Rabbi Yehoshua said: The Holy One blessed be He said: ‘Because I commanded you many laws, I will provide you with great reward. I cautioned you regarding all the mitzvot, which are your life, as it is stated: “One who observes a mitzva will not know an evil matter” (Ecclesiastes 8:5). The same is true of every matter that is written in this portion: one who kills a person; one who strikes an ox; one who ignites a field.
For each and every one, I wrote its punishment alongside it and its reward alongside it.’ This is analogous to a king who prepared two paths, one filled with thorns, briers, and thistles, and one filled with fragrant plants. The blind walk on the bad path, and the thorns add wound upon wound. Those who can see walk on the good path, with the result that they walk [comfortably] and their clothes are perfumed from [the path].
So too, God prepared two paths, one for the righteous and one for the wicked. One who has no eyes walks on the path of the wicked, stumbles and does not recover, like Bilam the wicked, who was expelled from the world, and like Doeg and Aḥitofel who were distanced from life, and like Geiḥazi, who left the world with nothing.81Bilam, Doeg, Aḥitofel, and Geiḥazi are the four commoners listed in the mishna in Sanhedrin (10:1) as having no portion in the World to Come.
However, the righteous, who walk in their innocence, are privileged, and their children after them, as it is stated: “One who walks innocently is a righteous man; happy are his children after him. (Proverbs 20:7).