Isaiah 40:1 (GNV)

Passage

Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, will your God say.

Nearby Context

Isaiah 40:1 Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, will your God say.

Isaiah 40:2 Speake comfortably to Ierusalem, and crye vnto her, that her warrefare is accomplished, that her iniquitie is pardoned: for she hath receiued of the Lords hand double for all her sinnes.

Isaiah 40:3 A voyce cryeth in the wildernesse, Prepare ye the way of the Lord: make streight in the desert a path for our God.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "comfort" and "people". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "comfort" and "people", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The next verse adds "Speake comfortably to Ierusalem and crye vnto...", so "comfort" and "people" should be read forward into that movement. In Isaiah context, the local focus is the Holy One of Israel, judgment and restoration, the servant of the LORD, and Zion's hope.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "comfort" and "people" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.