“For we are destroying this place, as their outcry has become great before the Lord, and the Lord has sent us to destroy it” (Genesis 19:13). “For we are destroying” – Rabbi Levi in the name of Rav Naḥman: The ministering angels, because they revealed the secret of the Holy One blessed be He,34That He was about to destroy Sodom. they were expelled from their stations [in heaven] for one hundred and thirty-eight years.35Jacob dreamt that he saw angels ascending from earth to heaven (Genesis 28:12).
The Midrash asserts that these were the same angels who saved Lot, who were banished from heaven and forced to stay on earth until Jacob’s dream, which took place one hundred thirty-eight year later. Rabbi Tanḥuma attributed it [their banishment] to a subtle [improper] expression, [as] Rabbi Ḥama bar Ḥanina said: It is because they were arrogant and said: “For we are destroying this place.”36They should have said “God is destroying” instead of “we are destroying.”
“Lot came out and spoke to his sons-in-law, those who had wed his daughters, and said: Arise, depart from this place, as the Lord is destroying the city. He was as a jester in the eyes of his sons-in-law” (Genesis 19:14). “And spoke to his sons-in-law, [those who had wed his daughters]…” – he had four daughters,37The Midrash explains that the two expressions “sons-in-law” and “those who had wed his daughters” refer to two separate groups of people. two who were betrothed and two who were married.
“Who had wed [lekuḥei] his daughters” is not written here, but rather, “who were wedding [lokeḥei] his daughters.”38But they had not yet married them. “He was as a jester in the eyes of his sons-in-law” – they said to him: ‘Harps and flutes are in the province, and the province is about to be overturned?’39The city is full of gaiety and merrymaking, and shows no indication of facing imminent doom.