Isaiah 66:13 Meaning and Explanation

Isaiah 66:13 promises that God will comfort His people as tenderly as a mother comforts her child. The image is intimate and gentle: a mother soothing a distressed child, holding and reassuring until the crying stops. God applies this picture to Himself, "so will I comfort you," expressing the depth and tenderness of His care. This is the closest, most personal comfort imaginable, far from anything distant or formal.

The verse comes near the end of Isaiah, in a passage filled with images of nurture and abundance, where Jerusalem is pictured as a mother nursing her children. Now God Himself takes the role of comforter, assuring His people that their sorrow will be answered with His tender care. The repetition, "comforteth... comfort you... ye shall be comforted," drives home the certainty of the promise. And the place is named: "in Jerusalem," the city of God's presence and the focus of restoration. For any reader weighed down by grief or fear, this verse offers one of Scripture's most reassuring portraits of God. The same God who is high and holy stoops to comfort like a mother, meeting His people with the gentlest consolation a heart can receive.