6, which is odd. There is no other reference in these chapters to a group of prophets who might be ministering in the 540s, disciples of Second Isaiah or other prophets. The group who will in due course be mentioned are Jerusalem’s lookouts, in 52:8 (cf v. 9 here; †Merendino). By declaring that the city’s victorious king is returning, they will indeed bring comfort to it, and they may thus most plausibly be identified as the comforters here. The Vg’s populus meus makes ‘my people’ subject rather