Commento su Genesi 18:33

'וילך ה 'וגו AND THE LORD WENT AWAY — As soon as the counsel for the defence had nothing more to say the Judge took his departure.

וילך ה, Avraham remained in a waiting posture. He had not given up hope to expect further prophetic insights until it became clear to him that G’d’s presence had departed. We cannot help noting the contrast with Genesis 4,16 where the Torah reports the termination of G’d speaking to Kayin as ויצא קין מלפני ה', Kayin terminating the interview with G’d by his being the first one to leave while the presence of G’d had not yet departed.

וילך ה׳ כאשר כלה לדבר. When G'd completed speaking with Abraham He left. The Torah reports that G'd did not even give Abraham a chance to plead further on behalf of a lesser number of righteous people. After all, Abraham said that he had used his final plea. Although the Zohar 1,82 suggests that the righteous is the foundation of the earth, i.e. that a single righteous person could save the rest of the world, this may apply only to an outstanding צדיק. Perhaps if Abraham had lived in Sodom, his presence could have sufficed to save the town.