Jerusalem cannot expect comfort from the travellers that pass by. They might act as if they pity her because of all the beauty she has lost, but actually they are rejoicing.
The world rejoices when God’s people are in trouble. However, it is important to ask what the reason is why God’s people are being mocked. According to Jesus, God’s people are blessed when they are mocked because of their faithfulness. But it can also happen that they are mocked because God has brought his curse over them. As God had warned in Deuteronomy 28:37: “You shall become a horror, a proverb, and a byword among all the peoples where the Lord will lead you away.” This is what has happened now to Jerusalem.
15 All who pass along the way clap their hands at you; they hiss and wag their heads at the daughter of Jerusalem: “Is this the city that was called the perfection of beauty, the joy of all the earth?”