Tool Beta
Is It Actually in the Bible?
Phrases people quote as Scripture. The real verse, or the honest answer that there is not one.
"Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem" (Isaiah 40:2) sounds like God wants the message delivered in a relaxed, easy-going tone.
'Comfortably' in Isaiah 40:2 means 'in a way that comforts and consoles,' not 'at physical ease.'
Isaiah 40:2, in every translation this tool compares.
Isaiah 40:2 opens one of the most famous consolation passages in the Old Testament: "Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned." "Comfortably" here is built directly from "comfort" in its old, strong sense, to strengthen and console someone in distress, and means "speak words that comfort her," straight to her heart.
Modern "comfortably" has drifted toward physical ease (a comfortable chair, a comfortable temperature), so a reader can miss that this is an emotionally loaded command to console a suffering city, not a note about the delivery's tone or volume.
