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Deuteronomy

About this book
Chapter 18

1 The Levitical priests—indeed,⁠ the entire tribe of Levi—will have no allotment or inheritance with Israel; they may eat the burnt offerings of the Lord and of his inheritance. 2 They will have no inheritance in the midst of their fellow Israelites; the Lord alone is their inheritance, just as he had told them. 3 This shall be the priests’ fair allotment from the people who offer sacrifices, whether bull or sheep—they must give to the priest the shoulder, the jowls, and the stomach. 4 You must give them the best of your grain, new wine, and olive oil, as well as the best of your wool when you shear your flocks.⁠ 5 For the Lord your God has chosen them and their sons from all your tribes to stand and serve in his name permanently. 6 Suppose a Levite comes by his own free will from one of your villages, from any part of Israel where he is living, to the place the Lord chooses 7 and serves in the name of the Lord his God like his fellow Levites who stand there before the Lord. 8 He must eat the same share they do, despite any profits he may gain from the sale of his family’s inheritance. 9 When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you, you must not learn the abhorrent practices of those nations. 10 There must never be found among you anyone who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire,⁠ anyone who practices divination,⁠ an omen reader, a soothsayer, a sorcerer,⁠ 11 one who casts spells, one who conjures up spirits, a practitioner of the occult, or a necromancer.⁠ 12 Whoever does these things is abhorrent to the Lord, and because of these detestable things the Lord your God is about to drive them out from before you. 13 You must be blameless before the Lord your God. 14 Those nations that you are about to dispossess listen to omen readers and diviners, but the Lord your God has not given you permission to do such things. 15 The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you—from your fellow Israelites; you must listen to him. 16 This accords with what happened at Horeb in the day of the assembly. You asked the Lord your God: “Please do not make us hear the voice of the Lord our God anymore or see this great fire anymore lest we die.” 17 The Lord then said to me, “What they have said is good. 18 I will raise up a prophet like you⁠ for them from among their fellow Israelites.⁠ I will put my words in his mouth and he will speak to them whatever I command.⁠ 19 I will personally hold responsible anyone who then pays no attention to the words that prophet speaks in my name. 20 “But if any prophet presumes to speak anything in my name that I have not authorized him to speak, or speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet must die. 21 Now if you say to yourselves, ‘How can we tell that a message is not from the Lord?’— 22 whenever a prophet speaks in my name and the prediction is not fulfilled, then I have not spoken it; the prophet has presumed to speak it, so you need not fear him.”

Texts in conversation

Compare Deuteronomy 18:10 and Ezekiel 20:31

Hebrew Bible

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Summary

Deuteronomy forbids child sacrifice and related practices as unspeakable acts that cause future exile. Ezekiel recalls this prohibition and places it within a judgment speech, accusing Israel of offering child sacrifices in the fire.

Passages

Deuteronomy 18:10

Hebrew Bible
8 He must eat the same share they do, despite any profits he may gain from the sale of his family’s inheritance. 9 When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you, you must not learn the abhorrent practices of those nations. 10 There must never be found among you anyone who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire, anyone who practices divination, an omen reader, a soothsayer, a sorcerer, 11 one who casts spells, one who conjures up spirits, a practitioner of the occult, or a necromancer. 12 Whoever does these things is abhorrent to the Lord, and because of these detestable things the Lord your God is about to drive them out from before you.
750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Deuteronomy

Ezekiel 20:31

Hebrew Bible
29 So I said to them, “What is this high place you go to?”’ (So it is called “High Place” to this day.) 30 “Therefore say to the house of Israel, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Will you defile yourselves like your fathers and engage in prostitution with detestable idols? 31 When you present your sacrifices—when you make your sons pass through the fire—you defile yourselves with all your idols to this very day. Will I allow you to seek me, O house of Israel? As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, I will not allow you to seek me! 32 “‘What you plan will never happen. You say, “We will be like the nations, like the clans of the lands, who serve gods of wood and stone.” 33 As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, with a powerful hand and an outstretched arm and with an outpouring of rage, I will be king over you.
600–501 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Ezekiel

References

"... “And he, he caused his sons to pass through the fire in the Valley of Ben-Hinnom” (2 Chronicles 33:6). Passing one’s son or daughter through fire is expressly prohibited in the laws of Deuteronomy (18:10). Commonly thought to involve some sort of child sacrifice, the practice is only mentioned a few times in the Deuteronomistic history of the dual monarchies. (Compare Deuteronomy 18:10; 2 Kings 16:3; Ezekiel 20:31) It should be noted that Chronicles does not mention a similar (irregular) attempt to procure divine favor (by the Moabite king), during a joint northern-southern military expedition (2 Kings 3:4-27). Manasseh is only one of two Judahite kings charged with this particular type of malfeasance. The other is Ahaz who, like Manasseh, is guilty (in Chronicles) of passing his sons (not simply “son”) through fire (2 Chronicles 28:3). In this case, there are two other differences with the source text of Kings that require commentary. The text of 2 Kings 21:6 lacks the third masculine singular personal pronoun, which emphasizes the subject (Manasseh) as the originator of the action described. 2 Kings 21:6 also lacks the geographical descriptor “in the Valley of Ben-Hinnom.” The mention of the location intensifies the parallel with Ahaz (2 Chronicles 28:3), who is viewed by the Chronicler as the worst king in Judahite history (2 Chronicles 28:22-25) ..."
Gary Knoppers in Rewriting Biblical History: Essays on Chronicles and Ben Sira in Honor of Pancratius C. Beentjes, ed. Jeremy Corley and Harm van Grol, DCLS 7 (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, 2011), 211–229.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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Deuteronomy 18:10 and Ezekiel 20:31

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