12. The Lord is disgusted with anyone who does these things, and that's why he will help you destroy the nations that are in the land.
13. Never be guilty of doing any of these disgusting things!
14. You will go in and take the land from nations that practise magic and witchcraft. But the Lord your God won't allow you to do those things.
15. Instead, he will choose one of your own people to be a prophet just like me, and you must do what that prophet says.
16. You were asking for a prophet the day you were gathered at Mount Sinai and said to the Lord, “Please don't let us hear your voice or see this terrible fire again—if we do, we will die!”
17. Then the Lord told me:Moses, they have said the right thing.
18. So when I want to speak to them, I will choose one of them to be a prophet like you. I will give my message to that prophet, who will tell the people exactly what I have said.
19. Since the message comes from me, anyone who doesn't obey the message will have to answer to me.
20. But if I haven't spoken, and a prophet claims to have a message from me, you must kill that prophet, and you must also kill any prophet who claims to have a message from another god.
21. You may be asking yourselves, “How can we tell if a prophet's message really comes from the Lord?”
22. You will know, because if the Lord says something will happen, it will happen. And if it doesn't, you will know that the prophet was falsely claiming to speak for the Lord. Don't be afraid of any prophet whose message doesn't come from the Lord.