וירד ה' לראות. הנה ל' הירידה לראות יאמר על האל ית' כשאין הענין אז ראוי לעונש אלא מפני הקלקול הנמשך אליו בסוף הענין כבן סורר ומורה שאמרו ירדה תורה לסוף דעתו. וכן היה ענין סדום שכתב בו ארדה נא ואראה. כי אמנם לא היה רשעם אז יותר משאר האומות כדי לענשם בעולם הזה זולתי בענין האכזריות נגד עניי עם שהיה נמשך ממנו קלקול גמור בסוף כאמרו הנה זה הי' עון סדום אחותך ויד עני ואביון לא החזיקה וכן היה עונש ישראל בהגלותם כאמרו אראה מה אחריתם: וירד ה' לראות, The Torah uses the expression “G’d descended to see, etc.,” only when the sins committed by the people concerned were not yet ripe for severe punishment but would become so if left unchecked. Retribution which results from G’d “descending,” must be viewed as a kind of preventive medicine, designed to avoid the need for more drastic action at a later stage. One well known example of G’d’s preventive retribution is the בן סורר ומורה, a thirteen year old who stole a little meat and wine from his parents, and whose punishment is execution if the parents brought him to court as an unmanageable teenager (Deut. 21,18, see Rashi, and Sanhedrin 72 on this). In the case of Sodom, where G’d is also reported as “descending,” (Genesis 18,21) this also occurred at a time when their sin had not yet been greater than that of other surrounding nations, so that only these cities had to be singled out for punishment at that time. What distinguished the Sodomites was only the cruelty with which they committed the same kind of sins as those committed by other nations. This would eventually have led to such a corrupt world that the need for G’d to intervene on a global rather than a local basis, would have become unavoidable. Ezekiel 16,49 also describes the sin of the Sodomites in such terms when he wrote הנה זה היה עון סדום אחותך...ויד עני ואביון לא החזיקה”This was the sin of Sodom your sister…..but the hand of the poor and the needy she did not support.” Similarly, the punishment of the Israelites when they were exiled was brought forward out of concern that something worse might become their fate if G’d did not intervene at that time and exile them so that He would not eventually have to punish them even more harshly. (Deut 32,20) “I can see what would be their ultimate end.”