Speak You With Us and the People Earn Prophets

"And they said to Moses: You speak with us, and we will hear" (Exodus 20:16). By this they merited that prophets would arise for them, and so it says, "the LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet from your midst, from your brothers, like me" (Deuteronomy 18:15). But when they mocked the messengers of God, the holy spirit ceased from among them, as it says, "but they mocked the messengers of God" (2 Chronicles 36:16). "But let not God speak with us, lest we die" (Exodus 20:16): if even one more thing had been added to them, they would have died. And what did they see, that they spoke this to Moses after the commandments? Had they not already been spoken? Rather, it teaches that they supposed something else was about to be said.