Comforting vengeance

The Servant of Yahweh is anointed to proclaim the “acceptable year of Yahweh” and the “day of vengeance of our God” and to comfort the mourners (Isaiah 61:2). These are not opposites. They proclaim the same fact from different angles, and the connection is underscored by a Hebrew play on the words naqam (“vengeance”) and nacham (“comfort”).

In Isaiah, comfort is not therapeutic; it is not soothing that enables someone to tolerate intolerable conditions. Comfort is a change of condition. The mourners are comforted when they exchange their clothing of lamentation for festal garments (v. 3).

And this change of condition happens when Yahweh acts to defend them, to overthrow their enemies, to deliver them from slavery.

Vengeance is comforting; comfort comes through vengeance.