“Hurry; escape there, as I will not be able to do anything until your arrival there. Therefore, he called the name of the city Tzoar” (Genesis 19:22). “Hurry; escape there, as I will not be able to do anything until your arrival there…” – Rabbi Levi said: This is analogous to a province that had two patrons,64Spokesmen who were appointed to advocate on behalf of the province before the king. one a country-dweller and the other a nobleman.
The king became angry at them [the people of the province] and sought to punish them. The king said: ‘If I punish them in the presence of the nobleman, they would then say: Had the country-dweller been here, he would have protected us. And if it would be [that I punish them] in the presence of the country-dweller, they would then say: Had the nobleman been here, he would have protected us.’ So, too, because some of the Sodomites worshipped the sun and some of them worshipped the moon, the Holy One blessed be He said: ‘If I punish them during the day, they would then say: Had the moon been there, it would have protected us.
If I punish them at night, they would then say: Has the sun been there, it would have protected us.’ Rather, he punished them on the sixteenth of Nisan,65Near the vernal equinox, when day and night are equal in duration. at a time when both the sun and the moon were present in the heavens. That is what is written: “The sun rose upon the earth and Lot came to Tzoar…” (Genesis 19:23).66At daybreak, when both the sun and the moon are visible.