Isaiah 40:31 — wings, running, and a promise that ends in walking
31But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will take up wings like eagles. They will run and not struggle. They will walk and not tire.
The run of verbs descends instead of climbing: wings, running, walking. The high point of the verse is the least spectacular one — still walking, and not tiring.
Short answer
Isaiah 40:31 promises that whoever hopes in the Lord renews their strength, takes up wings like eagles, runs without struggling and walks without tiring. The chapter answers a people who felt forgotten. The sequence ends on the humblest verb, and that is where the weight of the promise sits.
- Written by
- Raphael Navarro Schmitt
- Reviewed by
- Maria Luisa Navarro Schmitt
- Published on
- Reading time
- 2 min read
It is one of the most printed verses in the Bible, almost always for the eagles. The part that holds the sentence up, though, is at the end of it.
Where this verse appears
Chapter 40 opens the section of Isaiah addressed to a people in exile, and it begins with an order to comfort. This is not a text for people who are doing well. It is written for people who have given up on being noticed.
Four verses earlier the complaint is put into words: Jacob says his way is hidden from the Lord. The answer recalls that the Creator does not grow weary, and then concedes something that rarely makes it into the quotation — even the young grow tired and fall.
What it says
The order of the verbs usually goes unnoticed, and it is the most important detail. First wings, then running, and last of all walking. If this were a scale of achievement it would be upside down. The text finishes on the most ordinary motion of the three, and that is exactly what it means to guarantee: the walking that keeps going.
Our primary English edition, the Catholic Public Domain Version, is worth reading closely at the start of the line. It speaks of hoping in the Lord, rather than of trusting him. Hope here is closer to waiting than to confidence — it describes people still standing in a delay they did not choose, which fits the exiles this chapter addresses.
It is worth saying what the verse does not promise. It never says you will not get tired; it says strength will be renewed, which assumes it runs out. Reading the line as a guarantee of endless productivity turns a consolation into a demand, and consolation is precisely what the chapter was sent to deliver.
What to do with it today
If you are in a season where flying and running are out of reach, this verse does not ask you to recover your old pace. It ends exactly where you are: walking without falling.
One practical reading is to measure the day by the last verb rather than the first. Finishing the day on your feet is already what the sentence promised. Anything more is addition, not the standard.
A prayer to carry with you
Lord, I am not asking for wings today. I only want to reach the end of this day without giving up. Renew my strength to the measure of what this day requires. Amen.