The Daily Office · For doubt
They shall exchange their strength
Isaiah 40:28–31
28Have you not known? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable.
29He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength.
30Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted;
31but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.
What's happening here
Isaiah 40 opens the second half of the book, speaking to Judeans in exile — their temple burned, their leaders deported, their God apparently defeated. The prophet's answer is not a pep talk. He asks a long series of questions — "have you not known? have you not heard?" — pointing the weary back to the God who made the stars and calls each one by name. The promise at the end is small and exact: those who wait will not recover their own strength; they will receive a different one.
The word that matters
Hebrew · to exchange, to renew by substitution
"They that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength" is a famous line, but the Hebrew verb is not "renew" in the sense of refreshing what you already had. It is chalaph — to exchange, to trade. The promise is not that you will get a second wind of your own energy. It is that when your strength runs out, a different strength will be given in its place.
Where else this shows up
2 Corinthians 4:16
Paul picks up the same theology: "though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day."
Isaiah 41:10
A few verses later, God offers the flip side: "I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you."
Philippians 4:13
"I can do all things through him who strengthens me" — Paul's shorthand for Isaiah's trade.
Across the whole Bible · doubt
Passages found by what they mean, not by keyword. Open any of them on the canvas.
Psalm 42:6–10
and my God. My soul is cast down within me; therefore I remember you from the land of Jordan and of Hermon, from Mount Mizar. Deep calls to deep at the roar of your waterfalls; all your breakers and your waves have gone…
Psalm 77:4–8
You hold my eyelids open; I am so troubled that I cannot speak. I consider the days of old, the years long ago. I said, “Let me remember my song in the night; let me meditate in my heart.” Then my spirit made a diligent…
Psalm 13:1–2
How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day? How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?
Psalm 77:1–3
I cry aloud to God, aloud to God, and he will hear me. In the day of my trouble I seek the Lord; in the night my hand is stretched out without wearying; my soul refuses to be comforted. When I remember God, I moan; when…
Psalm 102:23–24
He has broken my strength in midcourse; he has shortened my days. “O my God,” I say, “take me not away in the midst of my days— you whose years endure throughout all generations!”
Psalm 42:1–4
As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God? My tears have been my food day and night, while they say to me…
James 1:5–8
If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is…
Psalm 43:5
Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God.
Job 27:2–6
“As God lives, who has taken away my right, and the Almighty, who has made my soul bitter, as long as my breath is in me, and the spirit of God is in my nostrils, my lips will not speak falsehood, and my tongue will not…
Job 22:12–16
“Is not God high in the heavens? See the highest stars, how lofty they are! But you say, ‘What does God know? Can he judge through the deep darkness? Thick clouds veil him, so that he does not see, and he walks on the…
2 Corinthians 12:19–21
Have you been thinking all along that we have been defending ourselves to you? It is in the sight of God that we have been speaking in Christ, and all for your upbuilding, beloved. For I fear that perhaps when I come I…
Isaiah 17:10–11
For you have forgotten the God of your salvation and have not remembered the Rock of your refuge; therefore, though you plant pleasant plants and sow the vine-branch of a stranger, though you make them grow on the day…