Rav Yehudah said in the name of Rav: When the Holy One, blessed be He, wished to create the world, He created one company of ministering angels and said to them: Is it your desire that we make man? They said before Him, "What is man that You are mindful of him?" (Psalms 8:5). He stretched out His finger among them and burned them. So too the second company. The third company said before Him: The earlier ones who spoke before You, what did they accomplish? The whole world is Yours. Whatever You wish to do in Your world, do. When the generation of the Flood and the generation of the Dispersion arrived, whose deeds were corrupt, they said before Him: Did not the earlier ones speak well? He said to them, "Even to old age I am the same, and to gray hairs I will carry you" (Isaiah 46:4).
The Angels Who Were Burned for Questioning the Making of Man
Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 12:6
אָמַר רַב יְהוּדָה אָמַר רַב, בְּשָׁעָה שֶׁבִּקֵּשׁ הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא לִבְרְאוֹת אֶת הָעוֹלָם בָּרָא כַּת אַחַת שֶׁל מַלְאֲכֵי הַשָּׁרֵת, אָמַר לָהֶם רְצוֹנְכֶם נַעֲשֶׂה אָדָם, אָמְרוּ לְפָנָיו (תהלים ח, ה) "מָה אֱנוֹשׁ כִּי תִזְכְּרֶנּוּ", הוֹשִׁיט אֶצְבָּעוֹ בֵּינֵיהֶן וּשֵׂרָפָן. וְכֵן כַּת שְׁנִיָּה. שְׁלִישִׁית אָמְרָה לְפָנָיו, רִאשׁוֹנִים שֶׁאָמְרוּ לְפָנֶיךָ מַה הוֹעִילוּ, כָּל הָעוֹלָם שֶׁלְּךָ הוּא, כָּל מַה שֶׁאַתָּה רוֹצֶה לַעֲשוֹת בְּעוֹלָמְךָ עֲשֵׂה. כֵּיוָן שֶׁהִגִּיעוּ אַנְשֵׁי דּוֹר הַמַּבּוּל וְאַנְשֵׁי דּוֹר הַפְּלָגָה שֶׁמַּעֲשֵׂיהֶן מְקֻלְקָלִין אָמְרוּ לְפָנָיו, לֹא יָפֶה אָמְרוּ רִאשׁוֹנִים. אָמַר לָהֶם, "וְעַד זִקְנָה אֲנִי הוּא וְעַד שֵׂיבָה אֲנִי אֶסְבֹּל".