It is with such words that the glorious prophecy of restoration opens. The first chapter

saw Israel in a condition in which neither bandage nor ointment were of use. Nothing but

desolation and distress awaited this disobedient and gainsaying people.  When the

"Voice" is first heard (Isa. 6: 8) it is to commission the prophet to utter such words of

desolation that he could only wailingly cry, "Lord, how long?" Yet, the reader will

remember, that, with all its woe, the chapter does not conclude without a prophecy of

"return" and "revival". And now, with the opening of Isa. 40:, that blessed day of

restoration dominates the prophetic vision. We shall at times descend into the valley of

human frailty, rebellion and sin; we shall never be allowed to forget that restoration is by

grace and not by law or works, but the true light has at length broken through the clouds,

and nothing can dim its lustre, or, for long, keep back the prophet's pæen of triumph.

While no better English word than "Comfort" can be found appropriately to translate

the Hebrew word nacham, with which this prophecy opens, the word contains more than

can be known by a superficial acquaintance with it. When we consider that nacham, here

translated "comfort", is elsewhere 41 times translated "repent", it is evident that the

original has a fuller meaning than is generally understood by the English word "comfort".

The first occurrences of the word in Scripture are suggestive. They are found in

Gen. 5: and 6:, in reference to the flood, and there we meet with the two conceptions

"comfort" and "repent". The parents of Noah so named their son because, said they,

"This same shall comfort us" (Gen. 5: 29).  That Noah did not afford his parents

individual and personal exemption "from the toil of their hands because of the ground

that the Lord hath cursed" is evident, for Noah did not accomplish the purport of his

name until he was 600 years old. No, the "comfort" was theirs by prophetic anticipation.

In the account in Gen. 6:, when the flood was about to come on the earth, the self-same

word occurs, this time translated "repent": "It repented the Lord that He had made man"

(Gen. 6: 6). The word has its basis in the idea of the intaking of the breath, and is used

as a symbol of grief, pity, vengeance or comfort, according to circumstances.

While nacham occurs but three times in the first part of Isaiah, it occurs fourteen times

in the second. These latter occurrences are near the very heart of this great prophecy of

restoration, and we must see them together.