The Lord’s Special Prophet

¹⁴ The nations you will ·force out [dispossess] listen to people who use ·magic [divination] and witchcraft, but the Lord your God will not let you do those things. ¹⁵ The Lord your God will ·give [^Lraise up for] you a prophet like me, who is one of your own ·people [relatives; brothers; ^Cultimately Jesus]. Listen to him [Acts 3:25–26; 7:37]. ¹⁶ This is what you asked the Lord your God to do when you were ·gathered [assembled] at ·Mount Sinai [Horeb; 1:6]. You said, “Don’t make ·us [^Lme] listen to the voice of the Lord ·our [^Lmy] God again, and don’t make ·us [^Lme] look at this ·terrible [great] fire anymore, or ·we [^LI] will die [5:23–27].”

¹⁷ So the Lord said to me, “What they have said is good. ¹⁸ So I will ·give [^Lraise up for] them a prophet like you, who is one of their own ·people [relatives; brothers]. I will ·tell him what to say [^Lput my words in his mouth], and he will tell them everything I command. ¹⁹ This prophet will speak for me; anyone who does not listen when he speaks in my name will ·answer [be accountable] to me. ²⁰ But if a prophet ·says something I did not tell him to say as though he were speaking for me [^Lspeaks presumptuously in my name a word I did not command him to speak], or if a prophet speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet must be killed [Jer. 28:15–17].”

²¹ You might be ·thinking [^Lsaying in your heart/mind], “How can we know if a message is not from the Lord?” ²² If what a prophet says in the name of the Lord does not happen, it is not the Lord’s message. That prophet was speaking ·his own ideas [presumptuously]. Don’t be afraid of him.