The Hachamim (Sages) tell us that here, Hillel saw the head of a well-known murderer, and that murderer, “Vesof metifayich yetufun.” Crimes, and now as well, you are floating in the water as a punishment for what you... And in the end, those who caused you to float are going to float themselves, that even though the right to kill him... On the water, and he said, “Because you caused the heads of others to float, others caused...” They threw his body into the water. Hashem is going to arrange that they die the same way he died. You did things wrong, and therefore there’s a repercussion to the fact that you did those... This person was a murderer, nobody had the right to kill him. Your head to float.
So Hillel said out loud, for the people around him, that the victim was a thief. So what we say, therefore, is that Hashem is going to punish even those people who killed him, in a way that’s middah keneged middah (measure for measure). You hurt people. Hashem punishes this murderer for what he did. And that’s how the chain continues: if a person does something wrong, they’re going... The victim was somebody who killed other people, and therefore Hashem punished him the same. There’s going to be middah keneged middah for them as well, because they didn’t have... In other words, you did certain crimes in your life. Middah keneged middah, just like what he did to other people was done back to him as well. Was attacked by thieves. That is only given over to the beit din (court) to do. Hillel HaZaken also once saw a person’s head floating... They killed him. So even though he deserved to die, nobody has the right to take out and kill this person.