Deuteronomy

Rights of the Levitical Priests

The Levite priests, the whole tribe of Levi, will have no share or inheritance as the rest of the children of Israel have. Still, they shall live on the burnt offerings in honor of the Lord and on what is consecrated to him.

The Levite shall have no share in the inheritance received by his brother because the Lord is his inheritance as he has promised.

This will be the priests’ right to what is offered, whether ox or sheep: to the priest shall be given the shoulder, the jaws, and the stomach.

You shall also give him the firstfruits of your wheat, your wine, and your oil, as well as the first wool from the shearing of your sheep,

for the Lord chose him from among all the tribes to be the servant of his Name, he and his children forever.

If a Levite comes from one of the cities of the territory of Israel where he resides, and he wishes to enter into the place chosen by the Lord,

he shall officiate in the Name of the Lord, his God, like all his Levite brothers who stand there with him in the presence of the Lord.

He shall eat the same portion, regardless of what he has obtained from selling his family goods.

About the Prophets

When you have entered the land which the Lord, your God, gives you, do not imitate the evil deeds of those people.

You must not have in your midst anyone who makes his child pass through the fire, or one who practices divination, or anyone who consults the stars, who is a sorcerer,

or one who practices enchantments or who consults the spirits, no diviner or one who asks questions of the dead.

For the Lord abhors those who do these things, and it is precisely that he drives them away before you.

You must be blameless for the Lord, your God.

Those people that you are to drive away listened to sorcerers and diviners, but the Lord, your God, has provided you with something different.

He will raise for you a prophet like me from among the people, from your brothers, to whom you shall listen.

Remember that in Horeb, on the day of the Assembly, you said: “I am afraid to die, and I do not want to hear the voice of the Lord again or see again that great fire.”

So the Lord said to me: “They have spoken well.

I shall raise a prophet from their midst, one of their brothers, who will be like you. I will put my words into his mouth, and he will tell them all I command.

If someone does not listen to my words when the prophet speaks on my behalf, I will call him to account for it.

But any prophet who says in my name anything that I did not command, or speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die.”

You may ask: “How will we know that a word does not come from the Lord?”

If any prophet speaks in the name of the Lord and if what he says does not happen, you shall know that the word does not come from the Lord. The prophet has spoken boastfully, and you shall not pay any attention to him.