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When all the people heard that the seven days were past and I had not returned to the city, they all gathered together, from the least to the greatest, and came to me and spoke to me, saying,
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"How have we offended you, and what harm have we done you, that you have forsaken us and sit in this place?
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For of all the prophets you alone are left to us, like a cluster of grapes from the vintage, and like a lamp in a dark place, and like a haven for a ship saved from a storm.
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Are not the evils which have befallen us sufficient?
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Therefore if you forsake us, how much better it would have been for us if we also had been consumed in the burning of Zion!
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For we are no better than those who died there." And they wept with a loud voice. Then I answered them and said,
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"Take courage, O Israel; and do not be sorrowful, O house of Jacob;
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for the Most High has you in remembrance, and the Mighty One has not forgotten you in your struggle.
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As for me, I have neither forsaken you nor withdrawn from you; but I have come to this place to pray on account of the desolation of Zion, and to seek mercy on account of the humiliation of our sanctuary.
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Now go, every one of you to his house, and after these days I will come to you."
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So the people went into the city, as I told them to do.