AND HE SAID. At this point he approached with a new question. He knew, of course, that it cannot be that twenty alone should suffice, since two cities, each containing an edah of zadiqim, do not constitute a majority and therefore cannot save the other three. His question was, however: Can these two cities at least save themselves — since each contains an edah of zadiqim — or do we say that the rule of majority operates also to disadvantage, in which case they too will perish because of the iniquity of the three cities comprising the majority. iu Since it was a new question, he prefaced it once again with, Now I have begun to speak to the Lord: I know that from what You said to me earlier — viz., when it is to advantage the majority is decisive for the minority as well — it follows that the majority is also decisive for the minority when it is to disadvantage. But I ask that it be as if we had not yet spoken to one another at all, and that the following be the beginning of my words:

{On behalf of forty-five and twenty and ten but not for others, He said: ‘I will not destroy’. Why?}

PERHAPS TWENTY WILL BE FOUND THERE? Will this save the two cities? To which, God replied: I will not destroy. He did not say here I will not act, since He then would act to pass judgment over the three cities that do not have within them zadiqim. It is just that He will not destroy the plain; there will not be the kind of destruction that overturns the whole plain, as that would exterminate the two cities as well. He will administer a different form of justice that will result in the death of the inhabitants of the three cities, leaving intact the plain and the two cities which do contain zadiqim.