Therefore said I, Look away from me: I will weep bitterly, labor not to comfort me, because of the plundering of the daughter of my people.
All Commentaries on Isaiah 22:4 Go To Isaiah 22
John Chrysostom
AD 407
Grief is often capable of refreshing distressed souls and of rendering a burdened conscience light: consider how often women, when they have lost their most beloved children, break their hearts and perish if they are forbidden to mourn and to shed tears. But if they do all which those who are sad are apt to do, they are relieved and receive consolation. And what wonder that this should be the case with women, when you may even see a prophet affected in a similar manner? Therefore he was continually saying, “Leave me alone. I will weep bitterly. Do not try to comfort me over the destruction of the daughter of my people.” So oftentimes sadness is the bearer of consolation; and if it is so with regard to this world, much more with regard to spiritual things.
