531. 'Comfort us from our work and from the toil of our hands that comes from the ground which Jehovah has cursed' means the doctrine by which what had been corrupted would be restored. This too, in the Lord's Divine mercy, will be clear from what will come later on. 'Work' means their inability to perceive what truth was without toil and distress. 'The toil of our hands that comes from the ground which Jehovah has cursed' means their inability to do anything good. Such is the description of Lamech or a vastated Church. 'The work and the toil of our hands' is when people must from themselves or the proprium inquire after what truth is and do what is good. And the outcome is 'the ground which Jehovah has cursed', that is, nothing but falsity and evil. For the meaning of 'Jehovah curses', see 245. 'To comfort' however refers to Lamech's son, or Noah, who means new regeneration, and so a new Church, which was the Ancient Church. This Church or Noah also means peace and the comfort that peace brings, just as the Most Ancient Church is referred to as the seventh day on which the Lord rested; see 84-88.