Jerusalem Struck Like Job and Comforted in Double Measure

"All your lovers have forgotten you; they do not seek you, for I have struck you with the wound of an enemy" (Jeremiah 30:14). Read not "the wound of an enemy" (makkat oyev) but "the wound of Job" (makkat Iyyov) have I struck you. For concerning Job it is written, "The Chaldeans formed three bands" (Job 1:17), and concerning Jerusalem it is written, "The city is given into the hand of the Chaldeans" (Jeremiah 32:24). Concerning Job it is written, "The fire of God fell from heaven" (Job 1:16), and concerning Jerusalem it is written, "From on high He sent fire into my bones and it overcame them" (Lamentations 1:13). Concerning Job it is written, "He took a potsherd to scrape himself with it" (Job 2:8), and concerning Jerusalem it is written, "How are they reckoned as earthen jars of potsherd" (Lamentations 4:2). Concerning Job it is written, "They sat with him on the ground seven days" (Job 2:13), and concerning Jerusalem it is written, "The elders of the daughter of Zion sit on the ground in silence" (Lamentations 2:10). Concerning Job it is written, "I have sewn sackcloth upon my skin" (Job 16:15), and concerning Jerusalem it is written, "They have girded on sackcloth" (Lamentations 2:10). Concerning Job it is written, "I have laid my horn in the dust" (Job 16:15), and concerning Jerusalem it is written, "They have cast dust on their heads" (Lamentations 2:10). Concerning Job it is written, "Pity me, pity me, you my friends" (Job 19:21), and concerning Jerusalem it is written, "I will not grant you pity" (Jeremiah 16:13). Concerning Job it is written, "For the hand of God has touched me" (Job 19:21), and concerning Jerusalem it is written, "For she has received from the hand of the LORD double" (Isaiah 40:2). Rabbi Yehoshua son of Rabbi Nehemiah said: If Job, who was stricken double, was given his reward double, then Jerusalem too is comforted double, "Comfort, comfort My people" (Isaiah 40:1).