“All wayfarers clapped their hands over you; they whistled and shook their heads at the daughter of Jerusalem: Is this the city that was said to be perfect beauty, the joy of the entire earth?” (Lamentations 2:15).They “clapped their hands over you.” Rabbi Yoḥanan said in the name of Rabbi Shimon bar Yoḥai: There was a dome of inventory outside of Jerusalem, and anyone who sought to take inventory would run and take inventory there,117Anyone who wanted to take an accounting of his expenditures or business activity could stop under this dome and make his calculations. so that he would not emerge from Jerusalem upset,118Some commentaries assert that the text should read: So that they would not take inventory in Jerusalem and be upset. This is the version of the text found in Shemot Rabba 52:5 (Etz Yosef). to realize what is written: “The joy of the entire earth.” But now, they “clapped their hands over you; they whistled and shook their heads at the daughter of Jerusalem.”The cities of the nations sing their praise with their mouths. That is what is written: “[Tyre], you said: I am perfect in beauty” (Ezekiel 27:3). But Jerusalem, others recite its praise with their mouths. That is what is written: “Is this the city that was said to be perfect beauty, the joy of the entire earth?”Rabbi Natan said: A merchant ascended to sell wool. He fell asleep and did not sell. He said: Is this [the city] about which you say that it is “the joy of the entire earth”? He awoke and sold it. He said, you spoke well: “The joy of the entire earth.”