The Mockery of Ammon and Moab and God's Promise to Comfort

"I, even I, am He who comforts you" (Isaiah 51:12). "Reproach has broken my heart, and I am sick; and I looked for some to take pity, but there was none, and for comforters, but I found none" (Psalms 69:21). "Reproach" refers to the reproach with which Ammon and Moab reproached us. You find that when the sins caused it and the gentiles entered Jerusalem, Ammon and Moab entered with them. They went into the Holy of Holies and took the cherubim and put them in a cage, and they carried them around through all the streets of Jerusalem, saying, "Did the Israelites not say that they do not worship idols? Look what they were doing!" This is what is written, "Because Moab and Seir say, Behold, the house of Judah is like all the nations" (Ezekiel 25:8). And what were they saying? "Woe, woe," all of them together. From that hour the Holy One, blessed be He, said, "I have heard the reproach of Moab and the revilings of the children of Ammon, with which they have reproached My people and magnified themselves against their border. Therefore, as I live, says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, surely Moab shall be as Sodom and the children of Ammon as Gomorrah" (Zephaniah 2:8-9). "And I am sick" (Psalms 69:21), a mighty blow has come upon me and weakened me. "And I looked for some to take pity, but there was none, and for comforters, but I found none" (Psalms 69:21), the Holy One, blessed be He, said, "I, even I, am He who comforts you" (Isaiah 51:12).