From God, who gives it to the weary: “He gives power to the faint and increases the strength of the weak.” In Isaiah 40:29, the Hebrew word is koach (H3581): strength, power, vigor: the capacity to do something. It is the most common Hebrew word behind ‘strength’.
Get DeepWordWhat the original says
Behind the word “power” in this verse is the Hebrew word koach (said KO-akh).
It means strength, power, vigor: the capacity to do something. It is the most common Hebrew word behind ‘strength’.
This form, koach, is a noun, a naming word: strength. The verse begins with noten, ‘giving’, a form that describes God by what he keeps doing: he is the one who gives.
In the Berean Standard Bible, it is ‘strength’ 57 times and ‘power’ 35 times. It is the ‘power’ in “Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit” (Zechariah 4:6):
Word by word
| נֹתֵן | לַיָּעֵף | כֹּחַ | וּלְאֵין | אוֹנִים | עָצְמָה | יַרְבֶּה |
| giving | to the · weary | strength | and · to · there not | powers | strength | he increases |
Original form
What this tells us
Isaiah 40 opens a new part of the book: “Comfort, comfort My people,” says your God (Isaiah 40:1). The people feel forgotten. They say, “My way is hidden from the LORD, and my claim is ignored by my God” (Isaiah 40:27). The prophet answers with who God is: “He will not grow tired or weary” (Isaiah 40:28). The word for “power” here is koach: strength, vigor, the capacity to do something. God does not only have it; he gives it away: “He gives power to the faint and increases the strength of the weak.” The verse is addressed to the faint and the weak, not to the strong. The giver in this verse is the one who never runs out. A few verses earlier Isaiah points at the night sky and says that because of God’s “great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing” (Isaiah 40:26). Think of a phone with a low battery plugged into the wall: the strength comes from outside, from a source that does not drain. A psalm asks the same question this one answers and says, “My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth” (Psalm 121:2). If you feel faint, you are the person this verse was written to. Strength here is not something you summon from inside. It is something given.
What the original says
Behind “their strength” in this verse is koach again (said KO-akh), the word you met in Isaiah 40:29.
It is the same word: strength, power, the capacity to keep going.
This is the same noun, koach. Here its first letter is written without a dot, so it is said ‘khoach’: a sound change caused by the word before it, not a different word.
In all, the Berean has it 117 times. Isaiah has just used it of God himself, whose “great power and mighty strength” keep every star in place (Isaiah 40:26):
Word by word
| וְקוֹיֵ | יְהוָה | יַחֲלִיפוּ | כֹחַ | יַעֲלוּ | אֵבֶר | כַּנְּשָׁרִים |
| and · wait for | Of the LORD | they will renew | strength | they will go up | wing | like · eagles |
Original form
What this tells us
This is the end of the same chapter. Just before it Isaiah says, “Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall” (Isaiah 40:30). Nobody is strong enough on their own, not even the young and the fit. The word for “strength” is koach again. Here it belongs to “those who wait upon the LORD”, who “will renew their strength.” Waiting in this verse is not doing nothing. It is looking to the LORD and hoping in him while you keep going, the way someone waits for a friend they know is coming. Then come three pictures, each slower than the last: “they will mount up with wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not faint.” Flying sounds best, but many readers have noticed that walking without fainting may be the hardest of the three, and the one most needed on an ordinary day. An eagle does not climb by beating its wings all the way up; it rides the rising air beneath it. Some days you fly, and some days you only walk. This verse promises strength for both, to those who keep looking to the LORD.
What the original says
Behind the word “strength” in this verse is the Hebrew word oz (said OZE).
It means strength, might, security: strength to stand firm and to protect.
This form, va’oz, is ‘and’ (וְ) joined to the noun: “and strength”. Hebrew often puts ‘and’ right onto the next word.
In the Berean Standard Bible, it is ‘strength’ 45 times, as in “The LORD is my strength and my shield” (Psalm 28:7):
Word by word
| אֱלֹהִים | לָנוּ | מַחֲסֶה | וָעֹז | עֶזְרָה | בְצָרוֹת | נִמְצָא |
| God | of · us | a refuge | and · strength | a help | in · troubles | he is found |
Original form
What this tells us
Psalm 46 is written for a world coming apart: “though the earth is transformed and the mountains are toppled into the depths of the seas” (Psalm 46:2). The writer pictures roaring waters and quaking mountains, and still says, “Therefore we will not fear.” The word for “strength” is oz: strength, might, security. The psalm sets it beside “refuge”: “God is our refuge and strength.” A refuge is a place to shelter; strength is power to stand. God is both, and he is “an ever-present help in times of trouble”, not help that arrives once the trouble is over. The psalm ends with a call to stop and a promise: “Be still and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10), and, “The LORD of Hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress” (Psalm 46:11). Long before, Moses had sung the same word on the far side of the sea: “The LORD is my strength and my song” (Exodus 15:2). Strength in these songs is not a feeling inside the singer. It is a person they can point to. When things around you shake, strength may not feel like your own at all. This psalm finds it somewhere else: in God, present right in the middle of the trouble.
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Download on the App StoreWhat the original says
Behind “your strength” in this verse is the Hebrew word ma’oz (said mah-OZE).
It means a strong place: a stronghold, a refuge, a fortress. It comes from the same root as oz, the strength you met in Psalm 46:1.
This form, ma’uzzekhem, has ‘your’ (said to many people) joined to the end: your stronghold. It is the last word of the verse.
In the Berean Standard Bible, it is usually a strong place: ‘stronghold’ 10 times, ‘refuge’ 8 times and ‘fortress’ 5 times. ‘Strength’ is only here:
Word by word
| וְאַל | תֵּעָצֵבוּ | כִּי | חֶדְוַת | יְהוָה | הִיא | מָעֻזְּכֶם |
| and · may not | you be grieved | for | joy of | The LORD | it | refuge · your |
Original form
What this tells us
The people have come home from exile and rebuilt Jerusalem’s walls. Now Ezra reads God’s law aloud to them: “they read from the Book of the Law of God, explaining it and giving insight” (Nehemiah 8:8). As they understand it, they begin to cry: “For all the people were weeping as they heard the words of the Law” (Nehemiah 8:9). The word for “strength” is ma’oz, and it usually means a strong place: a stronghold, a refuge, a fortress. So the verse pictures joy as a fortress to stand in: “Do not grieve, for the joy of the LORD is your strength.” Their tears were understandable, but this was a feast day. Nehemiah sends them to eat and to share, and to “send out portions to those who have nothing prepared.” They did: “all the people began to eat and drink, to send out portions, and to rejoice greatly, because they understood the words that had been made known to them” (Nehemiah 8:12). Christians read “the joy of the LORD” in more than one way, as the joy God himself has or as joy found in him, and the verse holds both. Strength, in this verse, is not found by trying harder. It is found in the LORD’s joy, shared at a table with others.
What the original says
Behind “gives me strength” in this verse is the Greek word endunamoō (said en-doo-nah-MOH-oh).
It means to strengthen, to make someone strong, to give them the power to do something.
This form, endunamounti, is an ‘-ing’ form: ‘the one strengthening me’, describing Christ by what he keeps doing. The verb near the start of the verse, ischuō, means ‘I have strength for’; the Berean puts it “I can do”.
It is used only 7 times in the New Testament. The Berean puts it ‘strengthened’ 3 times and ‘strong’ 2 times, as in “be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power” (Ephesians 6:10):
Word by word
| πάντα | ἰσχύω | ἐν | τῷ | ἐνδυναμοῦντί | με | Χριστῷ |
| all things | I have strength | in | the | strengthening | me | in Christ |
Original form
What this tells us
Paul is thanking the Philippians for a gift they sent him in prison. He wants them to know he was not desperate: “I have learned to be content regardless of my circumstances” (Philippians 4:11). He has known both sides of life, “to being filled and being hungry, to having plenty and having need” (Philippians 4:12). The word behind “gives me strength” is endunamoō: to make strong, to strengthen. In Greek, Paul describes Christ as ‘the one strengthening me’, someone doing it as Paul goes, not once and for all. This verse is often quoted on its own, as if it promised that anything at all becomes possible. In its setting it is about something harder: being content whether full or hungry. Later Paul writes that “the Lord stood by me and strengthened me” (2 Timothy 4:17), the same word, at a time when everyone else had left him. The strength in these verses is strength to live through things, not only strength to win. The question this verse leaves you with is not what great thing you can do, but whether you can trust Christ in whatever you are facing today, in plenty or in need.
What the original says
Behind the first “power” in this verse is the Greek word dunamis (said DOO-nah-mis).
It means power, might, the ability to act. It is also the New Testament’s word for a miracle, a mighty work.
This form, dunamis, is a noun, and the sentence is about it: ‘my power’ is what is made complete. Its verb, teleitai, means to be finished, brought to its full end; the Berean puts it “is perfected”.
In the Berean Standard Bible, it is ‘power’ 86 times and ‘miracle’ 19 times, counting their other forms: one word for God’s strength and for the mighty works it does:
Word by word
| ἡ | γὰρ | δύναμις | μου | ἐν | ἀσθενείᾳ | τελεῖται |
| the | for | power | of mine | in | weakness | is finished |
Original form
What this tells us
Paul has been given “a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me” (2 Corinthians 12:7). No one knows exactly what it was. He prayed about it hard: “Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me” (2 Corinthians 12:8). The word for “power” is dunamis: power, might, the ability to act. The answer to Paul’s prayer was not the one he asked for: “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is perfected in weakness.” God’s power in this verse does not remove the weakness. It shows itself inside it. So Paul turns his whole view around: “For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:10). Think of a cracked clay lamp with a flame inside: the light shows most through the cracks. Some Christians read the thorn as an illness, others as opposition or a temptation; the passage does not say, and its point does not depend on knowing. If you have prayed for something to be taken away and it has stayed, you are in good company. This verse does not promise the thorn will go. It promises grace enough, and power that works through the weak place.
What the original says
Behind “strengthened” in this verse is endunamoō (said en-doo-nah-MOH-oh), the word you met in Philippians 4:13.
It is the same word: to strengthen, to make someone strong.
This form, enedunamōsen, is a plain statement of what happened: he strengthened me. It comes right after parestē, “stood by”: first the Lord stood beside him, then strengthened him.
The Berean puts it ‘strengthened’ 3 times. Paul uses it of his whole life: “I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me” (1 Timothy 1:12):
Word by word
| μοι | παρέστη | καὶ | ἐνεδυνάμωσέν | με | ἵνα | δι᾽ |
| me | stood by | and | he strengthened | me | so that | through |
Original form
What this tells us
This is one of the last letters Paul wrote. He knows his death is near: “the time of my departure is at hand” (2 Timothy 4:6). He has just described his trial: “At my first defense, no one stood with me, but everyone deserted me” (2 Timothy 4:16). The word for “strengthened” is endunamoō, the same word as in Philippians 4:13. Notice the order: “But the Lord stood by me and strengthened me.” First the Lord stood beside him, in the place where his friends should have been. Then came the strength. Paul does not say the trouble ended. He says what the strength was for: “so that through me the message would be fully proclaimed.” And he looks ahead: “And the Lord will rescue me from every evil action and bring me safely into His heavenly kingdom” (2 Timothy 4:18). Elijah had a similar moment, alone and exhausted under a tree, when an angel touched him and said, “Get up and eat, or the journey will be too much for you” (1 Kings 19:7). Strength often comes that plainly: someone beside you, and enough for the next stretch. If people have let you down, this verse names the one who stayed. Strength, here, began with someone standing by.
Behind "strength" are 35 different words
Your English Bible says "strength" 214 times. Behind it stand several Hebrew and Greek words:
Reflect
Read it as yours
Isaiah wrote this for people who felt forgotten and worn out. Read it slowly:
Name it
Where are you running out of strength right now? Write it plainly. Paul “pleaded with the Lord” three times about his own weakness (2 Corinthians 12:8); you can be just as honest.
Carry with you
What would change if you stopped trying to find strength inside yourself and started asking for it?
A note
Feeling worn out is not a spiritual failure. If tiredness or a low mood goes on for weeks, it is worth seeing a doctor: it can have causes that help can reach.