16. This is what you asked the Lord your God to do. You were gathered at Mount Sinai. You said, “Don’t make us listen to the voice of the Lord our God again. Don’t make us look at this terrible fire anymore. We will die.”
17. So the Lord said to me, “What they have said is good.
18. So I will give them a prophet like you. He will be one of their own people. I will tell him what to say. And he will tell them everything I command.
19. This prophet will speak for me. Anyone who does not listen when he speaks will answer to me.
20. But a prophet might say something I did not tell him to say. And he might say he is speaking for me. Or a prophet might speak in the name of other gods. That prophet must be killed.”
21. You might be thinking, “How can we know if a message is not from the Lord?”
22. What a prophet says in the name of the Lord might not happen. If it doesn’t, it is not the Lord’s message. That prophet was speaking his own ideas. Don’t be afraid of him.