The Message Bible MSG
King James Version KJV
1 The Levitical priests - that's the entire tribe of Levi - don't get any land-inheritance with the rest of Israel. They get the Fire-Gift-Offerings of God - they will live on that inheritance.
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The priests the Levites, and all the tribe of Levi, shall have no part nor inheritance with Israel: they shall eat the offerings of the LORD made by fire, and his inheritance.
2 But they don't get land-inheritance like the rest of their kinsmen. God is their inheritance.
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Therefore shall they have no inheritance among their brethren: the LORD is their inheritance, as he hath said unto them.
3 This is what the priests get from the people from any offering of an ox or a sheep: the shoulder, the two cheeks, and the stomach.
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And this shall be the priest's due from the people, from them that offer a sacrifice, whether it be ox or sheep; and they shall give unto the priest the shoulder, and the two cheeks, and the maw.
4 You must also give them the firstfruits of your grain, wine, and oil and the first fleece of your sheep,
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The firstfruit also of thy corn, of thy wine, and of thine oil, and the first of the fleece of thy sheep, shalt thou give him.
5 because God, your God, has chosen only them and their children out of all your tribes to be present and serve always in the name of God, your God.
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For the LORD thy God hath chosen him out of all thy tribes, to stand to minister in the name of the LORD, him and his sons for ever.
6 If a Levite moves from any town in Israel - and he is quite free to move wherever he desires - and comes to the place God designates for worship,
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And if a Levite come from any of thy gates out of all Israel, where he sojourned, and come with all the desire of his mind unto the place which the LORD shall choose;
7 he may serve there in the name of God along with all his brother Levites who are present and serving in the Presence of God.
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Then he shall minister in the name of the LORD his God, as all his brethren the Levites do, which stand there before the LORD.
8 And he will get an equal share to eat, even though he has money from the sale of his parents' possessions.
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They shall have like portions to eat, beside that which cometh of the sale of his patrimony.
9 When you enter the land that God, your God, is giving you, don't take on the abominable ways of life of the nations there.
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When thou art come into the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of those nations.
10 Don't you dare sacrifice your son or daughter in the fire. Don't practice divination, sorcery, fortunetelling, witchery,
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There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch,
11 casting spells, holding séances, or channeling with the dead.
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Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer.
12 People who do these things are an abomination to God. It's because of just such abominable practices that God, your God, is driving these nations out before you.
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For all that do these things are an abomination unto the LORD: and because of these abominations the LORD thy God doth drive them out from before thee.
13 Be completely loyal to God, your God.
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Thou shalt be perfect with the LORD thy God.
14 These nations that you're about to run out of the country consort with sorcerers and witches. But not you. God, your God, forbids it.
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For these nations, which thou shalt possess, hearkened unto observers of times, and unto diviners: but as for thee, the LORD thy God hath not suffered thee so to do.
15 God, your God, is going to raise up a prophet for you. God will raise him up from among your kinsmen, a prophet like me. Listen obediently to him.
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The LORD thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken;
16 This is what you asked God, your God, for at Horeb on the day you were all gathered at the mountain and said, "We can't hear any more from God, our God; we can't stand seeing any more fire. We'll die!"
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According to all that thou desiredst of the LORD thy God in Horeb in the day of the assembly, saying, Let me not hear again the voice of the LORD my God, neither let me see this great fire any more, that I die not.
17 And God said to me, "They're right; they've spoken the truth.
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And the LORD said unto me, They have well spoken that which they have spoken.
18 I'll raise up for them a prophet like you from their kinsmen. I'll tell him what to say and he will pass on to them everything I command him.
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I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him.
19 And anyone who won't listen to my words spoken by him, I will personally hold responsible.
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And it shall come to pass, that whosoever will not hearken unto my words which he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him.
20 "But any prophet who fakes it, who claims to speak in my name something I haven't commanded him to say, or speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet must die."
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But the prophet, which shall presume to speak a word in my name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or that shall speak in the name of other gods, even that prophet shall die.
21 You may be wondering among yourselves, "How can we tell the difference, whether it was God who spoke or not?" Here's how:
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And if thou say in thine heart, How shall we know the word which the LORD hath not spoken?
22 If what the prophet spoke in God's name doesn't happen, then obviously God wasn't behind it; the prophet made it up. Forget about him.
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When a prophet speaketh in the name of the LORD, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the LORD hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not be afraid of him.
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.
The King James Version is in the public domain.