Now if you say to yourselves, ¹  ‘How can we tell that a message is not from the Lord?’ ²  –

biblegateway Deu 18:21

"You may say in your heart, ‘How will we know the word which the LORD has not spoken?’

You may say to yourself, 'How can we recognize a message the LORD has not spoken?'

You may be wondering, "How can we recognize that the LORD didn’t speak this message?"

biblegateway Deu 18:21

You may say to yourselves, "How can we know when a message has not been spoken by the LORD?"

And if you say in your heart, 'How may we know the word that the LORD has not spoken?'--

bibleoremus Deu 18:21

You may say to yourself, "How can we recognize a word that the LORD has not spoken?"

If you wonder, “How are we to recognize a word that the LORD has not uttered?”

biblegateway Deu 18:21

"And if you say in your heart, ‘How shall we know the word which the LORD has not spoken?’ ––

And if thou say in thine heart, How shall we know the word which the LORD hath not spoken?

biblegateway Deu 18:21

Now if you say to yourselves, ¹  ‘How can we tell that a message is not from the Lord?’ ²  –

¹ tn Heb “in your heart.”

² tn Heb “know the word which the Lord has not spoken.” The issue here is not understanding the meaning of the message, but distinguishing a genuine prophetic word from a false one.