Deuteronomy 18, Priests and Prophets

We continue to explore concepts of citizenship, authority, justice and honor, in reflection on the Fifth Commandment. We have examined the role of judges and kings; now we look at instructions for priests and then prophets.

Deuteronomy 18:1-5, Inheritance of Levite

The priests, who are Levites--indeed the whole tribe of Levi--are to have no allotment or inheritance with Israel. They shall live on the offerings made to the LORD by fire, for that is their inheritance. They shall have no inheritance among their brothers; the LORD is their inheritance, as he promised them.

This is the share due the priests from the people who sacrifice a bull or a sheep: the shoulder, the jowls and the inner parts. You are to give them the firstfruits of your grain, new wine and oil, and the first wool from the shearing of your sheep, for the LORD your God has chosen them and their descendants out of all your tribes to stand and minister in the LORD's name always.

The tribe of Levi is special. The Levites do not have a special land and the priests are to be supported by the sacrifices.

Deuteronomy 18:6-8, If a Levite moves

If a Levite moves from one of your towns anywhere in Israel where he is living, and comes in all earnestness to the place the LORD will choose, he may minister in the name of the LORD his God like all his fellow Levites who serve there in the presence of the LORD. He is to share equally in their benefits, even though he has received money from the sale of family possessions.

The ministry of a Levite moves with him. Wherever he goes, he is to be supported, even if he has additional resources.

Craigie argues that there is some confusion here in interpreting this passage, as not all Levites were priests. (Priests were male Levites of a certain age.) Parts of this passage presumably apply to all Levites, including wives and children of one who is a priest.

Deuteronomy 18:9-14, Detestable ways of the nations

When you enter the land the LORD your God is giving you, do not learn to imitate the detestable ways of the nations there. Let no one be found among you who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead.

Anyone who does these things is detestable to the LORD, and because of these detestable practices the LORD your God will drive out those nations before you. You must be blameless before the LORD your God. 

The nations you will dispossess listen to those who practice sorcery or divination. But as for you, the LORD your God has not permitted you to do so.

While we are discussing the priests, we are warned, once again, of the religious practices of other ancient Near Eastern tribes and peoples. Sorcery, witchcraft, casting of spells were all practices intended to convince the gods to take certain actions. Particularly abominable was the sacrificing of children to incur a god's favor. (Currid says that archealogical sites at Carthage include the charred remains of hundreds of children.)

Deuteronomy 18:15-19, A future prophet

The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own brothers. You must listen to him. For this is what you asked of the LORD your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly when you said, "Let us not hear the voice of the LORD our God nor see this great fire anymore, or we will die." The LORD said to me: "What they say is good.

'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. If anyone does not listen to my words that the prophet speaks in my name, I myself will call him to account.

The people of Israel are not to engage in witchcraft or other types of magic but will instead, from time to time, be given genuine prophets to guide them. This passage seems to allude to a special future Prophet, one like Moses. (In Acts 3:22, the apostle Peter identifies this special prophet as Yeshua/Jesus.)

Deuteronomy 18:20-22, False prophets

But a prophet who presumes to speak in my name anything I have not commanded him to say, or a prophet who speaks in the name of other gods, must be put to death.

"You may say to yourselves, "How can we know when a message has not been spoken by the LORD?"

If what a prophet proclaims in the name of the LORD does not take place or come true, that is a message the LORD has not spoken. That prophet has spoken presumptuously. Do not be afraid of him.

Some may claim to be a prophet when they are not. A prophet is one who communicates the message of God and, in some cases, makes predictions about a future event. So a false prophet will be one whose proclamations are false, either because the words conflict with the given Law or because they predict events that do not come to pass.

First published May 6, 2023; updated May 6, 2026

Deuteronomy 17, Seeking Justice

This material amplifies the Fifth Commandment (about honoring one's parents) by examining issues of order, honor and authority. The text will look at four leaders: judge, king, priest and prophet. Here we continue to look at instructions to judges.

Deuteronomy 17:1, No defects

Do not sacrifice to the LORD your God an ox or a sheep that has any defect or flaw in it, for that would be detestable to him.

We are reminded (once again) that sacrifices are to involve perfect, flawless animals. The prophet Malachi (Malachi 1:6-8) will later report that YHWH considers deliberately offering a flawed animal is one way of profaning His name. We are reminded that taking YHWH's name in vain (prohibited by the Third Commandment) need not be done verbally, but can be done by improper actions of those who bear His name.

Deuteronomy 17:2-5, Worshiping sun, moon or stars

If a man or woman living among you in one of the towns the LORD gives you is found doing evil in the eyes of the LORD your God in violation of his covenant, and contrary to my command has worshiped other gods, bowing down to them or to the sun or the moon or the stars of the sky, and this has been brought to your attention, then you must investigate it thoroughly. If it is true and it has been proved that this detestable thing has been done in Israel, take the man or woman who has done this evil deed to your city gate and stone that person to death.
 

Worshiping objects of creation, in place of the Creator, is unacceptable. This issues falls, in some sense, under the organization of society and the courts.

Deuteronomy 17:6-7, Two or three witnesses

On the testimony of two or three witnesses a man shall be put to death, but no one shall be put to death on the testimony of only one witness.

The hands of the witnesses must be the first in putting him to death, and then the hands of all the people. You must purge the evil from among you.

There must be several witnesses and they need to be "all in"; they are the first to throw stones. This is intended to prevent false accusations caused simply by the anger of a neighbor. (See, for example, the blasphemy accusations common even today in places like Pakistan.) Obviously two or three witnesses could collude to give false testimony... but this, at least, is a first hedge.

Deuteronomy 17:8-11, Take most difficult cases to YHWH

If cases come before your courts that are too difficult for you to judge--whether bloodshed, lawsuits or assaults--take them to the place the LORD your God will choose. Go to the priests, who are Levites, and to the judge who is in office at that time. Inquire of them and they will give you the verdict.

You must act according to the decisions they give you at the place the LORD will choose. Be careful to do everything they direct you to do. Act according to the law they teach you and the decisions they give you. Do not turn aside from what they tell you, to the right or to the left.

Somehow the priests are supposed to find a solution by calling on YHWH.

Deuteronomy 17:12-13, No contempt for those in charge!

The man who shows contempt for the judge or for the priest who stands ministering there to the LORD your God must be put to death. You must purge the evil from Israel.

All the people will hear and be afraid, and will not be contemptuous again.
   

Contempt of the judicial system, just like contempt of one's parents, is evil and must be eradicated.

Deuteronomy 17:14-15, Appointing a king

When you enter the land the LORD your God is giving you and have taken possession of it and settled in it, and you say, "Let us set a king over us like all the nations around us," be sure to appoint over you the king the LORD your God chooses. He must be from among your own brothers. Do not place a foreigner over you, one who is not a brother Israelite.

If the people choose a king, they are to follow YHWH's instructions, choosing an Israelite from among them.

Deuteronomy 17:16-20, Standards for kings

The king, moreover, must not acquire great numbers of horses for himself or make the people return to Egypt to get more of them, for the LORD has told you, "You are not to go back that way again." He must not take many wives, or his heart will be led astray. He must not accumulate large amounts of silver and gold.

When he takes the throne of his kingdom, he is to write for himself on a scroll a copy of this law, taken from that of the priests, who are Levites. It is to be with him, and he is to read it all the days of his life so that he may learn to revere the LORD his God and follow carefully all the words of this law and these decrees and not consider himself better than his brothers and turn from the law to the right or to the left. Then he and his descendants will reign a long time over his kingdom in Israel.

The king is not to rely on his horse cavalry or his wives or his riches. Even kings -- especially kings -- must be just. 

Once the people of Israel enter Canaan, they will be ruled by a series of individuals called "judges". But the people will eventually seek a king. Their desire for a king in anticipated here and prepares us for I Samuel 8, where Saul is chosen king and is given instructions by the prophet/judge Samuel. 

In the case of a king, we have clear instruction on how they are to promote the Law among the people -- and what they are to avoid, such as a reliance on many horses and many wives. (If you've been reading along with me in these Old Testament chapters, you probably have an idea of how well the kings will follow these instructions! See I Kings 10:26, I Kings 11:1-3.)

The Septuagint (see chapter 17 here) translates the word "copy" in verse 18 as  δευτερονόμιον,  deuteronomion, that is, "second law", and it is from that word that this book gets its name.

First published May 5, 2023; updated May 5, 2026

Deuteronomy 16, Three Festivals

We continue with commandments related to the Fourth Commandment, the concept of a sabbath rest. This concept naturally leads to a variety of important Jewish feasts.

Deuteronomy 16:1-4, The Passover

Observe the month of Abib and celebrate the Passover of the LORD your God, because in the month of Abib he brought you out of Egypt by night.

Sacrifice as the Passover to the LORD your God an animal from your flock or herd at the place the LORD will choose as a dwelling for his Name. Do not eat it with bread made with yeast, but for seven days eat unleavened bread, the bread of affliction, because you left Egypt in haste--so that all the days of your life you may remember the time of your departure from Egypt.

Let no yeast be found in your possession in all your land for seven days. Do not let any of the meat you sacrifice on the evening of the first day remain until morning.
 

The first festival the Israelites are to keep is Peschal/Passover. (Craigie, in The Book of Deuteronomy, Wm. B. Erdman, 1976, says that Abib is the month that is later called Nisan.) During this festival, the Israelites are, for seven days, to eat unleavened bread, the "bread of affliction", recalling the hurried leave during the exodus from Egypt.

Deuteronomy 16:5-8, The Passsover sacrifice.

You must not sacrifice the Passover in any town the LORD your God gives you except in the place he will choose as a dwelling for his Name. There you must sacrifice the Passover in the evening, when the sun goes down, on the anniversary of your departure from Egypt.

Roast it and eat it at the place the LORD your God will choose. Then in the morning return to your tents.

For six days eat unleavened bread and on the seventh day hold an assembly to the LORD your God and do no work.
 

The Passover feast lasts seven days, creating a Sabbath end day.

Deuteronomy 16:9-12, The Feast of Weeks

Count off seven weeks from the time you begin to put the sickle to the standing grain. Then celebrate the Feast of Weeks to the LORD your God by giving a freewill offering in proportion to the blessings the LORD your God has given you. And rejoice before the LORD your God at the place he will choose as a dwelling for his Name--you, your sons and daughters, your menservants and maidservants, the Levites in your towns, and the aliens, the fatherless and the widows living among you.

Remember that you were slaves in Egypt, and follow carefully these decrees.

Seven weeks after the Passover is another seven day festival, the Feasts of Weeks, presumably so-named because it is seven weeks after Passover. In the New Testament it is the festival of Pentecost.

Deuteronomy 16:13-15, Feast of Tabernacles

Celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles for seven days after you have gathered the produce of your threshing floor and your winepress.

Be joyful at your Feast--you, your sons and daughters, your menservants and maidservants, and the Levites, the aliens, the fatherless and the widows who live in your towns. For seven days celebrate the Feast to the LORD your God at the place the LORD will choose. For the LORD your God will bless you in all your harvest and in all the work of your hands, and your joy will be complete.
 

The feasts are to be a time of joy. In this case, the Feast of Tabernacles is both of memorial of past times camping in the wilderness and also a celebration of the harvest.

Deuteronomy 16:16-17, Requirement of all men

Three times a year all your men must appear before the LORD your God at the place he will choose: at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks and the Feast of Tabernacles. No man should appear before the LORD empty-handed: Each of you must bring a gift in proportion to the way the LORD your God has blessed you.

These three feasts are the requirements for all men (and by implication, everyone.) Everyone is to bring YHWH gifts of devotion.

The Feast of Unleavened Bread, here, is the celebration of Passover. The Feast of Tabernacles is sometimes translated Feast of Booths.

Deuteronomy 16:18-20, Follow justice

Appoint judges and officials for each of your tribes in every town the LORD your God is giving you, and they shall judge the people fairly. Do not pervert justice or show partiality. Do not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and twists the words of the righteous.

Follow justice and justice alone, so that you may live and possess the land the LORD your God is giving you.

There is a transition to a new emphasis, that of justice and lines of authority.  This is probably an amplification of the Fifth Commandment about honoring one's parents.

The text will look at four leaders: judge, king, priest and prophet (say John Currid, quoting John Walton.)  We begin with instructions to judges.

Deuteronomy 16:21-22, YHWH, not Asherah

Do not set up any wooden Asherah pole beside the altar you build to the LORD your God, and do not erect a sacred stone, for these the LORD your God hates.

An Asherah pole might be a tree planted to honor Asherah. Asherah was a popular Canaanite god of fertility. She will be a threat to Israel throughout the Old Testament.

First published May 4, 2023; updated May 4, 2026

The Dietary Laws of the Torah

Both Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14 dictate a variety of dietary laws for the Israelites. (There is considerable overlap in those two chapters as much of Deuteronomy repeats the Law for those Israelites about to enter Canaan.)

In the dietary laws (see this Wikipedia article on kashrut) some animals are declared clean while other animals are declared unclean. In Judaism, foods that satisfy the kashrut laws are called kosher. Closely related to the clean-unclean categories in Judaism are the halal-haram categories in Islam. Of particular importance in both religions is that pork is forbidden and an animal must be drained of its blood during slaughter.

Why, in the Torah, does YHWH call some animals clean and others unclean?  There are a number of suggested answers to this question and most commentators agree that the answer is not clear and no single answer is agreed upon by Biblical scholars.  Indeed, it is not even clear the identity of some of the animals described in Leviticus 11 or Deuteronomy 14.  Here are some of the suggested explanations:

1. The distinctions are irrelevant and known only to YHWH.
2. The dietary distinction are for hygienic reasons; unclean animals will make the people sick or carry diseases.
3. The unclean animals are related, in some way, to other issues of cleanliness in the Torah, such as anything dealing with death or reproduction.
4. The unclean animals were part of various cultic practices in Canaan and around the region.
5. The divisions are symbolic: clean animals represented completion and unclean animals were incomplete in some way.

I find the first answer unacceptable -- although the various other laws may, at times, seem strange to us, they are usually motivated by the need for justice in that culture.  Furthermore, the Israelites were to meditate on the Law, seeking to understand and practice it. It is hard to meditate on irrelevant distinctions.

All the rest of the reasons seem to have some truth to them but do not provide a full explanation. Pork meat can carry roundworm parasites and thus communicate trichinosis. Predatory birds are often carrion eaters and so presumably can bring infection from the carrion they eat.  One might note that in general, Israelites were prohibited from eating any carcass found in the desert. But hygiene does not explain all the distinctions; apparently some unclean animals were safer to eat than some clean animals!

Certainly the Torah describes some activities themselves as unclean. As the Bible Project points out, activities dealing with death were often viewed as unclean. Touching a dead body made one unclean. Related to death were activities related to bodily fluids and reproduction, such as blood from a woman's period. These connections to death would explain the rejection of carrion eaters.

The fourth explanation is a partial explanation for the distinction between clean and unclean foods.  Several times in the Law, a jarring sentence appears, stating that a lamb is not to be cooked in its mother's milk. This was apparently a common Canaanite practice. Some tribes in the ancient Near East may have sacrificed pigs or other animals and then (of course) eaten the sacrificed meat. In the Law's stress on complete separation from these pagan practices, it is possible the Israelites were forbidden to even think about eating those foods. We see this in the New Testament conflict (I Corinthians 8) over eating food sacrificed to idols. If one ate food that had been sacrificed to idols, was one endorsing the idol worship?  It is possible that this question is in the background of the dietary laws.

Others have argued that an emphasis on completion (as in the Sabbath practices) drives some of these laws. Some of the animals might have been viewed as incomplete. Animals that swam in water should have scales and fins; those that did not have scales and fins were "incomplete" water dwellers and thus unclean.

For the ancient Israelites, the main emphasis of these laws was to separate them from the culture around them. As a "treasured possession" of YHWH, they were to be noticeably different. This difference was to be detectable even in their national diet.

For the modern Christian, who does not live in the ancient Near East culture of three thousand years ago, the dietary laws are not, by themselves, in effect. (See Mark 7:19 and Acts 10.) The conflicts that arose in the early church involved the mixing of Jewish and Gentile cultures, so that, in the church council in Acts 15, Gentile Christians were given some simplistic dietary restrictions intended to accommodate their Jewish brothers and sisters. The dietary restrictions at that time included not eating food offered to idols or meat prepared in ways that were nauseating to the Jew. (See Acts 15:29.)

The early history of the Jews was to create a unique godly nation, distinct from the rest of the Near East. The early history of the followers of Messiah Yeshua (Jesus) emphasized a life-style distinct from the world around them. The mark of a Christian was how they worshiped YHWH and how they treated others.

First published April 30, 2023; updated May 3, 2026

Deuteronomy 15, The Sabbath Year

We explore the concept of a "sabbath", generalizing and extending the Fourth Commandment

Deuteronomy 15:1-3, A sabbath year

At the end of every seven years you must cancel debts. This is how it is to be done: Every creditor shall cancel the loan he has made to his fellow Israelite. He shall not require payment from his fellow Israelite or brother, because the LORD's time for canceling debts has been proclaimed. You may require payment from a foreigner, but you must cancel any debt your brother owes you.

Just as every seventh day is a day of rest, so too there is to be a Sabbath year, a year during which, among other things, debts are cancelled!

Deuteronomy 15:4-6, There should be no poor!

However, there should be no poor among you, for in the land the LORD your God is giving you to possess as your inheritance, he will richly bless you, if only you fully obey the LORD your God and are careful to follow all these commands I am giving you today.

For the LORD your God will bless you as he has promised, and you will lend to many nations but will borrow from none. You will rule over many nations but none will rule over you.

The Sabbath year is healthy for the nation.

Deuteronomy 15:7-10, Be openhanded

If there is a poor man among your brothers in any of the towns of the land that the LORD your God is giving you, do not be hardhearted or tightfisted toward your poor brother. Rather be openhanded and freely lend him whatever he needs.

Be careful not to harbor this wicked thought: "The seventh year, the year for canceling debts, is near," so that you do not show ill will toward your needy brother and give him nothing. He may then appeal to the LORD against you, and you will be found guilty of sin.

Give generously to him and do so without a grudging heart; then because of this the LORD your God will bless you in all your work and in everything you put your hand to.

Don't play games with this Sabbath year!  If someone is indebted to you, freely forgive the debt when that year comes. Indeed, be generous! 

Deuteronomy 15:11-15, Always some poor

There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore I command you to be openhanded toward your brothers and toward the poor and needy in your land.

If a fellow Hebrew, a man or a woman, sells himself to you and serves you six years, in the seventh year you must let him go free. And when you release him, do not send him away empty-handed. Supply him liberally from your flock, your threshing floor and your winepress. Give to him as the LORD your God has blessed you.

Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and the LORD your God redeemed you. That is why I give you this command today.

Since there will always be the poor, take steps to help them. (As much as it depends on you, address these needs!)

Deuteronomy 15:16-17, Permanent family member

But if your servant says to you, "I do not want to leave you," because he loves you and your family and is well off with you, then take an awl and push it through his ear lobe into the door, and he will become your servant for life. Do the same for your maidservant.

If your servant really wants to stay, they have an option of joining the family for life.

Deuteronomy 15:18, A freed servant is a blessing

Do not consider it a hardship to set your servant free, because his service to you these six years has been worth twice as much as that of a hired hand. And the LORD your God will bless you in everything you do.

 

A freed servant is presumably both a material blessing and something which YHWH notices and rewards.

Deuteronomy 15:19-20, Firstborn

Set apart for the LORD your God every firstborn male of your herds and flocks. Do not put the firstborn of your oxen to work, and do not shear the firstborn of your sheep. Each year you and your family are to eat them in the presence of the LORD your God at the place he will choose.

Set apart the firstborn. This, again, emphasizes a certain percentage freely offered to YHWH, with gratitude.

Deuteronomy 15:21-23, Pure sacrifices

If an animal has a defect, is lame or blind, or has any serious flaw, you must not sacrifice it to the LORD your God. You are to eat it in your own towns. Both the ceremonially unclean and the clean may eat it, as if it were gazelle or deer.

But you must not eat the blood; pour it out on the ground like water.

We have a reminder about the importance of the previously mentioned sacrifices.

Some Random Thoughts 

Underlying all the Sabbatical principle in this chapter is an important societal principle: Take time to reset and to allow people to recover! Do this with grace, as part of worship!

First published May 3, 2023; updated May 2, 2026

Deuteronomy 14, Dietary Laws

We continue to explore the impact of the first three commandments, of being fully devoted to YHWH.

Deuteronomy 14:1-2, Forbidden Canaanite rituals

You are the children of the Lord your God. Do not cut yourselves or shave the front of your heads for the dead, for you are a people holy to the Lord your God. Out of all the peoples on the face of the earth, the Lord has chosen you to be his treasured possession.

Part of being the People of YHWH is avoiding some Canaanite worship traditions. Apparently cutting oneself during ecstatic worship was one such tradition (see I Kings 18:25-29 for an example) and another was shaving one's forehead as a way of assuaging the spirits of the dead.

Deuteronomy 14:3-8, Unclean mammals

Do not eat any detestable thing. These are the animals you may eat: the ox, the sheep, the goat,  the deer, the gazelle, the roe deer, the wild goat, the ibex, the antelope and the mountain sheep. 

You may eat any animal that has a divided hoof and that chews the cud. However, of those that chew the cud or that have a divided hoof you may not eat the camel, the rabbit or the hyrax. Although they chew the cud, they do not have a divided hoof; they are ceremonially unclean for you. The pig is also unclean; although it has a divided hoof, it does not chew the cud. You are not to eat their meat or touch their carcasses.

The NIV footnotes claim, "The precise identification of some of the birds and animals in this chapter is uncertain" and later suggests that the "hyrax" is possibly a "rock badger".

This passage on clean and unclean animals overlaps somewhat with Leviticus 11. From the viewpoint of our modern culture, these dietary laws appear strange and arbitrary. Among commentators, there appears to be no agreed upon explanation for these rules. Currid, in his commentary on Deuteronomy, lists some suggested explanations for the distinctions between "clean" and "unclean" animals.  No one answer seems to explain all of the divisions. I will list four of the possibilities suggested by Currid, beginning with the explanations I find most convincing. 

1. The unclean animals were part of various cultic practices in Canaan and around the region.
2. The unclean animals are related, in some way, to other issues of cleanliness in the Torah, such as anything dealing with death or reproduction.
3. The divisions are symbolic: clean animals represented completion and unclean animals were incomplete in some way.
4. The dietary distinction are for hygienic reasons; unclean animals will make the people sick or carry diseases.

It is likely that the real reasons involved combinations of these.  I will say more in a Sunday essay (see the upcoming blog post of May 3, 2026.)

Deuteronomy 14:9-20, Unclean fish and birds

Of all the creatures living in the water, you may eat any that has fins and scales. But anything that does not have fins and scales you may not eat; for you it is unclean.

You may eat any clean bird. But these you may not eat: the eagle, the vulture, the black vulture, the red kite, the black kite, any kind of falcon, any kind of raven, the horned owl, the screech owl, the gull, any kind of hawk, the little owl, the great owl, the white owl, the desert owl, the osprey, the cormorant, the stork, any kind of heron, the hoopoe and the bat. All flying insects are unclean to you; do not eat them. But any winged creature that is clean you may eat.

On Day 5 of Creation, YHWH created the animals that live in the water or sky. Here we have distinctions between clean and unclean for these animals.

Deuteronomy 14:6-19 is almost identitical to Leviticus 11:3-20.

Deuteronomy 14:21, Carrion

Do not eat anything you find already dead. You may give it to an alien living in any of your towns, and he may eat it, or you may sell it to a foreigner. But you are a people holy to the LORD your God. 

Do not cook a young goat in its mother's milk.

Don't eat carrion. This restriction is naturally linked to death and blood.

The last sentence may be related to another Canaanite cultic practice. (I also see a symbolic statement -- boiling a young goat in the milk of the nanny that birthed her seems unusually cruel.)

Deuteronomy 14:22-23, Tithe

Be sure to set aside a tenth of all that your fields produce each year. Eat the tithe of your grain, new wine and oil, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks in the presence of the LORD your God at the place he will choose as a dwelling for his Name, so that you may learn to revere the LORD your God always.

We now seem to have moved into decrees related to the fourth commandment, regarding the Sabbath and related concepts.

Deuteronomy 14:24-26, Giving from a distance

But if that place is too distant and you have been blessed by the LORD your God and cannot carry your tithe (because the place where the LORD will choose to put his Name is so far away), then exchange your tithe for silver, and take the silver with you and go to the place the LORD your God will choose. Use the silver to buy whatever you like: cattle, sheep, wine or other fermented drink, or anything you wish. Then you and your household shall eat there in the presence of the LORD your God and rejoice.

If one cannot give grain, new wine, oil, animals from the flock, because the sanctuary is too far away, then one can exchange the tithe for silver and give that instead.

Deuteronomy 14:27-29, Taking care of the Levites

And do not neglect the Levites living in your towns, for they have no allotment or inheritance of their own. At the end of every three years, bring all the tithes of that year's produce and store it in your towns, so that the Levites (who have no allotment or inheritance of their own) and the aliens, the fatherless and the widows who live in your towns may come and eat and be satisfied, and so that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.

The tribe of Levi, those responsible for overseeing the sacrifices, are to be taken care of by the other tribes. This too is part of worship.

Some Random Thoughts 

The clean/unclean dietary categories are difficult to understand and do not easily translate into our modern culture's distinction of various animal species. Much of this chapter instructs Israel to be different from the pagan cultures around them, but how the dietary laws fit in to this is unclear. As I say in the blog post on the dietary laws,

"For the modern Christian, who does not live in the ancient Near East culture 

of three thousand years ago, the dietary laws are not, by themselves, in effect."  

So I am comfortable leaving this mystery unsolved....  :-)

First published May 2, 2023; updated May 1, 2026

Deuteronomy 13, Violating the Third Commandment

Here we look at the third commandment of the Ten Commandments. What does it mean to take God's name "in vain"? Any type of spiritual deceit in the name of YHWH is tasking His name in vain.

Deuteronomy 12:32, "Don't add or subtract!s\]"

See that you do all I command you; do not add to it or take away from it.

Currid argues that this final verse of chapter 12 is really an introduction to the material of chapter 13 and the Masoretic text agrees. This reminder is part of a transition from regulations that flow out of the Second Commandment to decrees that reflect the Third Commandment.

Deuteronomy 13:1-5, False prophets

If a prophet, or one who foretells by dreams, appears among you and announces to you a miraculous sign or wonder, and if the sign or wonder of which he has spoken takes place, and he says, "Let us follow other gods" (gods you have not known) "and let us worship them,"  you must not listen to the words of that prophet or dreamer. The LORD your God is testing you to find out whether you love him with all your heart and with all your soul.

It is the LORD your God you must follow, and him you must revere. Keep his commands and obey him; serve him and hold fast to him.

That prophet or dreamer must be put to death, because he preached rebellion against the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt and redeemed you from the land of slavery; he has tried to turn you from the way the LORD your God commanded you to follow. You must purge the evil from among you.

Those who "preach rebellion" against YHWH, using claims of dreams or prophets, are violating the third commandment.

Deuteronomy 13:6-11, Even your own family

If your very own brother, or your son or daughter, or the wife you love, or your closest friend secretly entices you, saying, "Let us go and worship other gods" (gods that neither you nor your fathers have known, gods of the peoples around you, whether near or far, from one end of the land to the other), do not yield to him or listen to him. 

Show him no pity. Do not spare him or shield him. You must certainly put him to death. Your hand must be the first in putting him to death, and then the hands of all the people. Stone him to death, because he tried to turn you away from the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.

Then all Israel will hear and be afraid, and no one among you will do such an evil thing again.

All evil enticement to idolatry, even if it arises within one's own family, was to be treated harshly.

Deuteronomy 13:12-15, A town in rebellion

If you hear it said about one of the towns the LORD your God is giving you to live in that wicked men have arisen among you and have led the people of their town astray, saying, "Let us go and worship other gods" (gods you have not known), then you must inquire, probe and investigate it thoroughly. And if it is true and it has been proved that this detestable thing has been done among you, you must certainly put to the sword all who live in that town. Destroy it completely, both its people and its livestock.

It is possible that an entire town might be in rebellion. If so, the town must be destroyed.

Currid's commentary says that the Hebrew phrase translated "wicked men" is literally "sons of Belial". The term "Belial" is used again in Deuteronomy 15:9 for wickedness. Ancient Hebrew saw Belial as a personification of wickedness and worthlessness.

Deuteronomy 13:16-18, Devastation

Gather all the plunder of the town into the middle of the public square and completely burn the town and all its plunder as a whole burnt offering to the LORD your God. It is to remain a ruin forever, never to be rebuilt. None of those condemned things shall be found in your hands, so that the LORD will turn from his fierce anger; he will show you mercy, have compassion on you, and increase your numbers, as he promised on oath to your forefathers, because you obey the LORD your God, keeping all his commands that I am giving you today and doing what is right in his eyes.

In the new Promised Land, a town in rebellion against YHWH is to be destroyed.  The future land is to be fully committed to YHWH.

The Hebrew word translated "ruin" here is tel (תֵּל.) The modern word "tell" has taken the meaning, in archaeology, of a mound of debris left over from a city.

Some Random Thoughts 

Although the wording of the Third Commandment never explicitly appears in this chapter, it is clear that this chapter is about profaning the name God. The first three Commandments, make it clear that God is to be worshiped and honored consistently, every day, through throughout the nation.

Over time, the concept of "profaning God's name" has been culturally narrowed and watered down. The Third Commandment is often viewed as prohibiting the use of God's name as some type of exclamation. But the Third Commandment, the prohibiting of taking the name of God in vain, was much broader. It included identifying God with useless things or even evil things which He should not be associated with. The people of Israel were identified as the people of God's Name and they were not to be associated with idolatry or injustice ... or any wickedness.

First published May 1, 2023; updated April 30, 2026