Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi said: Had the nations of the world known how beneficial the Tent of Meeting was for them, they would have surrounded it with encampments and fortifications. You find that until the Tabernacle was erected, the nations of the world would hear the sound of the divine speech and would be afflicted with diarrhea in their palaces.20The point is that the divine speech was so overpowering that those who heard it would lose control of their physical faculties.
That is what is written: “For who of all flesh that heard the voice of the living God [speaking from the midst of the fire like us, has lived?]” (Deuteronomy 5:23). Rabbi Simon said: The speech would emerge with two natures, as an elixir of life for Israel and an elixir of death for the nations of the world. That is what is written: “[Has a people heard the voice of God…] as you heard, and lived?” (Deuteronomy 4:33).
You heard and lived, but the nations of the world would hear and die. Rabbi Ḥiyya taught: “[The Lord spoke to him] from the Tent of Meeting” – this teaches that the voice would stop and would not emerge outside the Tent of Meeting.