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, how