Comfort, comfort my people: God tells an unnamed agent (or agents) to comfort his people. The verb comfort is a key term in chapters 40–66 (see, for example, 49.13; 51.3, 12, 19; 52.9; 61.2; 66.13). It is repeated here for emphasis. Contemporary English Version renders this line as “Encourage my people! Give them comfort.” Such variation is one way of drawing attention to the command here. Bible en français courant (1997) expresses the emphasis by saying “Give [plural] comfort to my people, it’s urgent.” The two occurrences of the Hebrew verb rendered comfort are plural imperative. In Hebrew poetry singular and plural forms are often interchanged, so the singular interpretation is possible here (see, for example, 21.9; 37.14). Many scholars believe this command is given to the prophet. Most of the versions of languages that distinguish between singular and plural imperatives use the plural imperative here (so Bible en français courant). We recommend the plural imperative, but translators can use a footnote to explain that the command was probably given to the prophet himself.

God refers to the exiled people of Judah as my people since they have a covenant relationship with him (see the comments on 1.3).

Says your God: Some languages may prefer to place this quote frame at the beginning of the verse by starting with “Your God says, ‘Give comfort…’” (similarly Contemporary English Version). Good News Translation places it in the middle of the verse, which is another option. Your God is rendered “our God” in Good News Translation and Contemporary English Version. This change identifies the speaker and his audience as worshiping the same God (compare 37.4). But such a change of pronoun is not necessary since there is no direct evidence that this is the intention of the writer.

Both Good News Translation and Contemporary English Version clarify that verses 1a and 2 are a direct quote from God by using double quote marks (see also the examples below).

For the translation of this verse consider the following examples:

• “Give comfort, yes, give comfort to my people!”
This is what your God says.

• Your God says: “Bring comfort, bring comfort to my people.

Quoted with permission from Ogden, Graham S. and Sterk, Jan. A Handbook on Isaiah. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2011. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .