Pain Management

Then they sat down on the ground with him for seven days and seven nights, with no one speaking a word to him, for they saw that his pain was very great. Job 2:13  NASB No one speaking a word – In the last verse we discovered that nûd and nāḥam are really circumlocutions for what really…

What Friends Are For

Now when Job’s three friends heard about all this adversity that had come upon him, they came, each one from his own place—Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite; and they made an appointment together to come to sympathize with him and comfort him.  Job 2:11  NASB Sympathize/ Comfort – “It’s just too much to…

Too Close for Comfort

May Your favor [ad]comfort me, according to Your [ae]word to Your servant.  Psalm 119:76  NASB Comfort – We start this investigation by noting two things: 1) the opening in Hebrew is not translated in this NASB version.  That opening is necessary for the acrostic pattern.  It is יְהִי־נָ֣א, with a yod, and should probably be translated “O,…

You’ll Feel Better in the Morning

I have remembered Your judgments from [t]of old, Lord, and comfort myself.  Psalm 119:52  NASB Comfort myself – Wait a minute!  Didn’t we just look at this idea (v. 50)?  Remember the discussion about “comfort” versus “consolation”? And what is “consolation” in these situations?  The poet chooses the term, neḥāmâ, found in this form only once more in…

No Aspirins, Please

My voice to God—let me cry out.  My voice to God—and hearken to me.  In the day of my straits I sought the Master.  My eye flows at night, it will not stop.  I refused to be consoled.  Psalm 77:2-3  (Hebrew Bible) Robert Alter Refused – “You’ll feel better in the morning.”  “This too will…

English Nuances

Reproach breaks my heart, I grow ill: I hope for consolation, and there is none, and for comforters, and do not find them.  Psalm 69:21 [Hebrew Bible]  Robert Alter Consolation – Look at this verse in two other translations (verse 20 in English Bibles): Reproaches have broken my heart, so that I am in despair.  I looked…

God Will Take Care

With my many cares within me, Your consolations delighted me.  Psalm 94:19  Robert Alter Many cares – Aretha Franklin’s rendition of “God Will Take Care of You” is found on the best selling Gospel album of all time.  It’s powerful and worth listening to (CLICK HERE).  Since music is such an emotional experience, perhaps we…

ḥesed in Greek

who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.   2 Corinthians 1:4  NIV So that – It’s just a tiny word, eis, a little conjunctive.  Note Oepke’s comment: “Originally spatial, this word takes on theological significance in the NT.”[1]  This is…

What Context?

“The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.”  Deuteronomy 31:8  NIV Woman’s Day Leave you nor forsake you – Feeling discouraged today?  Some persistent problems?  Some new stress? The usual ups and downs of life?  I…

You’re Like Me

yet for love’s sake I rather appeal to you—since I am such a person as Paul, the aged, and now also a prisoner of Christ Jesus  Philemon 1:9  NASB Appeal – You know this Greek word.  You just don’t know it in this context.  The word is parakaléō, usually associated with the Christian idea of the Holy Spirit.  What it really…