נֶחָמָה

From the study of Job 6:10

Range of meaning

Consolation, comfort in grief. The root nḥm covers comforting a mourner and also being moved to relent. The noun occurs only here and in Psalm 119:50 ('this is my comfort in my affliction, that your word gives me life').

Against the English

'Comfort' and 'consolation' are accurate. Modern 'comfort' can suggest ease or coziness, but the Hebrew is the comfort given to the bereaved and suffering.

Used elsewhere in the period

The friends came 'to console him' (lᵉnaḥămô, 2:11). Job later calls them 'miserable comforters' (16:2) and says their 'consolation' is empty (21:34).

From the study of Psalm 119:50

Range of meaning

Consolation or comfort, meaning the relief and strength that come to someone in grief, loss or distress. It comes from the root נ־ח־ם (n-ḥ-m). In its active form this root means 'to comfort' (as in Isaiah 40:1, 'Comfort, comfort my people'), and in other forms it means 'to be sorry, to relent, to change one's mind'. The root's basic picture is a change of inner state, a breathing again after heaviness. The names Nehemiah ('the LORD comforts') and Menahem come from it.

Against the English

All the major English versions say 'comfort', which is accurate. In everyday modern English, though, 'comfort' often means physical ease or a cozy feeling ('comfort food', 'comfortable'). The Hebrew word means consolation in the middle of suffering, something that steadies a person and keeps them going, not a pleasant sensation.

How it drifted

The English word itself has drifted somewhat. 'Comfort' comes from Latin con-fortare, 'to strengthen', and older English kept that sense of fortifying. Modern usage has moved toward ease and softness. This is more a shading than a mistranslation.

Used elsewhere in the period

The noun occurs only twice in the Hebrew Bible: here and in Job 6:10, where Job says, 'This would still be my comfort'. Job's comfort there is grim: that God would finish him off before he denied the Holy One's words. The psalmist's comfort here is the opposite, that God's words have kept him alive. The verb form is common in the comfort passages of Isaiah 40–66 and in mourning customs (comforters visiting the bereaved, Genesis 37:35; Job 2:11).