Devarim (Deuteronomy): Shoftim > Ch 18

Kohanim will not own land but everyone will bring set dues to them

  • The Levitic kohanim, the entire tribe of Levi, shall have no portion or inheritance with Israel; the Lord's fire offerings and His inheritance they shall eat. But he shall have no inheritance among his brothers; the Lord is his inheritance, as He spoke to him. And this shall be the kohanim's due from the people, from those who perform a slaughter, be it an ox or a sheep, he shall give the kohen the foreleg, the jaws, and the maw. The first of your grain, your wine, and your oil, and the first of the fleece of your sheep, you shall give him. For the Lord, your G-d, has chosen him out of all your tribes, to stand and serve in the name of the Lord, he and his sons, all the days. And if a Levite comes from one of your cities out of all Israel where he sojourns, he may come whenever his soul desires, to the place the Lord will choose, and he may serve in the name of the Lord, his G-d, just like all his Levite brothers, who stand there before the Lord. They shall eat equal portions, except what was sold by the forefathers.


You must not have soothsayers, sorcerers, necromancers, etc – this is an abomination to G-d

  • When you have come to the land the Lord, your G-d, is giving you, you shall not learn to do like the abominations of those nations. There shall not be found among you anyone who passes his son or daughter through fire, a soothsayer, a diviner of [auspicious] times, one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, or a charmer, a pithom sorcerer, a yido'a sorcerer, or a necromancer. For whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord, and because of these abominations, the Lord, your G-d is driving them out from before you.


G-d will give people prophets after Moses. G-d does not appear to the people directly, so that they wouldn’t die.

  • Be wholehearted with the Lord, your G-d. For these nations, which you are to possess, hearken to diviners of [auspicious] times and soothsayers, but as for you, the Lord, your G-d, has not given you [things] like these. A prophet from among you, from your brothers, like me, the Lord, your G-d will set up for you you shall hearken to him. According to all that you asked of the Lord, your G-d, in Horeb, on the day of the assembly, saying, "Let me not continue to hear the voice of the Lord, my G-d, and let me no longer see this great fire, so that I will not die." And the Lord said to me, "They have done well in what they have spoken. I will set up a prophet for them from among their brothers like you, and I will put My words into his mouth, and he will speak to them all that I command him.


False prophets should be killed

  • And it will be, that whoever does not hearken to My words that he speaks in My name, I will exact [it] of him. But the prophet who intentionally speaks a word in My name, which I did not command him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other G-ds, that prophet shall die. Now if you say to yourself, "How will we know the word that the Lord did not speak?" If the prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, and the thing does not occur and does not come about, that is the thing the Lord did not speak. The prophet has spoken it wantonly; you shall not be afraid of him.