Sforno, on Gen 11:5

“And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of Adam were building.”

“"God came down to see." Now, the usage of "going down to see" is used with the Blessed God when the matter is not yet appropriate for punishment, rather from the evil that will come out of it at the end of story, like the example of the wayward and rebellious son, of which they said that the Torah went to the conclusion of his ideas. Also similar is the situation with Sodom, where it is written "I will go down and see." Because their wickedness was not greater enough than the rest of the idol worshippers that they should be punished in this world, except in the matter of cruelty against the poor, from which total evil will come in the end, as it says "This was the sin of Sodom your sister: they did not strengthen the hand of the poor and indigent," and this too was the punishment of Israel when they were exiled as it says "I will see what their end will be."”

Imported from an open dataset — not yet checked against the printed edition.

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