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Deuteronomy 18

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1 The priests, the Levites, even all the tribe of Levi, shall have no part nor inheritance with Israel; they shall eat the fire·​·offerings of Jehovah, and His inheritance.

2 And the Levite shall have no inheritance among his brothers; Jehovah is his inheritance, as He has spoken to him.

3 And this shall be the judgment of the priest from the people, from those who sacrifice the sacrifice, whether it be an ox or sheep; and he shall give to the priest the arm, and the two jaws, and the maw.

4 The firstfruit also of thy grain, of thy must*, and of thine olive·​·oil, and the first of the fleece of thy flock, shalt thou give him.

5 For Jehovah thy God has chosen him out of all thy tribes, to stand to minister in the name of Jehovah, him and his sons all the days.

6 And if a Levite come from any one of thy gates out of all Israel, where he sojourned, and come with all the longing of his soul to the place which Jehovah shall choose;

7 then he shall minister in the name of Jehovah his God, as all his brothers the Levites do, who stand there before Jehovah.

8 A part according·​·to a part they shall eat, besides that which comes of his selling what was of the fathers.

9 When thou art come into the land which Jehovah thy God gives thee, thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of those nations.

10 There shall not be found among thee any one who makes his son or his daughter to pass·​·through the fire, or a diviner of divinations, or a wizard, or a fortune·​·teller, or a sorceress,

11 or a charmer of charms, or he who asks of mediums, or a soothsayer, or an inquirer of those who died.

12 For all who do these are an abomination to Jehovah; and because·​·of these abominations Jehovah thy God dispossesses them from before thee.

13 Thou shalt be perfect with Jehovah thy God.

14 For these nations, which thou shalt possess, hearkened to wizards, and to diviners; but as for thee, Jehovah thy God has not given thee to do so.

15 Jehovah thy God will raise·​·up to thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, from thy brothers, like to me; to Him* you shall hearken;

16 according to all that thou askest of Jehovah thy God in Horeb in the day of the assembly, saying, Let me not hear again the voice of Jehovah my God, neither let me see this great fire any more, that I die not.

17 And Jehovah said to me, They have well spoken that which they have spoken.

18 I will raise·​·up a Prophet for them from among their brothers, like to thee, and will put My words in His mouth; and He shall speak to them all that I shall command Him.

19 And it shall be, that the man who will not hearken to My words which he shall speak in My name, I will require it from him.

20 But the prophet who shall be·​·presumptuous to speak a word in My name which I have not commanded him to speak, or who shall speak in the name of other gods, even that prophet shall die.

21 And if thou say in thy heart, How shall· we ·know the word which Jehovah has not spoken?

22 If a prophet speaks in the name of Jehovah, and the word is not, nor come to pass, it is the word which Jehovah has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously; thou shalt not be·​·afraid of him.

   


Thanks to the Kempton Project for the permission to use this New Church translation of the Word.

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Earth

  
by Brita Conroy

Earth" is a general word that can be thought of as a container for other more specific words, as ground, field, or garden. Each of these means a person in an ascending series as that person learns truths from the Bible, thinks about them, and tries to apply them to life. The series represents the way of becoming good and wise. "Earth" and "ground" are terms that can go either way, as in the parable of the sower (Matthew 13:4-8) there was both good ground and bad ground, but "field" and "garden" mean minds that are regenerating towards good. "Earth" in the Bible can mean a person or a group of like-minded people as in a church. But it refers specifically to the external of the person's mind, or of the general thought of the group. If heaven and earth are mentioned together, then both the internals and externals of the mind are meant – something to note when reading the creation story.

In Revelation the word "earth" is used both as a ground level as we use it in its natural sense and also as the sense of a group. The action in this book takes place in the great middle zone of the spiritual world, where people first go and where they are sorted out. There are both evil people and good there, and sometimes at the end of a church the evil can have great influence before a great judgment comes. This level of the spiritual realm is called the "earth" to which the dragon was cast down (Revelation 12:9) and to which the stars fell (Revelation 12:4). The "earth" that swallowed the dragon’s flood means those still-sincere people within the church who discounted the flood of the dragon's falsities (Revelation 12:15).