1. Neither the levitical priests nor any Levite tribe member will have a designated inheritance in Israel. They can eat the sacrifices offered to the Lord, which are the Lord’s portion,
2. but they won’t share an inheritance with their fellow Israelites. The Lord alone is the Levites’ inheritance—just as God promised them.
3. Now this is what the priests may keep from the people’s sacrifices of oxen or sheep: They must give the priest the shoulder, the jaws, and the stomach.
4. You must also give the priest the first portions of your grain, wine, and oil, and the first of your sheep’s shearing
5. because the Lord your God selected Levi from all of your tribes to stand and minister in the Lord’s name—both him and his descendants for all time.
6. Now if a Levite leaves one of your cities or departs from any location in Israel where he’s been living and, because he wants to, comes to the location the Lord selects
7. and ministers in the Lord his God’s name, just like his relatives—the other Levites serving there in the Lord’s presence—
8. he is allowed to eat equal portions, despite the finances he has from his family.
9. Once you enter the land that the Lord your God is giving you, don’t try to imitate the detestable things those nations do.
10. There must not be anyone among you who passes his son or daughter through fire; who practices divination, is a sign reader, fortune-teller, sorcerer,
11. or spell caster; who converses with ghosts or spirits or communicates with the dead.
12. All who do these things are detestable to the Lord! It is on account of these detestable practices that the Lord your God is driving these nations out before you.
13. Instead, you must be perfect before the Lord your God.
14. These nations you are displacing listened to sign readers and diviners, but the Lord your God doesn’t permit you to do the same!