Commentaire sur La Genèse 18:29
וַיֹּ֨סֶף ע֜וֹד לְדַבֵּ֤ר אֵלָיו֙ וַיֹּאמַ֔ר אוּלַ֛י יִמָּצְא֥וּן שָׁ֖ם אַרְבָּעִ֑ים וַיֹּ֙אמֶר֙ לֹ֣א אֶֽעֱשֶׂ֔ה בַּעֲב֖וּר הָאַרְבָּעִֽים׃
Il insista encore, en lui disant: "Peut-être s’y en trouvera-t-il quarante?" Il répondit: "Je m’abstiendrai à cause de ces quarante."
Rashi on Genesis
. אולי ימצאון שם ארבעים PERADVENTURE THERE SHALL BE FORTY FOUND THERE — then let four cities be saved; so, too, let thirty save three of them and twenty save two of them or ten save one of them.
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Or HaChaim on Genesis
ויוסף עוד לדבר אליו. Abraham continued to speak to Him (G'd). This is a continuation of the prayer that G'd Himself should act as the one making up the requisite quorum. The expression ויוסף…אליו means that Abraham continued in the same vein adding that G'd's making up the quorum would apply even if not all the towns would could be saved by that method.
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Radak on Genesis
ויוסף עוד..לא אעשה, I will not utterly destroy the whole region, as G’d had already said in verse 28 when He worded this as לא אשחית. Basically, the same considerations prevail in respect of all these numbers, G’d varying His reply by sometimes phrasing it as לא אשחית and other times as לא אעשה, “I will not do.”
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Siftei Chakhamim
And, thereby, four cities will be saved... Mahari Kolan writes (ch. 152): Avraham prayed that if one city has fifty righteous people, then the place should be saved — i.e., all five cities. And surely, if there will be [ten] in each city. Hashem consented, and added (v. 26): “I will bear with the entire place,” i.e., even the villages. That is why it says עיר, and then מקום, then לכל המקום. (Nachalas Yaakov)
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