ויבואו שני המלאכים סדומה וגו'. אמר להם למה באת' אמרו לו כי משחיתים אנחנו כי אמרו בלבם אם נאמר ללוט צא מן המקום ולא נגלה לו הטעם לא ישמע אלינו ולפי שגלו מסתורין של הקב"ה דנם ית' ונדחו ממחיצתו קל"ח שנים ואע"פ שכוונתם לטובה כי המלאכים נדונין בדבר קל מפני החכמה יתירה שבהם כמו שמצינו במטטרון אפקיה ומחיוהו שתין פולסי דנורא מפני שהיה יודע מה בלבו של אדם כו'. והרב ר' יהודה חסיד אמר טעם למה מלקין למעלה ששים וב"ד של מטה מלקין ארבעים חסר אחד לפי שלמטה עונשין מבן י"ג מלקין ארבעים חסר אחד שלשה פעמים י"ג. ולמעלה אין עונשין כי אם מבן עשרים ולכן מלקים ששים שהם שלשה פעמים עשרים: ויבואו שני המלאכים סדומה בערב, “two of the angels arrived in Sodom in the evening;” when Lot saw them, he asked them for the purpose of their visit. They told him that it was their mission to destroy the city. The reason why they volunteered this information was that they said to themselves that if they were simply to order him to leave town with their families without giving them a plausible reason, they would simply ignore them. But, since they had taken it upon themselves to reveal something G–d had not intended to be revealed at that time, they were punished by Him, by being exiled from the celestial regions for 138 years. This was in spite of the fact that what they had done had been well intentioned. Angels are subject to penalties even for committing “minor” errors by not having checked with their Master first, relying on the superior wisdom with which they had been endowed. This superior knowledge enables them to know what goes on in the minds of human beings. We find another example of punishment as warnings for celestial creatures where Mattatron, G–d’s “general manager” for running the universe on His behalf, was punished as stated in the Talmud tractate Chagigah, folio 15. This angel was expelled (temporarily) from the celestial regions and punished with sixty fiery strokes, in order to warn him not to fall victim to the same error as Elisha ben Avuyah on earth, who had arrived at the conclusion that Satan is an independent force in the universe rather than also a messenger carrying out missions on behalf of his Divine master. Rabbi Yehudah hachassid said that angels are punished with sixty lashes whereas human beings are not punished by more than forty (39) lashes, is that on earth already thirteen year olds qualify for such punishment, whereas such punishments are inflicted on over twenty year olds in the celestial regions. Just as 39 lashes on earth are three times thirteen so sixty is three times twenty.