Deuteronomy 18:18-22

18:18 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. 18:19 I will personally hold responsible ¹  anyone who then pays no attention to the words that prophet ²  speaks in my name.

18:20 “But if any prophet presumes to speak anything in my name that I have not authorized ³  him to speak, or speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet must die. 18:21 Now if you say to yourselves, ⁴  ‘How can we tell that a message is not from the Lord?’ ⁵  – 18:22 whenever a prophet speaks in my ⁶  name and the prediction ⁷  is not fulfilled, ⁸  then I have ⁹  not spoken it; ¹⁰  the prophet has presumed to speak it, so you need not fear him.”

¹ tn Heb “will seek from him”; NAB “I myself will make him answer for it”; NRSV “will hold accountable.”

² tn Heb “he”; the referent (the prophet mentioned in v. 18) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

³ tn Or “commanded” (so KJV, NAB, NIV, NRSV).

⁴ tn Heb “in your heart.”

⁵ 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.

⁶ tn Heb “the Lord’s.” See note on the word “his” in v. 5.

⁷ tn Heb “the word,” but a predictive word is in view here. Cf. NAB “his oracle.”

⁸ tn Heb “does not happen or come to pass.”

⁹ tn Heb “the Lord has.” See note on the word “his” in v. 5.

¹⁰ tn Heb “that is the word which the Lord has not spoken.”