Deuteronomy 18:15–22, King James Version
Italic words were supplied in the English translation for clarity.
Deuteronomy 18:15–22
A Prophet Like Moses and the Risk of False Speech
A prophet like Moses answers Horeb's fear
The LORD will raise a prophet from among the people, of their brethren, like Moses. At Horeb the assembly asked not to hear the fiery voice again. God approved that request and promised to put words in the prophet's mouth. Hearers are accountable for those words; refusal is required of them.
The office is mediation inside Israel, not a license for a later ruler, preacher, or self-declared seer to stand above testing.
Presumptuous speech dies; failed words expose a false claim
The prophet who speaks a word God has not commanded, or who speaks in the name of other gods, faces death in the ancient law. Israel asks how to know. When a word is spoken in the LORD's name and does not follow or come to pass, the LORD has not spoken it; the speaker has spoken presumptuously, and Israel need not be afraid of him.
Fulfillment is one test, not a complete one: Deuteronomy 13 already warned that a sign can come true while the speaker still pulls Israel after other gods. Charisma, one accurate prediction, or a later messianic reading cannot make anyone unaccountable.
How this should shape us
Test anyone who claims divine speech by loyalty, content, and outcome. Preserve uncertainty, protect hearers from coercion, and do not let a title, a fulfilled date, or a following end scrutiny.
Teach it back
Explain Deuteronomy 18:15–22 in your own words. Include its place in Moses' speeches or the final narrative, both movements, one material uncertainty, one affected person or group, and one use the complete context rules out.
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Go deeper
The explanation above is meant to stand on its own. Open these notes only if you want language, history, disagreements, or source locations.
Where careful interpreters disagreeThe strongest options and their difficulties
Where do careful interpreters disagree?
Best judgment: Interpreters disagree about the composition, date, Mosaic presentation, final-form role, legal relationship, rhetoric, history, and reception of “A Prophet Like Moses and the Risk of False Speech.” Confidence is strongest in the received unit's movement summarized here; historical and source-critical reconstructions remain probable, plausible, or uncertain as the evidence warrants.
How certain? probableResearch trail and exact locationsThe source record behind this section
Supports: Exact reader-facing KJV wording, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete verse coverage for this thought unit.
Deuteronomy 18:15–22, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus
Supports: Hebrew wording, morphology, names, speech and legal clauses, poetic lines, older-English controls, and translation limits.
Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Deut.xml, Masoretic words and morphology for 18:15–22
Supports: Unit-bounded translation, syntax, lexical, legal, poetic, measure, name, and selected textual notes; silence is not evidence.
NET Bible Deuteronomy PDF, complete PDF pp. 1–111, translation and translator notes attached to 18:15–22
Supports: Concise critical framing of Deuteronomy's law collection, historical setting, relationship to other Torah laws, centralization, and moral tensions.
Yale Bible Study, 'Deuteronomy Part 1,' complete two-page PDF and linked lesson sections on law, legal collections, reform, centralization, and ethics, applied to Deuteronomy 18:15–22
Supports: A current debate map only; no unexposed chapter argument is attributed.
Schmid, Oxford Handbook chapter (2020), official abstract and six-question scope: Pentateuchal setting, reworked Tetrateuch, layers, date, covenant and treaty, and Deuteronomism
Supports: Mosaic speech presentation, self-referential Torah language, final-form function, and one model of earlier independent literary life.
Glatt-Gilad, 'Deuteronomy: The First Torah,' complete article sections on speeches, Torah self-reference, law differences, and Joshua-Kings reception; applied to Deuteronomy 18:15–22
Supports: Prophetic succession, speech tests, compositional tension, dangerous certainty, and Jewish and Christian fulfillment boundaries.
Stokl, 'Can There Be Another Prophet Like Moses?' complete sections on Deuteronomy 18, Horeb mediation, true and false prophets, chapter 13 tension, and Moses' epitaph
Sources for This Section
These records identify the source, the claim it supports, and the exact location used. A source remains evidence to evaluate; it does not replace the biblical text.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact reader-facing KJV wording, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete verse coverage for this thought unit.
Exact location: Deuteronomy 18:15–22, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Deuteronomy
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Hebrew wording, morphology, names, speech and legal clauses, poetic lines, older-English controls, and translation limits.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Deut.xml, Masoretic words and morphology for 18:15–22
Open source ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible: Deuteronomy with translators' notes
Biblical Studies Press
eBible.org distribution of the NET Bible, PDF generated 2026-08-12
Supports: Unit-bounded translation, syntax, lexical, legal, poetic, measure, name, and selected textual notes; silence is not evidence.
Exact location: NET Bible Deuteronomy PDF, complete PDF pp. 1–111, translation and translator notes attached to 18:15–22
Open source ↗modern critical open study guide
Deuteronomy Part 1: Law, Reform, and Historical Setting
Joel S. Baden and Yale Bible Study
Yale Divinity School, 2023 course edition
Supports: Concise critical framing of Deuteronomy's law collection, historical setting, relationship to other Torah laws, centralization, and moral tensions.
Exact location: Yale Bible Study, 'Deuteronomy Part 1,' complete two-page PDF and linked lesson sections on law, legal collections, reform, centralization, and ethics, applied to Deuteronomy 18:15–22
Open source ↗modern scholarly handbook chapter abstract
The Place of Deuteronomy in the Formation of the Pentateuch
Konrad Schmid
The Oxford Handbook of the Pentateuch, Oxford University Press, 2020
Supports: A current debate map only; no unexposed chapter argument is attributed.
Exact location: Schmid, Oxford Handbook chapter (2020), official abstract and six-question scope: Pentateuchal setting, reworked Tetrateuch, layers, date, covenant and treaty, and Deuteronomism
Open source ↗modern jewish scholarly open composition study
Deuteronomy: The First Torah
David A. Glatt-Gilad
TheTorah.com, 2015
Supports: Mosaic speech presentation, self-referential Torah language, final-form function, and one model of earlier independent literary life.
Exact location: Glatt-Gilad, 'Deuteronomy: The First Torah,' complete article sections on speeches, Torah self-reference, law differences, and Joshua-Kings reception; applied to Deuteronomy 18:15–22
Open source ↗modern scholarly open prophecy study
Can There Be Another Prophet Like Moses?
Jonathan Stokl
TheTorah.com, 2017
Supports: Prophetic succession, speech tests, compositional tension, dangerous certainty, and Jewish and Christian fulfillment boundaries.
Exact location: Stokl, 'Can There Be Another Prophet Like Moses?' complete sections on Deuteronomy 18, Horeb mediation, true and false prophets, chapter 13 tension, and Moses' epitaph
Open source ↗