Word study

Comfort

3 Hebrew and 2 Greek words behind this English word

The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: comfort, comforted, comforts, comforting. English often uses one word where Hebrew or Greek has several, each with its own shade of meaning. Under each word are verses where it is translated this way; choose the word itself for its full study: every verse, how else it is translated, the forms it takes and what the dictionaries say.

At a glance

How often each original word is translated “comfort” or one of its forms.

Compare the Hebrew words side by side Compare the Greek words side by side

Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)

  • נָחַם nâchambe sorry, consoletranslated this way 41 times of its 106 uses · Strong’s H5162Verb  ·  Translated: comfort 24, relent 13, comforted 12, relented 7

    Genesis 5:29 And he named him Noah, saying, “May this one comfort us in the labor and toil of our hands caused by the ground that the LORD has cursed.”

    Ruth 2:13 “My lord,” she said, “may I continue to find favor in your eyes, for you have comforted and spoken kindly to your maidservant, though I am not like one of your servant girls.”

    Full study and all 98 verses →
  • נֶחָמָה nechâmâhcomforttranslated this way 2 times of its 2 uses · Strong’s H5165Noun  ·  Translated: comfort 2

    Job 6:10 It still brings me comfort, and joy through unrelenting pain, that I have not denied the words of the Holy One.

    Psalm 119:50 This is my comfort in affliction, that Your promise has given me life.

    Full study and all 2 verses →
  • נִחוּם nichûmconsoled, solacetranslated this way 2 times of its 3 uses · Strong’s H5150Noun  ·  Translated: comfort 1, compassion 1, comforting 1

    Isaiah 57:18 I have seen his ways, but I will heal him; I will guide him and restore comfort to him and his mourners,

    Zechariah 1:13 So the LORD spoke kind and comforting words to the angel who was speaking with me.

    Full study and all 3 verses →

Greek words (New Testament)

  • παράκλησις paráklēsisexhortation, entreaty, encouragement, comforttranslated this way 9 times of its 29 uses · Strong’s G3874Noun  ·  Translated: encouragement 10, comfort 9, exhortation 3, appeal 2

    Luke 6:24 But woe to you who are rich, for you have already received your comfort.

    2 Corinthians 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort,

    Full study and all 28 verses →
  • παρακαλέω parakaléōI summon, entreat, admonish, comforttranslated this way 9 times of its 106 uses · Strong’s G3870Verb  ·  Translated: urge 20, encourage 14, begged 13, urged 7

    Matthew 2:18 “A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more.”

    Luke 16:25 But Abraham answered, ‘Child, remember that during your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things. But now he is comforted here, while you are in agony.

    Full study and all 104 verses →
How to study a word well
  1. Start from the verse, not the dictionary. Find which Hebrew or Greek word stands in the verse you are studying. One English word often translates several different original words.
  2. Read every place the word is used. A word means what its writers used it to mean. The list of verses and the count by book show its range, and who uses it most.
  3. Look at how it is translated. A word rendered five different ways has a wider meaning than any one English word can carry.
  4. Notice the form. A command is not a statement, and a passive verb is something done to the subject. The form in your verse is part of the meaning.
  5. See what it keeps company with. The words that appear beside it again and again show how the Bible itself connects ideas.
  6. Then read the dictionaries. They give the considered view of scholars, with their evidence.
  7. Come back to the verse. Context decides. A word does not carry every one of its meanings into every verse, and where a word came from does not settle what it means in a sentence written centuries later.

What the Bible says about comfort: passages by topic →

Scripture text and translation counts: Berean Standard Bible. Full entry: Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906, public domain), in the digital edition Brown-Driver-Briggs Enhanced by unfoldingWord (Joel Ruark, J. de Joode), based on data by Eliran Wong and Stephen Ku; its additions are used under CC BY 4.0. Strong’s Hebrew Dictionary: Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible Project, CC BY 4.0. Hebrew-to-English verse numbering: original work of the Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible available at https://github.com/openscriptures/morphhb, CC BY 4.0. We reformatted the data, linked the references to this site’s Bible text and left out words in other scripts that the source holds only as images. These are historical reference works; an entry gives its authors’ view, and a word’s meaning in any verse depends on how it is used there.