Deuteronomy 18:9-19:21

Christian Standard Bible

Occult Practices versus Prophetic Revelation

⁹ “When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you, do not imitate the detestable customs of those nations.^{(A) 10} No one among you is to sacrifice his son or daughter in the fire,^[a](B) practice divination, tell fortunes, interpret omens, practice sorcery, ¹¹ cast spells, consult a medium or a spiritist, or inquire of the dead.^{(C) 12} Everyone who does these acts is detestable to the Lord, and the Lord your God is driving out the nations before you because of these detestable acts. ¹³ You must be blameless before the Lord your God. ¹⁴ Though these nations you are about to drive out listen to fortune-tellers and diviners, the Lord your God has not permitted you to do this.

¹⁵ “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own brothers.^(D) You must listen to him. ¹⁶ This is what you requested from the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly when you said, ‘Let us not continue to hear the voice of the Lord our God or see this great fire any longer, so that we will not die!’ ^{(E) 17} Then the Lord said to me, ‘They have spoken well. ¹⁸ I 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. ¹⁹ I will hold accountable whoever does not listen to my words that he speaks in my name.^{(F) 20} But the prophet who presumes to speak a message in my name that I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods—that prophet must die.’ ²¹ You may say to yourself, ‘How can we recognize a message the Lord has not spoken?’ ²² When a prophet speaks in the Lord’s name, and the message does not come true or is not fulfilled, that is a message the Lord has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously. Do not be afraid of him.

Cities of Refuge

19 “When the Lord your God annihilates the nations whose land he is giving you,^(G) so that you drive them out and live in their cities and houses, ² you are to set apart three cities for yourselves within the land the Lord your God is giving you to possess.^{(H) 3} You are to determine the distances^[b] and divide the land the Lord your God is granting you as an inheritance into three regions, so that anyone who commits manslaughter can flee to these cities.^[c]

⁴ “Here is the law concerning a case of someone who kills a person and flees there to save his life, having killed his neighbor accidentally without previously hating him: ⁵ If, for example, he goes into the forest with his neighbor to cut timber, and his hand swings the ax to chop down a tree, but the blade flies off the handle and strikes his neighbor so that he dies, that person may flee to one of these cities and live. ⁶ Otherwise, the avenger of blood in the heat of his anger^[d] might pursue the one who committed manslaughter, overtake him because the distance is great, and strike him dead. Yet he did not deserve to die,^[e] since he did not previously hate his neighbor. ⁷ This is why I am commanding you to set apart three cities for yourselves. ⁸ If the Lord your God enlarges your territory as he swore to your ancestors, and gives you all the land he promised to give them— ⁹ provided you keep every one of these commands I am giving you today and follow them, loving the Lord your God and walking in his ways at all times—you are to add three more cities to these three. ¹⁰ In this way, innocent blood will not be shed, and you will not become guilty of bloodshed in the land the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance.^{(I) 11} But if someone hates his neighbor, lies in ambush for him, attacks him, and strikes him fatally, and flees to one of these cities, ¹² the elders of his city are to send for him, take him from there, and hand him over to the avenger of blood and he will die. ¹³ Do not look on him with pity but purge from Israel the guilt of shedding innocent blood, and you will prosper.

Boundary Markers

¹⁴ “Do not move your neighbor’s boundary marker,^(J) established at the start in the inheritance you will receive in the land the Lord your God is giving you to possess.

Witnesses in Court

¹⁵ “One witness cannot establish any iniquity or sin against a person, whatever that person has done.^(K) A fact must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.^(L)

¹⁶ “If a malicious witness^(M) testifies against someone accusing him of a crime, ¹⁷ the two people in the dispute are to stand in the presence of the Lord before the priests and judges in authority at that time. ¹⁸ The judges are to make a careful investigation, and if the witness turns out to be a liar who has falsely accused his brother, ¹⁹ you must do to him as he intended to do to his brother. You must purge the evil from you. ²⁰ Then everyone else will hear and be afraid, and they will never again do anything evil like this among you.^{(N) 21} Do not show pity: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, and foot for foot.^(O)