Text -- Deuteronomy 18:21-22 (NET)

18:21 Now if you say to yourselves, ‘How can we tell that a message is not from the Lord?’– 18:22 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.”

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Deu 18:21

¹ tn Heb “in your heart.”

² tn Heb “know the word which the Lord has not spoken.” The issue here is not understanding the meaning of the message, but distinguishing a genuine prophetic word from a false one.

NET Notes: Deu 18:22

¹ tn Heb “the Lord’s.” See note on the word “his” in v. 5.

² tn Heb “the word,” but a predictive word is in view here. Cf. NAB “his oracle.”

³ tn Heb “does not happen or come to pass.”

⁴ tn Heb “the Lord has.” See note on the word “his” in v. 5.

⁵ tn Heb “that is the word which the Lord has not spoken.”