“The Lord saw that [the wickedness of man] was great [raba]” (Genesis 6:5) – Rabbi Ḥanina said: It was constantly increasing [rava]. Rabbi Berekhya said in the name of Rabbi Yoḥanan: We are informed that the generation of the Flood was punished with water and that the people of Sodom were punished with fire. From where can we learn to apply what is stated here to there, and what is stated there to here?
The verse states: Raba [here and] raba [there]5“Because the outcry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great [raba]” (Genesis 18:20). for a verbal analogy.6Indicating that both the people of the Flood and the people of Sodom were punished by both water and fire. “And every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the day” – from when the sun would rise until it would set there was no hope for them.
That is what is written: “The murderer rises in daylight, kills the poor and indigent, and at night is like a thief” (Job 24:14). But is it not written: “In the dark they burrow under houses; during the day they remain sealed at home”? (Job 24:16).7Indicating that they did not engage in theft at night. What would they do? They would bring balsam oil and smear it on a stone [of the house they wished to rob] and come at night, smell it, and break in.8They were thus involved in thievery both by day and by night.
Rabbi Ḥanina once expounded this interpretation [at a lecture] in Tzippori. That night, three hundred break-ins occurred.9By some thieves that had heard the lecture and applied its “lesson,” marking stones on the houses they identified as targets during the day. Balsam was not available in Tzippori, however, so they used a different method of marking. Imagine if they had had balsam oil – what would the Tzipporians have done then!