The Prophets Sent to Comfort Jerusalem and Her Refusal

"How then do you comfort me with emptiness, while in your answers there remains only treachery?" (Job 21:34). Rabbi Abba bar Kahana said: Your words need scouring. And the Rabbis said: Your words contradict one another. The Holy One, blessed be He, said to the prophets: Go and comfort Jerusalem. Hosea went to comfort her. The Holy One said to her through him, He has sent me to you to comfort you. She said to him, What do you have in hand? He said, "I will be as the dew to Israel" (Hosea 14:6). She said, Yesterday you told me, "Ephraim is stricken, their root is dried up, they shall bear no fruit" (Hosea 9:16), and now you say this; which shall we believe, the first or the second? Joel went to comfort her; the Holy One said, He has sent me to comfort you. She said, What do you have in hand? He said, "On that day the mountains shall drip sweet wine" (Joel 4:18). She said, Yesterday you told me, "Awake, you drunkards, and weep, for the sweet wine is cut off from your mouth" (Joel 1:5), and now you say this; which shall we believe, the first or the second? Amos went to comfort her; she said, What do you have in hand? He said, "On that day I will raise up the fallen booth of David" (Amos 9:11). She said, Yesterday you told me, "Fallen, no more to rise, is the virgin of Israel" (Amos 5:2); which shall we believe? Micah went to comfort her; he said, "Who is a God like You, bearing iniquity and passing over transgression" (Micah 7:18). She said, Yesterday you told me, "All this is for the transgression of Jacob and for the sins of the house of Israel" (Micah 1:5); which shall we believe? Nahum went; he said, "The wicked one shall no more pass through you; he is utterly cut off" (Nahum 2:1). She said, Yesterday you told me, "From you came forth one who plots evil against the LORD, a counselor of wickedness" (Nahum 1:11); which shall we believe? Habakkuk went; he said, "You went forth for the salvation of Your people, for the salvation of Your anointed" (Habakkuk 3:13). She said, Yesterday you told me, "How long, O LORD, have I cried out and You do not hear" (Habakkuk 1:2); which shall we believe? Zephaniah went; he said, "At that time I will search Jerusalem with lamps" (Zephaniah 1:12). She said, Yesterday you told me, "A day of darkness and gloom, a day of cloud and thick darkness" (Zephaniah 1:15); which shall we believe? Haggai went; he said, "From this day on I will bless you" (Haggai 2:19). She said, Yesterday you told me, "You have sown much and brought in little" (Haggai 1:6); which shall we believe? Zechariah went; he said, "With great wrath I am wroth against the nations that are at ease" (Zechariah 1:15). She said, Yesterday you told me, "The LORD was very wroth with your fathers" (Zechariah 1:2); which shall we believe? Malachi went; he said, "All the nations shall call you blessed, for you shall be a land of delight" (Malachi 3:12). She said, Yesterday you told me, "I have no delight in you, says the LORD of Hosts" (Malachi 1:10); which shall we believe, the first or the second? The prophets went back to the Holy One, blessed be He, and said to Him, Master of the worlds, Jerusalem would not accept comfort. The Holy One said to them, You and I will go and comfort her. Thus, "Comfort, comfort My people" (Isaiah 40:1): comfort her, you on high and you below; comfort her, the living and the dead; comfort her in this world and in the world to come; comfort her over the ten tribes and over the tribe of Judah and Benjamin.