Comfort

Comfort - (Webster's 1828 Dictionary)

COMFORT, v.t.

1. To strengthen; to invigorate; to cheer or enliven.

Light excelleth in comforting the spirits of men.

Comfort ye your hearts. Gen 18.

2. To strengthen the mind when depressed or enfeebled; to console; to give new vigor to the spirits; to cheer, or relieve from depression, or trouble.

His friends came to mourn with him and to comfort him. Job 2.

3. In law, to relieve, assist or encourage, as the accessory to a crime after the fact.

COMFORT, n.

1. Relief from pain; ease; rest or moderate pleasure after pain, cold or distress or uneasiness of body. The word signifies properly new strength, or animation; and relief from pain is often the effect of strength. In a popular sense, the word signifies rather negatively the absence of pain and the consequent quiet, than positive animation.

2. Relief from distress of mind; the ease and quiet which is experienced when pain, trouble, agitation or affliction ceases. It implies also some degree of positive animation of the spirits; or some pleasurable sensations derived from hope, and agreeable prospects; consolation.

Let me alone, that I may take comfort a little. Job 10.

Daughter, be of good comfort; thy faith hath made thee whole. Mat 9.

3. Support; consolation under calamity, distress or danger.

Let thy merciful kindness be for my comfort. Psa 119.

4. That which gives strength or support in distress, difficulty, danger, or infirmity.

Pious children are the comfort of their aged parents.

5. In law, support; assistance; countenance; encouragement; as, an accessory affords aid or comfort to a felon.

6. That which gives security from want and furnishes moderate enjoyment; as the comforts of life.

kum'-fert (nacham; parakaleo): The New Testament word is variously translated, as "comfort," "exhort," "beseech," the exact translation to be determined by the context. Etymologically, it is "to call alongside of," i.e. to summon for assistance. To comfort is to cheer and encourage. It has a positive force wanting in its synonym "console," as it indicates the dispelling of grief by the impartation of strength. the Revised Version (British and American) has correctly changed the translation of paramutheomai from the King James Version "comfort," to "consolation." So in the Old Testament, "Comfort ye my people" (Isa 40:1) is much stronger than "console," which affords only the power of calm endurance of affliction, while the brightest hopes of the future and the highest incentives to present activity are the gifts of the Divine grace that is here bestowed.

H. E. Jacobs