Why the Deep Covers the Wicked Like a Clay Lid on a Vat

Another interpretation: "Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains" (literally: the mountains of God) (Psalms 36:7). Rabbi Ishmael and Rabbi Akiva (say). [Rabbi Ishmael says:] The righteous, who perform the Torah that was given from the mountains of God, [the Holy One, blessed be He, performs righteousness with them like the mighty mountains; but the wicked, who do not perform the Torah that was given from the mountains of God,] the Holy One, blessed be He, is exacting with them even unto the great deep. There are many lines of interpretation for this verse, but in order not to be wearisome (I stop here). [Rabbi Akiva says: With both these and those the Holy One, blessed be He, is exacting. He collects from the righteous the few evil deeds that they did in this world, in order to pay them a complete reward in the world to come; and He bestows ease upon the wicked and pays them for the few good deeds that they did in this world, in order to requite them in the world to come. Rabbi Meir says: He compared the righteous by their dwelling, and He compared the wicked by their dwelling. He compared the righteous by their dwelling, as it is said, "In a good pasture I will feed them, and upon the high mountains of Israel shall their fold be" (Ezekiel 34:14). And He compared the wicked by their dwelling, as it is said, "Thus says the Lord God: On the day when he went down to Sheol I caused mourning ('he'evalti'); I covered the deep over him" (Ezekiel 31:15) — it is written 'hovalti' ("I led"). Rabbi Yehudah bar Ami said: A parable. One does not make a cover for a vat of silver, nor of gold, nor of bronze, nor of iron, [nor of lead], but of earthenware, because it is a kind matched with its own kind. So said the Holy One, blessed be He: Gehinnom is darkness, as it is said, "Let their way be dark and slippery, with the angel of the Lord pursuing them" (Psalms 35:6); and the deep is darkness, as it is said, "and darkness was upon the face of the deep" (Genesis 1:2); and the wicked are darkness, as it is said, "and their deeds are in darkness, and they say, Who sees us, and who knows us?" (Isaiah 29:15). Let darkness come and cover darkness, as you say, "for it comes in vanity and goes in darkness, and its name shall be covered in darkness" (Ecclesiastes 6:4).]