a coming-alongside with words that move a person: comfort that steadies, encouragement that urges, or an earnest appeal.
The word pictures someone called to your side to help. It comes from a verb meaning to call a person alongside, and the same three-way range runs through both. The single act of standing beside someone with words can
- steady them when they are hurting
- spur them on when they are wavering
- press a heartfelt request on them
These are not three unrelated words but three angles on one thing. In Paul's letters, above all in 2 Corinthians, the comfort side dominates: God is the God of all comfort who steadies his people in trouble so that they can steady others. In preaching and letters of instruction (Acts, Romans, Hebrews, 1 Timothy) it leans toward encouragement and exhortation, the word of exhortation that urges a congregation forward. In a few places it is a strong appeal, as when the churches of Macedonia begged for the privilege of giving.
Because English has no one word for all of this, translators reach for "comfort," "consolation," "encouragement," "exhortation," "entreaty," or "appeal" depending on the verse, and the choice is sometimes a close judgment call. The thread that holds every use together is a person brought near to move you: not counsel shouted from a distance, but help offered at your side.