Pirke d’Rab.  Eliezer, chap. 48.

“For Mine own sake, for Mine own sake, will I do it” (Isa. xlviii. 11).  Why this repetition?  The Holy One—­blessed be He!—­said, “As I redeemed you when you were in Egypt for My name’s sake”—­(Ps. cvi. 8), “He saved them for His name’s sake,”—­“so in like manner will I do it from Edom for My own name’s sake.  Again, as I redeemed you in this world, so likewise will I redeem you in the World to come;” for thus He saith (Eccles. i. 9), “The thing that hath been is that which shall be” (Isa. li. 11); “The redeemed of the Lord shall return;” not the redeemed of Elijah, nor the redeemed of the Messiah, but “the redeemed of the Lord.”

Midrash Shochar Tov Tehillim, 107.

“Her children are gone into captivity before the enemy” (Lam. i. 5).  Rabbi Isaac saith, “Come and see how greatly beloved are the children!” The Sanhedrin were exiled, but the Shechinah was not exiled with them.  The Temple guards were exiled, but the Shechinah was not exiled with them.  But with the children the Shechinah also was exiled.  This is that which is written (Lam. i. 5, 6), “Her children are gone, ... and from the daughter of Zion all her beauty (i.e., the Shechinah) is departed.”

Midrash Rabbah Eicha.

“How doth the city sit solitary!” (Lam. i. 1).  Three have, in prophesying, made use of this word “How”—­Moses, Isaiah, and Jeremiah.  Moses said (Deut. i. 12), “How can I myself bear your cumbrance!” Isaiah said (Isa. i. 21), “How is the faithful city become an harlot!” Jeremiah said (Lam. i. 1), “How doth the city sit solitary!” Rabbi Levi saith, “The thing is like to a matron who has three friends; one saw her in her prosperity, another saw her in her dissipation, and the third saw her in her pollution.  So Moses saw Israel in their glory and prosperity, and he said, ‘How can I myself bear your cumbrance!’ Isaiah saw them in their dissipation, and he said, ‘How is the faithful city,’ etc.; and Jeremiah saw them in their pollution, and he said, ’How doth the city sit solitary!’”

Midrash Rabbah Eicha.

Hezekiah saith the judgment in Gehenna is six months’ heat and six months’ cold.

Midrash Reheh.

Gehenna has sixteen mouths, four toward each cardinal point.  The Gentiles say, “Hell is for Israel, but Paradise is for us.”  The Israelites say, “Ours is Paradise.”

Midrash Aggadath Bereshith.

Rabbi Yochanan ben Zachai says, that coming once upon a man who was gathering wood, he addressed him, but at first he made no reply.  Afterward, however, he came up and said, “Rabbi, I’m not a living man, but a dead one.”  “If thou art a dead man,” said I, “what is this wood for?” He replied, “When I was alive upon earth, I and an associate of mine committed a certain sin in my shop, and when we were taken thence, we were sentenced to the punishment of mutual burning; so I gather wood to burn him, and he does the same