Why Israel Falls and Rises While the Wicked Are Overturned

"You are standing today, all of you" (Deuteronomy 29:9). This is what Scripture says: "The wicked are overturned and are no more, but the house of the righteous shall stand" (Proverbs 12:7). Whenever the Holy One, blessed be He, looks upon the deeds of the wicked and overturns them, they have no recovery. He overturned the deeds of the generation of the Flood, and there was no recovery for them. What is written concerning them? "And He blotted out every living thing" (Genesis 7:23). He overturned the deeds of the men of Sodom, and there was no recovery for them, as it is said, "And He overturned those cities" (Genesis 19:25). He overturned the deeds of the Egyptians, and there was no recovery for them, as it is said, "There remained not so much as one of them" (Exodus 14:28). He overturned the deeds of Babylon, and there was no recovery for them, as it is said, "And I will cut off from Babylon name and remnant, and offspring and posterity" (Isaiah 14:22). And concerning all of them David said, "There the workers of iniquity have fallen; they are thrust down and are not able to rise" (Psalms 36:13). But Israel falls and stands again, as it is said, "Rejoice not over me, O my enemy; though I have fallen, I shall arise" (Micah 7:8). And it says, "For I the Lord do not change, and you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed" (Malachi 3:6). Rabbi Hanina bar Pappa said: The Holy One, blessed be He, said: Never have I smitten a nation and repeated it against them, but you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed, as it is said, "I will spend My arrows upon them" (Deuteronomy 32:23) — My arrows are spent, but they are not consumed. And so the Assembly of Israel said, "He has bent His bow and set me as a target for the arrow" (Lamentations 3:12). To what may the matter be compared? To a mighty man who set up a beam and shot arrows at it; the arrows are spent, but the beam stands. So too with Israel: whenever sufferings come upon them, the sufferings are spent, and they stand in their place. Therefore it is said, "The wicked are overturned and are no more" (Proverbs 12:7).