Deuteronomy 18 · Parashat Shoftim

The priests the Levites, all the tribe of Levi, shall have no part or inheritance with Yisra᾽el: the offerings of the Lord made by fire, and his dues shall they eat.

Therefore shall they have no inheritance among their brethren: the Lord is their inheritance, as he has said to them.

And this shall be the priest’s allotment from the people, from those who offer a sacrifice, whether it be ox or sheep; they shall give to the priest the shoulder, and the two cheeks, and the maw.

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

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

And if a Levite come from any of thy gates out of all Yisra᾽el, where he sojourned, and come in all eagerness to the place which the Lord shall choose;

then he shall minister in the name of the Lord his God, as all his brethren the Levites do, who stand there before the Lord.

They shall have like portions to eat, besides that which comes of the sale of his patrimony.

When thou art come to the land which the Lord thy God gives thee, thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of those nations.

There must not be found among you anyone that makes his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that uses divination, a soothsayer, or an enchanter, or a witch,

or a charmer, or a medium, or a wizard, or a necromancer.

For all that do these things are an abomination to the Lord: and because of these abominations the Lord thy God drives them out from before thee.

Thou shalt be perfect with the Lord thy God.

For these nations, which thou shalt dispossess, hearken to soothsayers, and to diviners: but as for thee, the Lord thy God has not permitted thee so to do.

The Lord thy God will raise up to thee a prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like me; to him you shall hearken;

according to all that thou didst desire of the Lord thy God in Ḥorev 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.

And the Lord said to me, They have well spoken that which they have spoken.

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

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

But the prophet, who 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, that prophet shall die.

And if thou say in thy heart, How shall we know the word which the Lord has not spoken?

Know that when a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord has not spoken, but the prophet has spoken it out of presumption; thou shalt not be afraid of him.