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Every Prophet Failed to Comfort Jerusalem Until God Came

After the Temple burned, God sent prophet after prophet to console Jerusalem. Each one was sent away. Then God stopped sending messengers and came himself.

Curated by Arthur · Told by Maggid ·
Table of Contents
  1. The City That Would Not Be Consoled
  2. Why Prophets Could Not Do What Was Needed
  3. Before the Temple Had a Fixed Address
  4. The Double Comfort and What It Meant

The City That Would Not Be Consoled

The Temple had burned. The city was rubble and ash. The people who had survived were on the roads to Babylon. And Jerusalem, in the midrashic imagination, sat in the ruins and refused to be consoled.

God sent the prophets. One by one they came, each carrying their message of comfort, their promises of eventual restoration, their assurances that the God who had withdrawn had not forgotten. And one by one Jerusalem turned them away. The comfort was real but it was not the right comfort, because it came from messengers rather than from the one who had left.

The midrash on Isaiah 40 in the collection connected to Yalkut Shimoni, the major anthology of midrashim compiled around the 13th century CE, preserved this tradition as the backstory to one of the most beloved verses in all of Scripture: Comfort, oh comfort My people (Isaiah 40:1).

Why Prophets Could Not Do What Was Needed

The midrash laid out the logic of Jerusalem's refusal through a series of analogies, each one tightening the argument. Who most needs to be comforted when a wife dies? Not the children, not the servants. The husband. So too with Zion: the verse from Lamentations, He has made me dwell in darkness like those long dead (Lamentations 3:6), was read as Zion speaking in God's voice. It is Me, the midrash heard Zion saying, it is My darkness, it is My desolation that needs comforting.

The second analogy: when two children are taken captive during their father's lifetime, who needs comforting most? The father. My children have gone forth from me and are no more (Jeremiah 10:20) was read as God's lament over Israel in exile. The comfort Jerusalem needed was the comfort of the one who had lost what the Temple represented, not the comfort of messengers sent on his behalf.

The third analogy completed the argument. When a house burns down, to whom do you offer comfort? The owner. The Temple's destruction was God's house burning. What Jerusalem required was not prophetic reassurance but divine presence, the owner coming in person to stand in the ashes of what had been his.

Before the Temple Had a Fixed Address

The second midrashic strand here came from a tradition about the Shechinah's history in Jerusalem before and after the Temple's construction. The Mekhilta, the tannaitic commentary on Exodus compiled in the 2nd century CE, preserved a principle: before King Solomon built the Temple on Mount Moriah, the divine presence had no fixed address. The Shechinah could rest anywhere within Jerusalem. Every rooftop, every courtyard, every street was potentially a dwelling place for God's presence. The entire city was sacred enough.

Then the Temple was built, and the Shechinah contracted. The principle the Mekhilta stated was stark: once one place was chosen, all others were excluded. The selection of Mount Moriah desanctified the rest of Jerusalem in this specific sense, concentrating what had been diffuse into a single building. The proof text came from Psalms: For the Lord has chosen Zion, He has desired it for His dwelling place (Psalm 132:13).

The implication was devastating when read against the destruction. When the Temple burned, it was not just a building that was lost. It was the concentrated dwelling of what had once spread across the whole city. The destruction did not simply remove God's presence from one site. It collapsed the whole geography of sacred space in Jerusalem into a ruin.

The Double Comfort and What It Meant

Isaiah 40:1 says: Comfort, oh comfort My people. The word is doubled. The rabbis asked why. The answer the tradition developed was that the double comfort corresponded to the double loss. Jerusalem had lost its people and God had lost his house. The verse was addressed, in the midrash's reading, to both parties simultaneously: comfort My people, comfort Me. The verse that sounds like God commanding the prophets to console Israel was actually God finally doing what the prophets had failed to do, coming in person, speaking the word himself twice, because what was needed had always been the speaker's own voice rather than any messenger.

IsaiahConsolationJerusalemProphecyExile
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Yalkut Shimoni on Nach 443:2Yalkut Shimoni

. Another reading: “Comfort, oh comfort My people” (Isaiah 40:1) Said the Holy Blessed One: Who needs to be comforted? For one whose wife died, not the husband? Thus was Zion analogized - “He has made me dwell in darkness, Like those long dead” (Lamentations 3:6). Is it not Me who you need to comfort ‘Comfort Me Comfort Me My people’? Similarly, to what may this matter be compared? To one whose two children were taken captive during their father’s life. To whom do we offer comfort, not to the father? So too, “My children have gone forth from me And are no more” (Jeremiah 10:20). Similarly, to what may this matter be compared? To one whose house burned down. To whom do we offer comfort, not to the owner of the house? So this must be the Holy Blessed One, whose house was burned down, as it says: “He burned the House of the LORD” (Kings II 25:9). Similarly, to what may this matter be compared? To one whose vineyards were cut down. Do we not offer comfort to the owner of the vineyard? So too, “For the vineyard of the LORD of Hosts Is the House of Israel” (Isaiah 5:7). And similarly, to what may this matter be compared? To a shepherd whose flocks were ravaged by a lion. To whom do we offer comfort, not to the shepherd? So too, “My people were lost sheep” (Jeremiah 50:6). Nevertheless, go and appease the House of Israel, immediately, all of the prophets enter and approach her. And she says to them: “Why then do you offer me empty consolation? Of your replies only the perfidy remains.” (Job 21:34) Rabbi Abba bar Kahana said: Do your words need polishing? Until this moment my ears have been filled with the chastisements that you have rebuked me with, and now you come to comfort me?? Hosea walked to comfort her. He said: The Holy Blessed One send me to you to comfort you. She said to him: what do you have [in your hand]? He said to her: “I will be to Israel like dew” (Hosea 14:6). She said: yesterday you told me “Ephraim is stricken, Their stock is withered; They can produce no fruit” (9:16) and now you say thus to me, which should I believe, the first or the second?? Joel walked to comfort her. He said: The Holy Blessed One send me to you to comfort you. She said to him: what do you have [in your hand]? He said to her: “And in that day, The mountains shall drip with wine” (Joel 4:18). She said: yesterday you told me “Wake up, you drunkards, and weep, Wail, all you swillers of wine. For the new wine that is denied you!” (1:5) and now you say thus to me, which should I believe, the first or the second?? Amos walked to comfort her. He said: The Holy Blessed One send me to you to comfort you. She said to him: what do you have [in your hand]? He said to her: “In that day, I will set up again the fallen booth of David” (Amos 9:11). She said: yesterday you told me “Fallen, not to rise again, Is Maiden Israel” (5:2) and now you say thus to me, which should I believe, the first or the second?? Micah walked to comfort her. He said: The Holy Blessed One send me to you to comfort you. She said to him: what do you have [in your hand]? He said to her: “Who is a God like You, Forgiving iniquity And remitting 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” (1:5) and now you say thus to me, which should I believe, the first or the second?? Nahum walked to comfort her. He said: The Holy Blessed One send me to you to comfort you. She said to him: what do you have [in your hand]? He said to her: “Never again shall scoundrels invade you” (Nahum 2:1). She said: yesterday you told me “The base plotter Who designed evil against the LORD Has left you” (1:11) and now you say thus to me, which should I believe, the first or the second?? Habakuk walked to comfort her. He said: The Holy Blessed One send me to you to comfort you. She said to him: what do you have [in your hand]? He said to her: “You have come forth to deliver Your people, To deliver Your anointed” (Habakuk 3:13). She said: yesterday you told me “How long, O LORD, shall I cry out And You not listen, Shall I shout to You, “Violence!” And You not save?” (1:2) and now you say thus to me, which should I believe, the first or the second?? Zephaniah walked to comfort her. He said: The Holy Blessed One send me to you to comfort you. She said to him: what do you have [in your hand]? He said to her: “At that time, I will search Jerusalem with lamps [And I will punish the men Who rest untroubled on their lees]” (Zephaniah 1:12). She said: yesterday you told me “A day of darkness and deep gloom” (1:15) and now you say thus to me, which should I believe, the first or the second?? Hagai walked to comfort her. He said: The Holy Blessed One send me to you to comfort you. She said to him: what do you have [in your hand]? He said to her: “while the seed is still in the granary, and the vine, fig tree, pomegranate, and olive tree have not yet borne fruit. For from this day on I will send blessings” (Hagai 2:19). She said: yesterday you told me “You have sowed much and brought in little” (1:6) and now you say thus to me, which should I believe, the first or the second?? Zecharia walked to comfort her. He said: The Holy Blessed One send me to you to comfort you. She said to him: what do you have [in your hand]? He said to her: “and I am very angry with those nations” (Zecharia 1:15). She said: yesterday you told me “The LORD was very angry with your fathers.” (1:2) and now you say thus to me, which should I believe, the first or the second?? Malachi walked to comfort her. He said: The Holy Blessed One send me to you to comfort you. She said to him: what do you have [in your hand]? He said to her: “And all the nations shall account you happy, for you shall be the most desired of lands, said the LORD of Hosts.” (Malachi 3:12). She said: yesterday you told me “I take no pleasure in you” (1:10) and now you say thus to me, which should I believe, the first or the second?? The Holy Blessed One said to Avraham: Walk, comfort Jerusalem, maybe she will receive comfort from you. Avraham walked and said to her: receive comfort from me. She said to him: How can I receive comfort from you when you made me [Jerusalem] like a mountain, as it says: “On the mount of God there is vision” (Genesis 22:14)? Yitzchak walked and said to her: receive comfort from me. She said to him: How can I accept comfort from you, from whom Eisav the Wicked emerged who made me a field and whose sons burned me with fire? Yaakov walked and said to her: receive comfort from me. She said to him: How can I accept comfort from you, who made me as if I didn’t exist “This is none other than the abode of God’ (Genesis 28:17)? Moshe walked and said to her: receive comfort from me. She said to him: How can I accept comfort from you, who wrote curses and harsh decrees about me, as it is written: “Wasting famine, ravaging plague” (Deuteronomy 32:24)? Immediately, they all walked before the Holy Blessed One and said: Master of the Universe, she does not accept our comfortings, as it is written: “Unhappy, storm-tossed one, uncomforted!” (Isaiah 54:11). The Holy Blessed One said: I and you shall walk to comfort her, i.e. “Comfort O comfort my people”, ‘Comfort Her, O comfort her, my people.’ It is not fitting that anyone but me should walk, because I have transgressed what it written in the Torah: “you must not work your firstling ox” (Deuteronomy 15:19) and Israel I called “My first-born son” (Exodus 4:22) and I told them “Put your necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon” (Jeremiah 27:12). I wrote in my Torah: “You shall not hate your kinsfolk in your heart” (Leviticus 19:17) and I hated her, therefore it is upon me to appease her. I wrote in my Torah: “You shall not turn over to his master a slave” (Deuteronomy 23:16) and I passed them over to idol-worshippers, as it says: “Unless their Rock had sold them, The LORD had given them up” (Deuteronomy 32:30). I wrote in my Torah: “you shall not reap all the way to the edges of your field” (Leviticus 19:9) and I vented [play of the word for “reap”] my anger upon them, as it says: “The LORD vented all His fury” (Lamentations 4:11). I wrote in my Torah: “he who started the fire must make restitution (Exodus 22:5), and I ignited her on fire, as it says: “From above He sent a fire” (Lamentations 1:13), and I will build a fire in the future, as it says: “And I Myself, declares the LORD, will be a wall of fire all around it” (Zechariah 2:9). Immediately, the Holy Blessed One walked to her and said: My Daughter, why all of this anger? She said before God: Master of the Universe, is it not justified that I be angry, you dispersed me among the nations, and cursed me with evil curses, and whipped me until my face looked like the rim of the caldron, and despite all of this I sanctified Your great name! The Holy Blessed One said to her: corresponding to the meritorious deeds you did there are accounts that must be repaid, as you transgressed what is written in the Torah: “Honor your father and mother” (Exodus 20:12), and regarding you it is written: “Fathers and mothers have been humiliated within you” (Ezekiel 22:7); it is written: “Whoever sheds the blood of man [By man shall his blood be shed]” (Genesis 9:6), and regarding you it is written: “Base men in your midst were intent on shedding blood” (Ezekiel 22:9); it is written: “You shall not murder; you shall not commit adultery” (Exodus 20:13), and regarding you it is written: “[False] swearing, dishonesty, and murder, And theft and adultery are rife” (Hosea 4:2). She said before God: Master of the Universe, since you dispersed me among the nations, is it not justified that I not keep Shabbat (the Sabbath) and fulfill your mitzvot (commandments)? God said to her: My Daughter, the time has come to be redeemed. Immediately, she said before God: Master of the Universe, I shall nor be comforted until you show me those same wicked people who caused me to suffer and disgraced Your name. Immediately God said to her: My Daughter, I will surely bring them and exact revenge from them in front of you until they are eating their own flesh, as it says: “I will make your oppressors eat their own flesh, They shall be drunk with their own blood as with wine. And all mankind shall know That I the LORD am your Savior, The Mighty One of Jacob, your Redeemer” (Isaiah 49:26). Immediately she said: Who shall give You to me like a brother? Like which brother, like Cain to Hevel, he killed him; like Yishmael to Yitzchak, he hated him; like Eisav to Yaakov, he also hated him; like Yosef’s brothers to Yosef, they also hated him; rather like Yosef to his brothers, [you find] after all of the troubles they put him through, it is written: “And so, fear not. I will sustain you and your children.” Thus he reassured them, speaking kindly to them” (Genesis 50:21), and we know this from a kal va’chomer: If Yosef could speak to his brothers kind and comforting words, then when the Holy Blessed One came to comfort Jerusalem, all the more so. You find that everything that Jeremiah smote, Isaiah cam and healed. Jeremiah said: “There is none to comfort her” (Lamentations 1:2), Isaiah came and healed: “Comfort, oh comfort My people” (Isaiah 40:1).

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Mekhilta Tractate Pischa 1:10Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael

Before King Solomon built the Temple on Mount Moriah, the divine presence had no fixed address. The Shechinah, God's indwelling presence, could rest anywhere within the city of Jerusalem. Every rooftop, every courtyard, every street corner was a potential dwelling place for the Almighty. The entire city was sacred enough to host the divine.

Then the Temple was built, and everything changed.

The Mekhilta states the principle with stark clarity: once the Temple was chosen as God's resting place, the rest of Jerusalem was excluded. The selection of one site meant the desanctification, in this specific sense, of all others. The Shechinah contracted from an entire city into a single building, from broad presence into focused dwelling.

The proof text comes from Psalms: "For the Lord has chosen Zion; He has desired it for His habitation. This is My resting place forever" (Psalms 132:13-14). The words "this" and "forever" do the heavy lifting. "This", not that, not anywhere else, not the city at large. "Forever", not temporarily, not provisionally, not as one option among many.

The Mekhilta's teaching carries a paradox at its heart. The building of the Temple simultaneously elevated one location and diminished all others. Before the Temple, Jerusalem overflowed with sacred potential. After the Temple, that potential concentrated into a single point. God's presence became more intense precisely by becoming more localized. The city lost breadth of holiness but gained an incomparable depth of it in one chosen place.

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Pesikta DeRav Kahana 16:8Pesikta de-Rav Kahana

"How then do you comfort me with emptiness, while in your answers there remains 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. He said to her: The Holy One, blessed be He, sent me to you to comfort you. She said to him: What do you have in hand? He said to her: "I will be as the dew to Israel" (Hosea 14:6). She said: Yesterday you said to 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. He said to her: The Holy One, blessed be He, sent me to you to comfort you. She said to him: What do you have in hand? He said to her: "And it shall come to pass on that day, that the mountains shall drip sweet wine and the hills shall flow with milk" (Joel 3:18). She said to him: Yesterday you said to me, "Awake, you drunkards, and weep... for the sweet wine, for it 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. He said to her: The Holy One, blessed be He, sent me to you to comfort you. She said to him: What do you have in hand? He said to her: "On that day I will raise up the fallen booth of David" (Amos 9:11). She said to him: Yesterday you said to me, "Fallen, no more to rise, is the virgin of Israel" (Amos 5:2), and now you say this; which shall we believe, the first or the second?

Micah went to comfort her. He said to her: The Holy One, blessed be He, sent me to you to comfort you. She said to him: What do you have in hand? He said to her: "Who is a God like You, bearing iniquity and passing over transgression" (Micah 7:18). She said to him: Yesterday you said to me, "All this is for the transgression of Jacob and for the sins of the house of Israel" (Micah 1:5), and now you say this; which shall we believe, the first or the second?

Nahum went to comfort her. He said to her: The Holy One, blessed be He, sent me to you to comfort you. She said to him: And what do you have in hand? He said to her: "The wicked one shall no more pass through you; he is utterly cut off" (Nahum 1:15). She said to him: Yesterday you said to me, "From you came forth one who plots evil against the LORD, a counselor of wickedness" (Nahum 1:11), and now you say this to me; which shall we believe, the first or the second?

Habakkuk went to comfort her. He said to her: The Holy One, blessed be He, sent me to you to comfort you. She said to him: What do you have in hand? He said to her: "You went forth for the salvation of Your people, for the salvation of Your anointed" (Habakkuk 3:13). She said to him: Yesterday you said to me, "How long, O LORD, have I cried out and You do not hear; I cry out to You, Violence" (Habakkuk 1:2), and now you say this to me; which shall we believe, the first or the second?

Zephaniah went to comfort her. He said to her: The Holy One, blessed be He, sent me to you to comfort you. She said to him: And what do you have in hand? He said to her: "At that time I will search Jerusalem with lamps" (Zephaniah 1:12). She said to him: Yesterday you said to me, "A day of darkness and gloom, a day of cloud and thick darkness" (Zephaniah 1:15), and now you say this; which shall we believe, the first or the second?

Haggai went to comfort her. He said to her: The Holy One, blessed be He, sent me to you to comfort you. She said to him: And what do you have in hand? He said to her: "Is the seed still in the barn? The vine, the fig tree, the pomegranate, and the olive tree have not borne; from this day I will bless" (Haggai 2:19). She said to him: Yesterday you said to me, "You have sown much and brought in little" (Haggai 1:6), and now you say this to me; which shall we believe, the first or the second?

Zechariah went to comfort her. He said to her: The Holy One, blessed be He, sent me to you to comfort you. She said to him: And what do you have in hand? He said to her: "With great wrath I am wrathful against the nations that are at ease" (Zechariah 1:15). She said to him: Yesterday you said to me, "The LORD was very wrathful with your fathers" (Zechariah 1:2), and now you say this to me; which shall we believe, the first or the second?

Malachi went to comfort her. He said to her: The Holy One, blessed be He, sent me to you to comfort you. She said to him: And what do you have in hand? He said to her: "All the nations shall call you blessed, for you shall be a land of delight" (Malachi 3:12). She said to him: Yesterday you said to me, "I have no delight in you, says the LORD of Hosts" (Malachi 1:10), and now you say this to me; which shall we believe, the first or the second?

The prophets went to the Holy One, blessed be He, and said to Him: Master of the worlds, Jerusalem did not accept comfort upon herself. The Holy One said to them: I and you will go and comfort her. Thus, "Comfort, comfort My people" (Isaiah 40:1): comfort her, comfort her, My people; comfort her, upper ones, comfort her, lower ones; comfort her, living ones, comfort her, dead ones; comfort her in this world, comfort her in the world to come; comfort her over the ten tribes, comfort her over the tribe of Judah and Benjamin. Thus, "Comfort, comfort My people" (Isaiah 40:1): [read it] "Comfort Me, comfort Me, with Me."

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