Verse explainer

What does Isaiah 40:31 really mean?

The promise isn't a burst of supernatural energy on demand — it belongs to those who wait, and the climax is the quiet endurance of walking, not the drama of soaring.

KJV

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.

BSB

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.

The plain meaning

Isaiah 40 is addressed to exhausted exiles who fear God has forgotten them (v. 27). The whole chapter builds to this verse: God does not grow tired (v. 28), and he transfers that tirelessness to those who wait on him. The word translated "wait" carries the sense of expectant hope, not passive resignation. The movement of the verse is deliberately descending — soaring, then running, then walking — which is the opposite of what you'd expect if the point were excitement. The climax is the ordinary, grinding, one-foot-in-front-of-the-other faithfulness of daily life. Walking without fainting is the hardest thing, and the verse treats it as the deepest gift.

The common misreading

"Mount up with wings as eagles" is the main point — God gives you a rush of supernatural power. The soaring eagle is the image people remember, and it gets used to promise dramatic, felt bursts of divine energy — the feeling of being lifted above your circumstances. But the verse's structure works against this reading. Isaiah lists three things in descending order: soaring, running, then walking. If the verse were climaxing on power, it would end with the eagles. Instead it ends with walking — the slowest, least spectacular motion — and calls it victory. The original audience was not looking for a spiritual high; they were exiles, bone-tired, wondering if God had abandoned them (v. 27). The most sustaining promise Isaiah could give them was not that they would sometimes feel like eagles, but that on the long, unglamorous walk through ordinary days and grinding hardship, they would not collapse. Jamieson, Fausset & Brown call this a descending climax on purpose: every posture of the waiting person — soaring, running, or just plodding forward — is held by the same divine strength. The gift of not fainting while walking is the deepest promise in the verse.

What the commentators say

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown19th c. · PD

JFB notes that the descending order — mount up, run, walk — is intentional: a climax in reverse, showing that in every posture, the praying and waiting child of God is strong in the Lord. The eagle image draws on the ancient belief that the eagle renews its feathers and strength in old age, echoed in Psalm 103:5, giving the imagery a note of restoration after decline, not just youthful vigor.

Charles Spurgeon19th c. · PD

Spurgeon drew attention to the word 'wait' as the hinge of the promise — not striving or demanding, but a posture of leaning expectantly on God's faithfulness. He observed that the verse meets people at their lowest and weakest, not their most capable, and that the promise of not fainting while walking is more practically sustaining than any vision of wings.

Albert BarnesBarnes' Notes · PD

Barnes notes that 'renew their strength' carries the idea of exchanging their own spent strength for God's, as a fresh supply given in place of what is exhausted. He connects the eagle imagery to the ancient belief in the bird's self-renewal, making the point that this is a promise of restoration — new strength given to those worn down — not merely encouragement to those already strong.

The word behind it

קָוָה qavah

'Wait' — but the Hebrew root means to twist or bind together like a cord, and carries a strong sense of expectant, straining hope directed at a person. It is not passive waiting like sitting in a queue; it is the posture of someone whose whole orientation is toward God, taut with trust. This is why the promise is attached to 'those who wait' and not simply 'those who ask' or 'those who believe' — the word points to sustained, costly, relational expectation.

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