What Does Isaiah 40:29 Mean in the King James?
He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
God’s increase begins exactly where your own strength is absent.
THE MEANING
This verse meets you at the point of depletion: God gives power to the faint and increases strength where might is lacking. Your lack is not described as a barrier to that giving; it is the place the verse names.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that you must first recover your own strength before God can give you power.
THE ROOT
עָצְמָה
ʿotzmah
GROWS FROM
עָצַם
ʿatsam
To be mighty or to grow numerous.
The word rendered “strength” comes from a root that also describes what is mighty or numerous, and shares its consonants with the word for bone. Strength here carries a sense of substance and structure, and the verse says it increases even where human might is lacking.
ALSO GROWS
ʿetsem: Bone; also self or essence in biblical usage.
עֶצֶם
This branch gives strength a structural depth: the same root names the body’s hard framework.
ʿatsum: Mighty; numerous.
עָצוּם
Strength and abundance share this root, echoing the verse’s movement from lack toward increase.
ʿotzmah: Strength or might.
עָצְמָה
This is the word used in the verse, linking the promise of increased strength to the root’s sense of might.
THE PATTERN
Divine strength is named as present where human strength fails.
My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever.And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.THE THREAD
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.The word for “power” in this verse and “strength” in the next is כֹּחַ (koach, power or strength). The same word given to the faint is what the next verse says is renewed, carrying the movement from depletion into continued walking.
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