And the blessed Holy One had said, regarding those average-ones, that ‘the merit of the Patriarchs has finished’,lxxvSee BT Shabbat 55a since they had not returned in repentance, they are like the completely wicked, and if they would return in repentance, it is stated of them, that the merit of the Patriarchs does apply.
And so that these ‘average people’ would not be destroyed, Moses said: ‘Should the world say that I am like Noah, who did not request mercy upon his generation?’ At that time, he submitted himself for them, it is this that is written:... and if not, wipe me out please... (Ex. 32:32)