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Jerusalem as a testimony to the truth of His Word. David “comforted” Bathsheba after
the death of her child born in sin (2 Sam. 12:24); this probably indicates his repentance of
what had happened in their indiscretion.
On the other hand, the word was used in the human sense of “comfort.” Job asked his
three companions, “How then comfort ye me in vain seeing in your answers there
remaineth falsehood?” (Job 21:34; he meant that their attitude seemed cruel and
unfeeling). The psalmist looked to God for “comfort”: “Thou shalt increase my greatness,
and comfort me on every side” (Ps. 71:21). In an eschatological sense God indicated that
He would “comfort” Jerusalem with the restoration of Israel, as a mother comforts her
offspring (Isa. 66:13).
REPROACH
A. Noun.
(
#
, 2781), “reproach.” This noun occurs in the Old Testament and in
rabbinic Hebrew. Its use in modern Hebrew has been taken over by other nouns.
)
occurs 70 times in the Hebrew Old Testament. It is rare in the Pentateuch and in the
historical books. The noun appears most frequently in the Book of Psalms, in the major
prophets, and in Daniel. The first occurrence is in Gen. 30:23: “And she conceived, and
bare a son; and said, God hath taken away my reproach.”
“Reproach” has a twofold usage. On the one hand, the word denotes the state in
which one finds himself. The unmarried woman (Isa. 4:1) or the woman without children
(Gen. 30:23) carried a sense of disgrace in a society where marriage and fertility were
highly spoken of. The destruction of Jerusalem and the Exile brought Judah to the state of
“reproach”: “O Lord, according to all thy righteousness, I beseech thee, let thine anger
and thy fury be turned away from thy city Jerusalem, thy holy mountain: because for our
sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and thy people are become a reproach
to all that are about us” (Dan. 9:16). On the other hand, the disgrace found in a person or
a nation became the occasion for taunting the oppressed. The disgraced received abuse by
the words spoken against them and by the rumors which were spread about them.
Whatever the occasion of the disgrace was whether defeat in battle, exile, or enmity,
the psalmist prayed for deliverance from the “reproach”: “Remove from me reproach and
contempt; for I have kept thy testimonies” (Ps. 119:22—see context; cf. Ps. 109:25). The
verbal abuse that could be heaped upon the unfortunate is best evidenced by the
synonyms found with
in Jer. 24:9: “And I will deliver them to be removed into
all the kingdoms of the earth for their hurt, to be a reproach and a proverb, a taunt and a
curse, in all places whither I shall drive them.” Several prophets predicted that Israel’s
judgment was partly to be experienced by the humiliating “reproach” of the nations:
“And I will persecute them with the sword, with the famine, and with the pestilence, and
will deliver them to be removed to all the kingdoms of the earth, to be a curse, and an
astonishment, and a hissing, and a reproach among all the nations whither I have driven
them” (Jer. 29:18; cf. Ezek. 5:14). However, the Lord graciously promised to remove the
“reproach” at the accomplishment of His purpose: “He will swallow up death in victory;
and the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people
shall he take away from off all the earth …” (Isa. 25:8).