What Does Zechariah 1:13 Mean?
And the LORD answered the messenger who spoke with me with good words and comforting words.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And the LORD answered the angel that talked with me with good words and comfortable words.THE KEY
The Hebrew names the LORD’s answer twice as words, showing consolation as something spoken and heard.
THE MEANING
The LORD’s answer reaches you as speech that is both good and consoling. Comfort takes a concrete form here: it is spoken and able to meet the person who waits.
THE ROOT
נִחֻמִים
niḥumim
GROWS FROM
נחם
To comfort or console; in other forms, to relent.
“comforting” in this verse is niḥumim. The word translated “comfortable” comes from the root for comfort and consolation. Its branches include both consolation and the comforter, revealing comfort here as an active response rather than merely a pleasant tone.
ALSO GROWS
menaḥem: Comforter, one who consoles
מְנַחֵם
The same root names the one who gives consolation, making these words a personal response to distress.
nāḥam: To comfort, console; also to relent
נָחַם
This root holds consolation and a changed condition together, giving the LORD’s words the force of an answer that can meet distress.
דְּבָרִים
devarim
GROWS FROM
דבר
To speak; word, matter, or thing.
The Hebrew repeats devarim: “good words, words of consolation.” The root also names a matter or thing, giving these spoken words substance beyond a passing sound.
ALSO GROWS
dāvar: Word, matter, or thing
דָּבָר
The word can name both speech and what is spoken about, lending the answer concrete weight.
dibber: Spoke
דִּבֵּר
This branch makes clear that consolation is communicated in speech, something heard and received.
THE PATTERN
Consolation takes shape through words that meet distress with goodness and sustain life.
This is my comfort in my bowing low, for your word has brought me to life.Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.Praised be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus, the Anointed One, the Father of compassions and the God of all comfort.THE THREAD
Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.Isaiah’s נַחֲמוּ (naḥamu), “comfort,” shares the root נחם (naḥam), “to comfort or console,” with Zechariah’s word for “comfortable.” The repeated command makes consolation itself a spoken response, one that can be named and heard.
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