[Truthfully? I’m a bit disappointed at reading the criterion for determining a true prophet from a false one: A true prophet’s word eventually comes to pass while a false prophet’s doesn’t. That’s plain common sense, not even a revelation.
What if the fulfillment does not happen within our lifetime but centuries, if not millennia from now? How do we know during our time if the prophet was true or false? Too late for us; meanwhile did we believe and never knew the outcome, if we were right or duped? False prophets thrive in so many religions today, many using the very Scriptures of Israel as their foundation. Who’s to know? For people today, we have the benefit of hindsight, of Divine truth accessible to anyone truly interested, but it requires much study and wisdom/discernment gained from it.
At a Sinaite group discussion, someone raised the question: what is the difference between ignorance and stupidity? The answer? One has a choice, the other doesn’t. Now guess which is which!
Commentary comes from the best of Jewish minds, as collected by Dr. J.H. Hertz in his excellent resource Pentateuch and Haftorahs; this website uses EF/Everett Fox, The Five Books of Moses.—Admin1.]
Deuteronomy/Davarim 18
(c) PRIESTS AND LEVITES
1-8. The priests and Levites were not to possess any allotments of land. The history of the European peoples would have been a happier one than it has been, if the priesthood had been debarred from ownership of land.
1 There is not to be for the Levitical priests -the entire tribe of Levi- any portion or inheritance with Israel; the fire-offerings of YHVH, and his inheritance, they may eat.
the offerings of the LORD. These were (a) the burnt-offering; (b) the meal-offering; (c) the thank-offering; and (d) the tresspass-offering. Certain specific parts in all of these sacrifices belonged to the priests.
His inheritance. God’s inheritance; i.e. what was appropriated to Him, and from Him to the tribe of Levi; such as heave-offerings, tithes and first-fruits.
2 But a (normal) inheritance he may not have, in the midst of his brothers, YHVH is his inheritance, as he promised him.as He hath spoken unto them. See Numbers XVIII,20.
3 Now this shall be the regulated-share of the priests from the people, from the slaughterers of slaughter-offerings, whether of ox or sheep: the priest is to be given the shankbone, the jawbone and the rough-stomach.priests’ due. The reference here is to further ‘dues’ not previously mentioned in Numbers; viz., those which accrued from the animals slaughtered for ordinary consumption, as distinguished from those brought as sacrifices.
4 The premier-part of your grain, your new-wine and your shining-oil, the premier-part of the shearing of your sheep you are to give him.5 For him YHVH your God has chosen from all your tribes, for standing-in-service, for attending, in the name of YHVH, he and his sons, all the days (to come).
6 Now when the Levite comes from one of your gates, from all Israel, where he sojourns, and he comes with all his appetite’s craving to the place that YHVH chooses,
If a Levite come. Only a portion of the tribe of Levites would live in Jerusalem. Most of them would be scattered among the tribes. Unlike the non-Levites living on the land in their own clan, these Levites had necessarily no fixed abode; Judges XVII,7-9, XIX; I Sam. II,36. The officiating priests would tend to close their ranks against the wandering priests. It is here enacted that should any of these latter come to the Central Sanctuary, he should be allowed to minister and share in the priestly emoluments.
7 and attends in the name of YHVH his God, like all his brothers, the Levites who are standing-in-service there before the presence of YHVH:8 a share like the (usual) share they may eat, apart from the sale-revenues of (their) fathers’ (property).
like portions to eat. lit. ‘they shall eat portion as portion’; i.e. share and share alike.
beside . . . fathers’ houses. lit. ‘besides his sellings according to the fathers’. This refers to the proceeds of the sale of his local possessions, which a Levite inherited from his ancestors (Lev. XXV,33), or of private dues accruing to him. If a Levite had such extra income, his brother-Levites were not permitted to say to him, ‘You have enough, you must not expect or accept any priestly emoluments!’ He still has his right to share alike with the others.
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Modern writers seldom do justice to the priesthood. They exalt the prophet, and almost invariably depreciate the priest. It is true that ‘the centre of gravity in religion lies for the priest elsewhere than for the prophet; it lies in man’s attitude, not toward his fellowmen, but toward God; not in his social, but in his personal life’ (Kuenen). To the priest, man is more than a social being; he has also an individual life of his own, his joys and sorrows, his historical claims, his traditions of the past, and his hopes for the future; and all these are brought by the priest under the influence of religion, to become sanctified through their relation with God. All the details of human life are with the priest so many opportunities for the worship of God (Schechter).
The priest’s indispensable function was to conserve the spiritual discoveries of the past by means of religious institutions. He gave the daily bread of religion to the people, treasured up whatever had been gained, and kept the people nurtured on it and admonished by it. To picture the priest as exalting external observance at the expense of moral values is a controversial fiction. Though Malachi had much to complain of the priests of his day, his estimate of what Levi had been in the past is no exaggeration. ‘The law of truth was in his mouth, and unrighteousness was not found in his lips; he walked with Me in peace and uprightness, and did turn many away from iniquity.’
(d) PROPHETS
9-22. The description of the place of the prophet in Israel is preceded by a stern and detailed denunciation of any dealings with soothsayers and wizards–a restatement of the injunction in Lev. XIX,26,31. The people may naturally desire to know the future or to learn the Divine mind; and they will be living among nations who hold that the will of the gods was best learned through augury and sorcery. But Israel does not need such means of obtaining Divine guidance. ‘Alone in the antique world, Israel has the high honour of having broken with this entire system of approaching the Divine’ (Welch). Its communion with the spiritual world was through a spiritual channel—that of the prophet. As it is said in Num. XXIII,23, ‘There is no enchantment in Jacob, neither is there any divination in Israel: at the right time it is said to him what God doeth.’
The problem of sorcery confronts every administrator of primitive races. ‘Attempts to advance them to a higher life in our own day are being rendered futile by the sorcerer: at his instigation the darkest crimes are committed. To what depths of wickedness his practices can bring men is seen in the horrors of the secret cult of the negroes of Haiti’ (Harper).
9 When you enter the land that YHVH your God is giving you, you are not to learn to do according to the abominations of those nations.10 There is not to be found among you one having his son or his daughter cross through fire, an augurer of augury, a hidden-sorcerer, a diviner, or an enchanter,
pass through the fire. Human sacrifice was an essential part of Moloch worship.
divination. This is the most general term for the magical practices that follow. A Gold Coast official recently complained that the numbing effect of omen-taking and consultation with soothsayers had not hitherto received the attention it deserved.
Image from stephaniesylverne.com
a soothsayer. lit. ‘cloud-gazer’; an observer of clouds and omens.
enchanter. Or, ‘augur.’
sorcerer. One who uses magical appliances in the shape of drugs or herbs for curing, or for inflicting diseases.
11 or a tier of (magical) tying-knots, or a seeker of ghosts or favorable-spirits, or an inquirer of the dead.charmer. As of serpents; a dealer in spells.
one that consulteth a ghost. Heb. ob. Saul, desirous of speaking to Samuel on the night before the fateful battle of Gilboa (I Sam. XXVIII,7) said unto his servants, ‘Seek me a woman that divineth a ghost’. From Isaiah VIII,19 it would seem that the ob was a kind of ventriloquist who impersonated the dead by speaking in a faint voice from the ground.
or a familiar spirit. Coming from the root ‘know’ it would seem to correspond to the English word wizard, which originally meant ‘wise or knowing one’, without any hint of sorcery or evil.
necromancer. An inquirer of the dead. ‘In the Hebrew religion the spiritual part of man was conceived not as ghostly, but under the attribute of holy. It is a significant fact that stories of ghosts or apparitions are almost absent from the Old Testament; and necromancy, which attempts to come into communication with the dead, that is, to deal with ghosts, was especially abhorrent’ (F. Adler).
12 For an abomination to YHVH is anyone who does these-things, and because of these abominations YHVH your God is dispossessing them from before you!13 Wholehearted shall you be with YHVH your God!
thou shalt be wholehearted. And not given over in part to demoniac powers, or other evil superstitions of the heathen. ‘Walk with Him whole-heartedly and hope in Him. Pry not into the veiled future, but accept whatever lot befalls you. Then will you be His people and His portion’ (Rashi).
Wholeheartedness is one of the great requirements of Religion; hence is written in some texts with large initial letter.
14 For these nations that you are coming-to-possess: to sorcerers and augurers do they hearken, but you-not thus has YHVH your God made you!hath not suffered thee so to do. To turn to soothsayers, because God would raise up a Prophet from amongst the Israelites themselves, and thus reveal to them whatever they desired to know from God.
15 A prophet from your midst, from your brothers, like myself will YHVH your God raise up for you, to him you are to hearken,a prophet. In each generation.
like unto me. Not of the same rank as Moses (XXXIV,10), but of the line of Prophets of which Moses is the ‘father’.
16 according to all that you sought from YHVH your God at Horev on the day of the Assembly, saying: I cannot continue hearing the voice of YHVH my God, and this great fire I cannot (bear to) see anymore, so that I do not die!in Horeb. Israel had refused the high honour of hearing directly the voice of God. As Moses was the intermediary at Horeb, so the Prophets shall be the intermediaries in their generation.
17 And YHVH said to me: They have done-well in their speaking;18 a prophet I will raise up for them from among their brothers, like you; I will put my words in his mouth, and he will speak to them whatever I command him.
command him. The office of the Prophet is thus conceived not so much as a foreteller, but in spiritual succession to Moses as the teacher and religious guide of his age, though the gift of predicting the future, where this serves a moral purpose, cannot be denied him.
19 And it shall be: (any) man who does not hearken to my words which he speaks in my name, I myself will require (a reckoning) from him.require. I will seek out his disobedience, and judge him for it. ‘The rigorous punishment would deter anyone from coming forward as a prophet, who had not an absolute conviction of his Divine call’ (Dillmann).
21 Now if you should say in your heart: How can we know it is the word that YHVH did not speak?
22 Should the prophet speak in the name of YHVH but the word not happen, not come-about- (then) that is the word that YHVH did not speak; with presumption did the prophet speak it; you are not to be-in-fear of him!
follow not. The test of the false prophet was the non-fulfillment of the specific prediction that he announced as the credentials of his Divine call, though signs and miracles performed by a ‘prophet’ are not necessarily a proof of his truth (XIII,2,6). ‘The ultimate criterion of the true prophet is the moral character of his utterance’ (Dummelow).
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Even as the kingship ensured stability to national and social life, and the priesthood gave stability in religion, so the Prophetic order secured spiritual progress and averted stagnation. The Prophets are the inspired declarers of the Divine will. ‘The mere foretelling of future events is the lowest stage of prophecy, and in the eyes of the great Prophets of Israel it was of quite secondary importance. Their aim was to fathom the secrets of holiness; and their striving, by means of admonition and moral persuasion, to guide the peoples in the paths which lead mankind to spiritual and political well-being’ (Shemtob ibn Shemtob).
The competence of the Prophet, however, is not unlimited. He too is bound by the Torah, to which he may neither add nor subtract, except as a temporary measure of extreme urgency (horaath shaah). Nor may he venture, solely in virtue of the prophetic gifts with which he is endowed, to give a ruling in matters of Law. In this respect he must yield place to the Judge, the sage in whom alone is vested the authority to interpret and to apply the sanctions of the Law according to the accepted norms of Biblical interpretation.
‘There is no quarrel between prophet and priest; nor was there ever one. As guardians of the Law of God, they both cherish common ideals. The prophets never preached the abrogation of the Law. What they did stress—and it is what the most resolute formalist can endorse word for word—was that only the heart which is right with God can find fit and proper expression in the well-ordered Temple-worship, and be brought nearer to the Eternal by ritual and ceremony. Nor did the good and genuine priest—for there were false priests as there were false prophets—ever hold that one could shelter himself behind sacrifices from the judgment of Heaven upon his moral turpitude and waywardness of conduct’ (I. Epstein).