The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your brothers. You must listen to him. This is what you asked of the LORD your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly, when you said, "Let us not hear the voice of the LORD our God or see this great fire anymore, so that we will not die!" Then the LORD said to me, "They have spoken well. I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. I will put My words in his mouth, and he will tell them everything I command him.
"Speak to us yourself and we will listen," they said to Moses. "But do not let God speak to us, or we will die."
Significance
Exodus 20:19 records the people's terrified request after hearing God speak at Sinai: "Speak to us yourself and we will listen.... But do not let God speak to us, or we will die." Deuteronomy 18:15-18 treats this fear as the occasion for God's promise: "I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers" (נָבִיא... כָּמוֹךָ, navi... kamokha, Deuteronomy 18:18). Moses explicitly recalls the Sinai request in Deuteronomy 18:16: "This is what you asked of the LORD your God at Horeb." The prophetic institution thus arises directly from Israel's inability to bear unmediated divine speech, with Moses' mediatorial role becoming the pattern for the promised successor prophet who will speak God's words to the people.
