What Does Isaiah 40:1 Mean in the King James?

Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God.

Isaiah 40:1 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

THE KEY

The Hebrew root behind “comfort” also names relenting, so the repeated word holds consolation together with a heart that can be moved.

THE MEANING

You meet consolation as a word spoken twice over God’s people; the need for comfort is neither hidden nor dismissed. The repeated address holds that need within God’s care.

THE ROOT

נַחֲמוּ

naḥămū

GROWS FROM

נחם

naḥam

To console or comfort; in other forms, to relent or be moved.

The English “comfort” carries its direct sense, while the same root also appears in words for relenting or being moved. Its repetition makes the consolation emphatic and connects it with a responsive change within.

ALSO GROWS

niḥam: Relented; was moved.

נִחַם

This form shares the root’s consonants and shows that the language of consolation also touches a response that changes inwardly.

menaḥēm: Comforter; one who consoles.

מְנַחֵם

The same root names the one who brings consolation, making comfort both a word spoken and a presence offered.

THE PATTERN

Consolation meets people within grief and becomes something they can share.

For the LORD shall comfort Zion: he will comfort all her waste places; and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the LORD; joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody.

Isaiah 51:3 · KJVThe LORD’s consolation is spoken into waste places, alongside the promise that they will become like a garden.

Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.

Matthew 5:4 · KJVComfort meets those who mourn, holding grief and consolation in the same promise.

Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.

2 Corinthians 1:4 · KJVComfort received in trouble becomes comfort shared with another.

THE THREAD

For the LORD shall comfort Zion: he will comfort all her waste places; and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the LORD; joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody.

Isaiah 51:3 · KJV

Both verses use ⁨נחם⁩ (naḥam), the root of comfort: Isaiah 40:1 repeats the call, and Isaiah 51:3 speaks of the LORD comforting Zion. There, the same word stands beside waste places becoming a garden, so consolation is spoken into desolation.

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