"They completed their days in vanity, and their years in haste. Rabbi and Rabbi Nathan. Rabbi says they died on the Ninth of Av. Rabbi Nathan says they were collected throughout the year, as it says 'in haste.' If they kill us and search us out and we repent, even if they kill us, we have hope in Him. Return and search out His ways, plead with Him and implore Him. They flatter Him with their mouths, but their heart is not with Him, yet He is merciful and forgives sin."
"And He, being merciful, will forgive iniquity." Rabbi Simon said, this refers to what the verse says (Jeremiah 10:24), "Correct me, O Lord, but with justice." The word "but" indicates a limitation. Here too, His entire wrath is not aroused. He only arouses some of His wrath. And it should be remembered that "flesh and blood are mortal." This means that the evil inclination goes with a person at the time of death, but does not accompany him when the dead rise again, as it says, "How long will they loathe me and lack faith in me?" (Numbers 14:11). "They will die in this wilderness" (Numbers 14:35). And "I will charm her and lead her through the wilderness" (Hosea 2:16). Rabbi Hanina said, "Just as a person says, 'I support my son,' so too, did Israel say before the Holy One, Blessed be He, 'Master of the universe, let not a man rule over us. You, judge us.' Be holy, O God of Israel." The plagues were inscribed upon their bodies. "Asher placed His signs and wonders in the field of Zoan" (Psalm 78:43). The plagues spoke through them. Rabbi Joshua ben Karcha said in the name of Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai and the Rabbis, "For seven days, the plague was in their midst, and for twenty-three days, the plague was absent. And seven days elapsed between one plague and the next, as it says, 'Seven days were fulfilled after the Lord struck the Nile' (Exodus 7:25)."