| English Standard Version | NET Bible |
| 1“The Levitical priests, all the tribe of Levi, shall have no portion or inheritance with Israel. They shall eat the LORD’s food offerings as their inheritance. | 1The Levitical priests--indeed, the entire tribe of Levi--will have no allotment or inheritance with Israel; they may eat the burnt offerings of the LORD and of his inheritance. |
| 2They shall have no inheritance among their brothers; the LORD is their inheritance, as he promised them. | 2They will have no inheritance in the midst of their fellow Israelites; the LORD alone is their inheritance, just as he had told them. |
| 3And this shall be the priests’ due from the people, from those offering a sacrifice, whether an ox or a sheep: they shall give to the priest the shoulder and the two cheeks and the stomach. | 3This shall be the priests' fair allotment from the people who offer sacrifices, whether bull or sheep--they must give to the priest the shoulder, the jowls, and the stomach. |
| 4The firstfruits of your grain, of your wine and of your oil, and the first fleece of your sheep, you shall give him. | 4You must give them the best of your grain, new wine, and olive oil, as well as the best of your wool when you shear your flocks. |
| 5For the LORD your God has chosen him out of all your tribes to stand and minister in the name of the LORD, him and his sons for all time. | 5For the LORD your God has chosen them and their sons from all your tribes to stand and serve in his name permanently. |
| 6“And if a Levite comes from any of your towns out of all Israel, where he lives—and he may come when he desires—to the place that the LORD will choose, | 6Suppose a Levite comes by his own free will from one of your villages, from any part of Israel where he is living, to the place the LORD chooses |
| 7and ministers in the name of the LORD his God, like all his fellow Levites who stand to minister there before the LORD, | 7and serves in the name of the LORD his God like his fellow Levites who stand there before the LORD. |
| 8then he may have equal portions to eat, besides what he receives from the sale of his patrimony. | 8He must eat the same share they do, despite any profits he may gain from the sale of his family's inheritance. |
| 9“When you come into the land that the LORD your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominable practices of those nations. | 9When you enter the land the LORD your God is giving you, you must not learn the abhorrent practices of those nations. |
| 10There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering, anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens, or a sorcerer | 10There must never be found among you anyone who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire, anyone who practices divination, an omen reader, a soothsayer, a sorcerer, |
| 11or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer or one who inquires of the dead, | 11one who casts spells, one who conjures up spirits, a practitioner of the occult, or a necromancer. |
| 12for whoever does these things is an abomination to the LORD. And because of these abominations the LORD your God is driving them out before you. | 12Whoever does these things is abhorrent to the LORD and because of these detestable things the LORD your God is about to drive them out from before you. |
| 13You shall be blameless before the LORD your God, | 13You must be blameless before the LORD your God. |
| 14for these nations, which you are about to dispossess, listen to fortune-tellers and to diviners. But as for you, the LORD your God has not allowed you to do this. | 14Those nations that you are about to dispossess listen to omen readers and diviners, but the LORD your God has not given you permission to do such things. |
| 15“The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen— | 15The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you--from your fellow Israelites; you must listen to him. |
| 16just as you desired of the LORD your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly, when you said, ‘Let me not hear again the voice of the LORD my God or see this great fire any more, lest I die.’ | 16This accords with what happened at Horeb in the day of the assembly. You asked the LORD your God: "Please do not make us hear the voice of the LORD our God any more or see this great fire any more lest we die." |
| 17And the LORD said to me, ‘They are right in what they have spoken. | 17The LORD then said to me, "What they have said is good. |
| 18I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him. | 18I will raise up a prophet like you for them from among their fellow Israelites. I will put my words in his mouth and he will speak to them whatever I command. |
| 19And whoever will not listen to my words that he shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of him. | 19I will personally hold responsible anyone who then pays no attention to the words that prophet speaks in my name. |
| 20But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name that I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die.’ | 20"But if any prophet presumes to speak anything in my name that I have not authorized him to speak, or speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet must die. |
| 21And if you say in your heart, ‘How may we know the word that the LORD has not spoken?’— | 21Now if you say to yourselves, 'How can we tell that a message is not from the LORD?'-- |
| 22when a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that the LORD has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You need not be afraid of him. | 22whenever a prophet speaks in my name and the prediction is not fulfilled, then I have not spoken it; the prophet has presumed to speak it, so you need not fear him." |
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