LEV265 People are moved [to repentance] in four different ways: ... 3. By witnessing the punishment of others... When a person observes the testing and severe punishment inflicted by the Creator on one who took the route he himself had taken in deviating from His service, he learns a lesson from [the plight of] his fellow and turns back to God, for fear of His punishment and fierce vengeance. He is like a servant who flees from his master and then hears an account of the punishment inflicted on another who also had fled. He takes the lesson to heart and returns to his master, to beg his forgiveness and pardon, before he too should suffer punishment. Scripture therefore says, “So that the land not vomit you out for defiling it, as it vomited out the nation that was before you” Vayikra 18:28).