FROM THE HEBREW · ISAIAH 40:31
Isaiah 40:31 in Hebrew: waiting, and strength that is exchanged
“They that wait for the LORD shall renew their strength.” Two Hebrew words carry this verse: the word for waiting, and a verb that means more than “renew.”
Key Hebrew words
The setting
Isaiah 40 opens with “Comfort ye, comfort ye My people.” It is addressed to exiles who feel forgotten: “My way is hid from the LORD” (40:27). The chapter answers that the Creator “fainteth not, neither is weary,” and that He gives strength to the faint. Verse 31 is the last line of that answer.
Kavah: the Hebrew word for wait
The verse opens with וְקוֹיֵ יְהוָה, “those who wait for the LORD.” The root קוה means to wait for, look for, hope. It is the same verb as Psalm 27:14: “Wait on the LORD; be strong, and let thy heart take courage; yea, wait thou for the LORD.” The noun tikvah, hope, comes from it.
You will often read that kavah “literally means to twist a rope.” Be careful with that. The related noun kav means a measuring line, and tikvah is used for a cord once (Joshua 2:18), but in the Bible the verb itself always means waiting or hoping. The cord is a helpful image, not the definition.
Yachalifu: not topped up, but exchanged
“Renew” translates יַחֲלִיפוּ, from חלף, a verb of passing and replacing. In Genesis 35:2 Jacob’s household is told to change their garments (הַחֲלִיפוּ). The picture is not a battery being recharged, but old strength going out and new strength coming in.
What the classical commentators say
Ibn Ezra: “before the first strength is used up, another strength will come to them from God.” He compares Job 14:7, where a tree that is cut down will sprout again, the same verb.
Radak: those who hope in God in exile, even when their strength is gone, will still renew it, “like the tree, if it is cut down it sprouts again: the renewal of a thing in place of what has passed away.” He also quotes Rabbi Saadia’s legend that the eagle flies near the sun every ten years, falls into the sea and comes out renewed, a medieval image of the verse.
Rashi explains ever simply as “wing.” Metzudat Zion defines yachalifu as “renewal and exchange,” and Metzudat David reads it as “new strength at every moment.”
On Psalm 27:14, which says “wait” twice, Rashi quotes the Talmud (Berakhot 32b): “if your prayer was not answered, go back and hope again.” Malbim adds that hoping in a person ends once you get what you wanted, but hoping in God is its own goal: it strengthens the heart, and the heart hopes again.
So what does it mean today?
In Hebrew, Isaiah 40:31 is a promise to the tired, not to the strong. The one who waits, who keeps looking toward God when the way seems hidden, does not get more of the same strength. They get a different one, given in exchange, and enough to run and to walk.
Frequently asked questions
What is the Hebrew word for “wait” in Isaiah 40:31?
It is kavah (קָוָה), here in the form ve-kovei, “those who wait for.” It means to wait for, look for, or hope. The same verb appears in Psalm 27:14.
What does “renew” mean in Isaiah 40:31?
The Hebrew yachalifu (יַחֲלִיפוּ) comes from a root meaning to pass on, change or replace. The commentators explain it as renewal by exchange: new strength in place of the old.
Does kavah mean to twist or bind like a rope?
That is a proposed origin of the root, not its meaning in Bible verses, where it always means to wait or hope. The related noun tikvah does mean a cord once, in Joshua 2:18.
What does Psalm 27:14 mean in Hebrew?
It uses kavah twice: “Wait on the LORD… yea, wait thou for the LORD.” Rashi, citing the Talmud, reads the repetition as: if your prayer was not answered, hope again.
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Sources: Hebrew text from the Masoretic text; English from The Holy Scriptures according to the Masoretic Text (Jewish Publication Society, 1917, public domain). Commentaries (Rashi, Ibn Ezra, Radak, Metzudat David, Metzudat Zion, Malbim and others) quoted from their Hebrew originals, in our own translation. Lexical notes from Brown-Driver-Briggs and Strong’s.