Then the Lord spoke to you from the middle of the fire; you heard speech but you could not see anything – only a voice was heard. ¹ 

When the Lord heard you, he became angry and made this vow: ¹ 

Have a people ever heard the voice of God speaking from the middle of fire, as you yourselves have, and lived to tell about it?

“The Levites will call out to every Israelite ¹  with a loud voice:

When the Lord heard you speaking to me, he ¹  said to me, “I have heard what these people have said to you – they have spoken well.

But now, why should we die, because this intense fire will consume us! If we keep hearing the voice of the Lord our God we will die!

Who is there from the entire human race ¹  who has heard the voice of the living God speaking from the middle of the fire as we have, and has lived?

And this is the blessing ¹  to Judah. He said, Listen, O Lord, to Judah’s voice, and bring him to his people. May his power be great, and may you help him against his foes.

The Lord said these things to your entire assembly at the mountain from the middle of the fire, the cloud, and the darkness with a loud voice, and that was all he said. ¹  Then he inscribed the words ²  on two stone tablets and gave them to me.

This accords with what happened at Horeb in the day of the assembly. You asked the Lord your God: “Please do not make us hear the voice of the Lord our ¹  God any more or see this great fire any more lest we die.”