Chapter Eighteen

Repetition of the law concerning the Levites’ portion. — Protection against idolatry and being led astray by false prophets. The promise of a prophet like Moses.

Deuteronomy 18:1. The Levitical priests, the whole tribe of Levi, shall have no part or inheritance with Israel; they shall eat the sacrifices of the Lord and his portion; Deuteronomy 18:2. and he shall have no inheritance among his brothers; the Lord himself is his inheritance, as he told him. Num 18:20.

Deuteronomy 18:3. This is what the priests shall receive from the people, from those who offer an ox or a sheep in sacrifice: the shoulder, the cheeks, and the stomach shall be given to the priest; Deuteronomy 18:4. also the firstfruits of your grain, your wine, and your oil, and the firstfruits of the fleece of your sheep you shall give to him, Deuteronomy 18:5. for the Lord your God has chosen him out of all your tribes to stand [before the Lord your God], to minister [and to bless] in the name of the Lord, him and his sons, for all time. Cf. Exod 29:26-28; Lev 2:2; Num 18:1. Upon entering the land of Canaan, the command given in the wilderness — that every clean animal was to be slaughtered before the tabernacle as a sacrificial offering (Deut 12) — was revoked, whereby the support of the priests was reduced considerably. Therefore, beyond the “heave offerings and wave offerings” and the “shoulders of the offering,” the “cheeks and stomach” were also included. Among the firstfruit offerings, the firstfruits of wool from the sheep were added (Vlastov, Sacred Chronicles).

Deuteronomy 18:6. And if a Levite comes from any of your towns out of all Israel, where he has been living, and comes in the desire of his soul to the place that the Lord will choose, Deuteronomy 18:7. and serves in the name of the Lord his God, as do all his fellow Levites who stand there before the Lord, Deuteronomy 18:8. then they shall have equal portions to eat, besides what he receives from the sale of his father’s estate. A Levite who had permanently left the bounds of his Levitical city and transferred to full-time service at the tabernacle received his support from its resources, while retaining what he “received from the sale of his father’s estate” (v. 8).

Deuteronomy 18:9. When you come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you, do not learn to follow the abominable practices of those nations: Deuteronomy 18:10. there shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through fire, a diviner, a soothsayer, an enchantress, a sorcerer, Deuteronomy 18:11. a charmer, a medium, a wizard, or a necromancer; Deuteronomy 18:12. for everyone who does these things is an abomination to the Lord, and it is because of these abominations that the Lord your God is driving them out before you; Deuteronomy 18:13. you shall be blameless before the Lord your God; Deuteronomy 18:14. for these nations, which you are dispossessing, listen to soothsayers and diviners, but the Lord your God has not allowed you to do so. Cf. Lev 19:31; Deut 18:10; “One who makes his son or his daughter pass through fire,” in honor of the pagan gods.

Deuteronomy 18:15. The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet from among you, from your brothers, one like me — listen to him — Deuteronomy 18:16. just as you requested of the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly, saying: “Let me not hear the voice of the Lord my God anymore, and let me not see this great fire anymore, lest I die. Deuteronomy 18:17. And the Lord said to me: “What they have spoken is good; Deuteronomy 18:18. I will raise up for them a Prophet from among their brothers, one like you, and I will put my words in his mouth, and he will speak to them everything that I command him; Deuteronomy 18:19. and whoever does not listen to my words that the Prophet will speak in my name, I myself will hold him accountable; According to the indications of New Testament Scripture (John 5:46; Acts 3:22) and the interpretations of Christian writers, in the verses under commentary one must see a prophecy of the Messiah, since of the ordinary prophets who arose in Israel after Moses, none can be compared with the latter (Deut 34:10-12). “I will raise up for them a Prophet from among their brothers, one like you.” Moses was the leader, prophet, and lawgiver of the Old Covenant, the mediator between God and humanity, distinguished by a particular closeness to Jehovah (Num 12:6-8); the Messiah Jesus Christ is the Leader, Prophet, and Lawgiver of the New Covenant, the Mediator between God and humanity, and in his divine nature — the Only-begotten Son of God. Moses freed the Jews from slavery to Egypt and led them to the promised land; Christ Jesus by his life, teaching, and death freed humanity from the yoke of spiritual Egypt and opened access to the dwellings of the promised blessedness.

Deuteronomy 18:20. But 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 prophet must be put to death. Deuteronomy 18:21. And if you say in your heart: “How shall we know the word that the Lord has not spoken? Deuteronomy 18:22. If a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord but the word does not come true or come to pass, then that is a word that the Lord has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously — do not be afraid of him. Cf. Deut 13:1-5. In Deut 13:1-5 one sign of a prophet’s “uncalled” status is noted: teaching that does not accord with the spirit of the divine law; here another is indicated: the non-fulfillment of predictions.