Isaiah 40:1

"Isaiah."

Key Reflection

The opening words of Isaiah 40:1, "Comfort, comfort my people," are a call to reassurance and encouragement for Israel. This verse comes at the beginning of a section known as the Second Isaiah, written during the Babylonian exile when the people needed hope and consolation. The use of the word "comfort" (נָחָשׁ nāḥâsh) literally means to make someone lie down or rest, evoking imagery of soothing and providing refuge—a fitting message for a community in great distress.

From the Scholars: Barnes' Notes

Comfort ye, comfort ye my people -This is the exordium, or the general subject of this and the following chapters. The commencement is abrupt, as often happens in Isaiah and the other prophets. The scene where this vision is laid is in Babylon; the time near the close of the captivity. The topic, or main subject of the consolation, is stated in the following verse - that that captivity was about to end, and that brighter and happier days were to succeed their calamities and their exile.

More from Isaiah 40

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