NET Bible | Berean Study Bible |
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. | 1The Levitical priests—indeed the whole tribe of Levi—shall have no portion or inheritance with Israel. They are to eat the offerings made by fire to the LORD; that is their inheritance. |
2They will have no inheritance in the midst of their fellow Israelites; the LORD alone is their inheritance, just as he had told them. | 2Although they have no inheritance among their brothers, the LORD is their inheritance, as He promised them. |
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. | 3This shall be the priests’ share from the people who offer a sacrifice, whether a bull or a sheep: the priests are to be given the shoulder, the jowls, and the stomach. |
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. | 4You are to give them the firstfruits of your grain, new wine, and oil, and the first wool sheared from your flock. |
5For the LORD your God has chosen them and their sons from all your tribes to stand and serve in his name permanently. | 5For the LORD your God has chosen Levi and his sons out of all your tribes to stand and minister in His name for all time. |
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 | 6Now if a Levite moves from any town of residence throughout Israel and comes in all earnestness to the place the LORD will choose, |
7and serves in the name of the LORD his God like his fellow Levites who stand there before the LORD. | 7then he shall serve in the name of the LORD his God like all his fellow Levites who stand there before the LORD. |
8He must eat the same share they do, despite any profits he may gain from the sale of his family's inheritance. | 8They shall eat equal portions, even though he has received money from the sale of his father’s estate. |
9When you enter the land the LORD your God is giving you, you must not learn the abhorrent practices of those nations. | 9When you enter the land that the LORD your God is giving you, do not imitate the detestable ways of the nations there. |
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, | 10Let no one be found among you who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire, practices divination or conjury, interprets omens, practices sorcery, |
11one who casts spells, one who conjures up spirits, a practitioner of the occult, or a necromancer. | 11casts spells, consults a medium or spiritist, or inquires of the dead. |
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. | 12For whoever does these things is detestable to the LORD. And because of these detestable things, the LORD your God is driving out the nations before you. |
13You must be blameless before the LORD your God. | 13You must be blameless before the LORD your God. |
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. | 14Though these nations, which you will dispossess, listen to conjurers and diviners, the LORD your God has not permitted you to do so. |
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. | 15The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your brothers. You must listen to him. |
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." | 16This is what you asked of the LORD your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly, when you said, “Let us not hear the voice of the LORD our God or see this great fire anymore, so that we will not die!” |
17The LORD then said to me, "What they have said is good. | 17Then the LORD said to me, “They have spoken well. |
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. | 18I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. I will put My words in his mouth, and he will tell them everything I command him. |
19I will personally hold responsible anyone who then pays no attention to the words that prophet speaks in my name. | 19And I will hold accountable anyone who does not listen to My words that the prophet speaks in My name. |
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. | 20But if any prophet dares to speak a message in My name that I have not commanded him to speak, or to speak in the name of other gods, that prophet must be put to death.” |
21Now if you say to yourselves, 'How can we tell that a message is not from the LORD?'-- | 21You may ask in your heart, “How can we recognize a message that the LORD has not spoken?” |
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." | 22When a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD and the message does not come to pass or come true, that is a message the LORD has not spoken. The prophet has spoken presumptuously. Do not be afraid of him. |
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