy God.

NoteThe word behind "completely loyal" is the one used of a sacrificial animal without blemish: whole, entire, nothing missing. Applied to a person it means undivided allegiance rather than moral perfection.

14These nations that you are about to take over listen to people who read omens and tell fortunes. But the LORD your God has not allowed you to do that.

14For these nations, which thou shalt possess, hearkened unto observers of times, and unto diviners: but as for thee, the LORD thy God hath not suffered thee so to do.

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

15The LORD thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken;

Note"Raise up" means appoint or bring on the scene. The Hebrew word for prophet is singular but can be read collectively, so the sentence can mean either a continuing line of prophets after Moses or one particular figure; the text does not settle which.

16This is exactly what you asked the LORD your God for at Horeb, on the day the people gathered there. You said, "Don't let me hear the voice of the LORD my God again, or see this great fire anymore, or I will die."

16According to all that thou desiredst of the LORD thy God in Horeb in the day of the assembly, saying, Let me not hear again the voice of the LORD my God, neither let me see this great fire any more, that I die not.

NoteHoreb is another name for Mount Sinai. "The day the people gathered" refers to the occasion when Israel stood at the mountain and heard God speak out of the fire, and asked Moses to receive the words for them instead.

17And the LORD said to me, "What they have said is good."

17And the LORD said unto me, They have well spoken that which they have spoken.

18"I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their own people. I will put my words in his mouth, and he will tell them everything I command him."

18I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him.

19"And if anyone will not listen to my words that this prophet speaks in my name, I myself will hold that person accountable."

19And it shall come to pass, that whosoever will not hearken unto my words which he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him.

Note"Hold that person accountable" renders a Hebrew idiom, literally "I will require it of him": I will call him to answer for it.

20"But if a prophet dares to speak in my name a message I have not commanded him to speak, or speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet must be put to death."

20But the prophet, which shall presume to speak a word in my name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or that shall speak in the name of other gods, even that prophet shall die.

NoteThe Hebrew word translated "dares" means acting on one's own authority, without being sent, presuming to speak for God when God has not spoken.

21You may say to yourself, "How can we tell when a message did not come from the LORD?"

21And if thou say in thine heart, How shall we know the word which the LORD hath not spoken?

22When a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD and the thing he says does not happen or come true, then that message did not come from the LORD. The prophet said it on his own. Do not be afraid of him.

22When a prophet speaketh in the name of the LORD, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the LORD hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not be afraid of him.

NoteThis gives a practical test rather than a theory: a message that does not come true was not from the LORD, and the speaker carries no authority, so no one owes him fear or obedience.