Isaiah 40:31 is often printed on its own, as a picture of soaring strength. In Isaiah it is the last line of an argument. Israel has complained that God has lost track of them, and the prophet answers by describing a God who never tires and who gives strength to people who have run out of it.

Quick Answer

Isaiah 40:31 promises that people who wait for the LORD will have their strength renewed: they will rise like eagles, run without growing weary, and walk without fainting. The promise answers Israel’s complaint in verse 27, “My way is hidden from the LORD.” It is addressed to exhausted exiles waiting for God to act, and its point is that the tireless Creator shares his strength with the weary, not that faith makes anyone immune to fatigue.

The Verse in Full

“But those who wait upon the LORD will renew their strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not faint.” (Isaiah 40:31, BSB)

The King James Version is close: “But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.” Some modern translations use “hope in the LORD” instead of “wait upon.”

The verse opens with “But,” which signals a contrast with what came just before it.

The Complaint Behind the Promise

Verses 27–31 form one unit, and the promise only makes full sense with the complaint that starts it:

“Why do you say, O Jacob, and why do you assert, O Israel, ‘My way is hidden from the LORD, and my claim is ignored by my God’? Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary; His understanding is beyond searching out. He gives power to the faint and increases the strength of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall.” (Isaiah 40:27–30, BSB)

The passage turns on two Hebrew verbs that appear in verses 28, 30, and 31. The BSB translates them “grow tired” or “faint” and “grow weary.” The Bible Hub interlinear shows the same pair of words in all three verses:

Verse Who What happens
40:28 The LORD “He will not grow tired or weary”
40:30 Youths and young men They “grow tired and weary” and “stumble and fall”
40:31 Those who wait upon the LORD They “run and not grow weary,” “walk and not faint”

The logic is plain once the repetition is visible. God does not tire. Even the strongest people do. Those who wait for God receive what belongs to him: strength that does not run out. Verse 29 states the link directly: “He gives power to the faint,” and the word for “power” there is the same word translated “strength” in verse 31.

Where Isaiah 40 Sits

Chapter 40 begins a new section of Isaiah with “Comfort, comfort My people,” and tells Jerusalem “that her forced labor has been completed; her iniquity has been pardoned” (40:1–2). The chapters that follow name Babylon and the Persian king Cyrus. God says, “For your sake, I will send to Babylon” (43:14), calls Cyrus “My shepherd” (44:28) and “His anointed” (45:1), and finally commands, “Leave Babylon! Flee from the Chaldeans!” (48:20).

Who wrote these chapters is debated. The chapter summary for Oxford University Press’s A Brief Introduction to the Old Testament argues from internal evidence that chapters 40–55, which it calls “Second Isaiah,” were “composed sometime in the sixth century in Babylon, not in eighth-century Jerusalem,” citing the references to Babylon, the statements about Cyrus, and a speaker who does not call himself Isaiah. Others hold to authorship by Isaiah of Jerusalem speaking ahead of time. The 1910 Catholic Encyclopedia, which defended that traditional view, still granted that the author of chapters 40–66 “does speak from the point of view of the Babylonian Captivity,” while denying that he “must have lived and written in those times.” The New Testament quotes Isaiah 40:3 as “spoken of through the prophet Isaiah” (Matthew 3:3).

On either view, the audience the chapter addresses is the same: a people under judgment, far from home, wondering whether God still sees them. The same Oxford summary dates Cyrus’s capture of Babylon to 539 BCE and the start of the return to 538.

The chapter builds toward verse 31 step by step. People wither like grass, “but the word of our God stands forever” (40:8). The nations are “like a drop in a bucket” (40:15). No idol compares to God (40:18–20). He calls every star by name, and “not one of them is missing” (40:26). If none of the stars goes missing, Israel’s complaint that their way is “hidden from the LORD” cannot stand.

Key Words in the Verse

“Wait upon.” The Hebrew verb is qavah. The Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB) lexicon defines it as “wait for,” and suggests it may come from a root meaning to twist or stretch, “then of tension of enduring, waiting.” The same verb appears twice in Psalm 27:14: “Wait patiently for the LORD; be strong and courageous. Wait patiently for the LORD!” Waiting in this sense is active and expectant. It means looking to God for help that has not yet come.

“Renew their strength.” The verb is chalaph, which BDB defines as “pass on or away” and, in this verse, “change for better, renew.” The exact phrase returns one verse later, in a very different setting: God summons the nations to court and says, “let the peoples renew their strength” (41:1). In 40:31 the renewal is a gift to people who wait for God.

“Wings like eagles.” The bird is nesher, usually translated “eagle.” BDB notes it is “sometimes (perhaps not always) the griffon-vulture” and lists Isaiah 40:31 among passages that use the bird’s soaring as a simile. Elsewhere the same bird pictures God carrying Israel out of Egypt: “I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to Myself” (Exodus 19:4; compare Deuteronomy 32:11). In Isaiah 40:31 it is the people themselves who rise.

The order of the verbs. The verse moves from mounting up, to running, to walking. It ends with ordinary walking, not flight. Whatever else the order suggests, the promise covers the plain daily pace of life as well as its high moments.

What the Verse Does Not Promise

  • Immunity from tiredness. Verse 30 says even young men grow weary and stumble. The promise is for the weary, not for people who never feel weak.
  • Instant change. The verse is about people who are waiting. The exiles had to keep looking to God before the return came.
  • A motto for personal ambition. The original setting is a whole people longing for God to act on his promises, not an individual reaching for a goal.
  • Strength that comes from effort alone. The chapter’s point is that the strength comes from the LORD, who “gives power to the faint.”

Common Misreadings

Reading it without verse 27

Without Israel’s complaint, verse 31 can sound like a general reward for spiritual people. With it, the verse is God’s answer to people who feel forgotten.

Treating “wait” as doing nothing

The verb describes expectant looking toward God. Psalm 27:14 pairs it with “be strong and courageous.”

Making the eagle the subject

The image is vivid, but the subject of the passage is God: the everlasting Creator who does not tire. The eagle shows what his strength looks like in tired people.

  • Isaiah 40:1–11: comfort for Jerusalem and the voice in the wilderness.
  • Isaiah 41:1: the same phrase, “renew their strength,” in God’s summons to the nations.
  • Psalm 27:14: “Wait patiently for the LORD; be strong and courageous.”
  • Lamentations 3:25–26: “The LORD is good to those who wait for Him… It is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD.”
  • Exodus 19:4: God carrying Israel “on eagles’ wings.”

On this site, Isaiah 44:2’s “fear not” comes from the same part of Isaiah, Lamentations 3:22–23 voices hope in the middle of lament, and Jeremiah 29:11 in context speaks to the same exiles from a different angle.

Final Thoughts

Isaiah 40:31 is the end of an answer. Israel said God had lost track of them. The prophet answered that the God who names every star does not grow tired, and that he gives his strength to the faint. Those who keep waiting for him will rise, run, and walk without giving out. Read in place, the verse is less about human strength than about a tireless God who shares his strength with worn-out people.

FAQ

What does “wait upon the LORD” mean in Isaiah 40:31?

The Hebrew verb means to wait for or look for someone. In the chapter, it describes people who keep looking to the LORD for help when their situation has not yet changed. It is expectant waiting, not idleness.

Who is Isaiah 40:31 addressed to?

To “Jacob” and “Israel” (40:27), a people who felt God had overlooked them. The surrounding chapters speak of Jerusalem’s punishment being over, name Babylon and Cyrus, and call the people to leave Babylon, so the chapters address people in the Babylonian exile.

Are the “eagles” in Isaiah 40:31 really eagles?

The Hebrew word is usually translated “eagle.” The Brown-Driver-Briggs lexicon notes that it sometimes, perhaps not always, refers to the griffon vulture. Either way, the picture is a large bird rising high on outstretched wings.

Does Isaiah 40:31 mean believers will never get tired?

No. Verse 30 says even the young grow weary. The promise is that the LORD, who never tires, gives strength to people who are worn out and keep looking to him.

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