Why the Righteous Plead for the Wicked Before God

(Genesis 18:25:) FAR BE IT FROM YOU TO DO SUCH A THING. Let our master teach us: What of one who stands and prays with frivolity? Thus our masters taught: One stands to pray only with gravity (literally, heaviness of head). David said (Psalms 2:11): SERVE THE LORD WITH FEAR, AND REJOICE WITH TREMBLING. There was a case of a certain man who stood to read from the Torah and leaned himself against the wall, and Rabbi Samuel bar Nahmani turned him back, saying that he should not conduct himself with frivolity. And so you find with the fathers of the world: when they prayed, they prayed with awe. For so Moses said (Deuteronomy 9:18, 25): AND I CAST MYSELF DOWN BEFORE THE LORD, when he was seeking mercy for Israel, as it is said (Exodus 32:11): AND MOSES IMPLORED. He girded his loins in prayer [to plead an advocacy for Israel]. He said before Him: Master of the Universe, WHY, O LORD, SHOULD YOUR WRATH BURN AGAINST YOUR PEOPLE, etc.; WHY SHOULD EGYPT SPEAK, etc.; REMEMBER ABRAHAM, ISAAC, AND ISRAEL YOUR SERVANTS, etc. (Exodus 32:11-13). Hezekiah bar Hiyya said: It was not pleasing to the Holy One, blessed be He, until Moses mentioned the merit of the fathers. The Holy One, blessed be He, said to him: Moses, had they not had the merit of the fathers, I would have destroyed them. You do not know how to plead merit. Rabbi Pinhas the Priest bar Hama in the name of Rabbi Simon, and Rabbi Abin in the name of Rabbi Aha, said: What did the Holy One, blessed be He, do? He wrapped Himself in His prayer shawl like a leader of the congregation [who passes] before the ark, and said to Moses: Thus shall you pray before Me, and say: THE LORD, THE LORD, A GOD MERCIFUL AND GRACIOUS, etc. (Exodus 34:6), as it is said: AND THE LORD PASSED BEFORE HIS FACE AND PROCLAIMED, etc. (ibid.). What is AND HE PASSED? Like one who passes before the ark. See how the righteous seek merit for the world and plead an advocacy for Israel, and not for Israel alone but even for the wicked, as it is said (Ezekiel 33:11): AS I LIVE, SAYS THE LORD GOD, I DO NOT DESIRE THE DEATH OF THE WICKED. Why? Perhaps he will repent. Know for yourself that this is so: at the time when the Holy One, blessed be He, sought to overturn these five cities, He took counsel with Abraham, as it is said (Genesis 18:20): AND THE LORD SAID, THE OUTCRY OF SODOM AND GOMORRAH. Abraham began to plead an advocacy for them before the Holy One, blessed be He, thinking that perhaps they would repent. From where? From what they read on the matter: FAR BE IT FROM YOU TO DO SUCH A THING.