Portion of the Levites
1 “The Levitical priests, the entire tribe of Levi, shall own [privately] no portion [of land] or inheritance with Israel; they shall eat the Lord’sofferings by fire and His portion.
2 They shall have no inheritance [of land] among their countrymen (brothers, brethren); the Lordis theirinheritance, as He promised them.
3 “Now this shall be the priests’ portion from the people, from those offering a sacrifice, either an ox or a sheep: they shall give to the priest the shoulder and the two cheeks and the stomach.
4 You shall also give him the first fruits of your grain, your new wine [the first of the season], and your [olive] oil, and the first sheared fleece of your sheep.
5 For the Lordyour God has chosen him, him and his sons from all your tribes, to stand and serve in the name of the Lordforever.
6 “Now if a Levite comes from any of your cities throughout Israel where he resides, and comes wheneverhe wishes to [the sanctuary] the place which the Lordchooses;
7 then he shall serve in the name of the Lordhis God, like all his fellow Levites whostand there before the Lord.
8 They shall haveequal portions to eat, exceptwhat they receivefrom the sale of their fathers’estates.
Spiritism Forbidden
9 “When you enter the land which the Lordyour God is giving you, you shall not learn to imitate the detestable (repulsive) practices of those nations.
10 There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or daughter pass through the fire [as a sacrifice], one who uses divinationandfortune-telling, one who practices witchcraft, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer,
11 or one who casts a charmorspell, or a medium, or a spiritist, or a necromancer [who seeks the dead].
12 For everyone who does these things is utterly repulsive to the Lord; and because of these detestable practices the Lordyour God is driving them out before you.
13 You shall be blameless (complete, perfect) before the Lordyour God.
14 For these nations which you shall dispossess listen to those who practice witchcraft and to divinersandfortune-tellers, but as for you, the Lordyour God has not allowed you to do so.
15 “The Lordyour God will raise up for you aprophet like me [Moses] from among you, from your countrymen (brothers, brethren). You shall listen to him.
16 This is according to all that you asked of the Lordyour God at Horeb (Mount Sinai) on the day of the assembly, saying, ‘Let me not hear the voice of the Lordmy God again, nor see this great fire anymore, so that I will not die.’
17 The Lordsaid to me, ‘They have spoken well.
18 ~‘I will raise up a prophet from among their countrymen like you, and I will put My words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him.
19 ~‘It shall come about that whoever will not listen to My words which he shall speak in My name, I Myself will require it of him [and there will be consequences].
20 ~‘But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in My name which I have not commanded him to speak, or which he speaks in the name of other gods–that prophet shall die.’
21 If you say in your heart, ‘How will we knowandrecognize the word which the Lordhas not spoken?’
22 When a prophet speaks in the name of the Lordand the thing does not happen or come true, that is the thing which the Lordhas not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him.