Isaiah 40:30 — Word Study
WLCוְיִֽעֲפ֥וּ נְעָרִ֖ים וְיִגָ֑עוּ וּבַחוּרִ֖ים כָּשׁ֥וֹל יִכָּשֵֽׁלוּ׃
BSAEven youthsnaʻar [young people, from infancy to adolescence] grow tiredyâʻaph▸ [become weak, exhausted] and wearyyâgaʻ▸ [toil, be fatigued] ◂and young menbâchûwr [chosen, select individuals] ◂stumblekâshal [lose balance, falter] and fallkâshal▸ [utterly, completely]
| Greek | English | Parsing |
|---|---|---|
| וְיִֽעֲפ֥וּ | and they may grow weary | Conjunction, verb qal third person masculine plural |
| נְעָרִ֖ים | youths | Noun common, masculine plural absolute |
| וְיִגָ֑עוּ | so they may become weary | Conjunction, verb qal third person masculine plural |
| וּבַחוּרִ֖ים | and young men | Conjunction, noun common masculine plural absolute |
| כָּשׁ֥וֹל | certainly | Verb, Qal, infinitive absolute |
| יִכָּשֵֽׁלוּ׃ | they stumble | Verb, Niphal, imperfect third person masculine plural |
Every word in the verse. Click a row to open it in the panel on the left.
| BSB | Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall. |
| KJV | Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: |
| ASV | Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: |
| YLT | Even youths are wearied and fatigued, And young men utterly stumble, |
| WEB | Even the youths faint and get weary, and the young men utterly fall; |
| BBE | Even the young men will become feeble and tired, and the best of them will come to the end of his strength; |
The translations agree on the meaning of the terms used, emphasizing the weariness of youths and young men without significant variation in wording.
The structure consists of a main clause followed by a subordinate clause, highlighting the parallel experiences of weariness and stumbling.
8 commentators on this verse
Gill, Jamieson, Poole, Trapp & more — read them ›
clause
subjectנַעַר
verbכָּשַׁל
The sentence as the grammar sees it Open the tree ›
Every word here is used elsewhere in the Old Testament.
Bars are logarithmic — אֵת, the commonest word in the Hebrew Bible, stands about 11,000 times, so a linear scale would leave everything else invisible. Click a row to open that word.
Deep Study — Isaiah 40:30
Sections marked generated are written from the data on this page rather than by a named author. Everything else — the lexicon entries, the cross references, the manuscript readings, the counts — is quoted from its source unchanged.
Context — The Strength of God vs. Human Weaknessgenerated
Isaiah 40:30 illustrates the frailty of youth, asserting that even young people grow tired and weary. This verse is part of a larger passage that emphasizes God's everlasting strength and ability to empower those who rely on Him, as seen in the preceding and following verses.
Cross References
| Reference | Text (BSB) | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Isaiah 9:17 | Therefore the Lord takes no pleasure in their young men; He has no compassion on their fatherless and widows. For every one of them is godless and wicked, and every mouth speaks folly. Despite all this, His anger is not turned away; His hand is still upraised. |
| 2 | Isaiah 13:18 | Their bows will dash young men to pieces; they will have no mercy on the fruit of the womb; they will not look with pity on the children. |
| 3 | Psalm 33:16 | No king is saved by his vast army; no warrior is delivered by his great strength. |
| 4 | Psalm 34:10 | Young lions go lacking and hungry, but those who seek the LORD lack no good thing. |
| 5 | Psalm 39:5 | You, indeed, have made my days as handbreadths, and my lifetime as nothing before You. Truly each man at his best exists as but a breath. Selah |
The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — 7 references, hung on the phrase they belong to
The Key Word — יָעֵף, ve.yi.'a.Fugenerated
The verb יָעֵף (ya`aph) means to grow weary or faint. It describes a state of fatigue, often as a result of exertion or stress. In this context, it highlights the inevitable weariness that even the young experience.
This word is used to convey that youth, often associated with vigor, can still succumb to exhaustion. The Qal form indicates an active state of becoming weary, suggesting that weariness is a common human experience.
How Translations Differ — measured against the Berean Standard Biblegenerated
This study reads the verse in the Berean Standard Bible, which uses grow tired and weary for יָעֵף.
Sentence Structuregenerated
The finite verbs יִֽעֲפ֥וּ and יִגָ֑עוּ govern their respective subjects, נְעָרִ֖ים and בַחוּרִ֖ים. The structure presents a parallelism where both subjects are described as experiencing weariness and stumbling.
The use of conjunctions connects the clauses, emphasizing the collective experience of tiredness and stumbling among the young.
Septuagint Backgroundgenerated
The Septuagint translates יָעֵף as κοπιάσουσιν, which means 'to labor or toil.' This choice emphasizes the effort leading to weariness, aligning with the overall theme of exhaustion.
For נַעַר, the LXX uses νεώτεροι, meaning 'younger ones,' which maintains the focus on youth while slightly broadening the term's application.
In plain words — the whole versegenerated
Isaiah 40:30 tells us that even young people can grow tired and weary, and young men can stumble and fall. This verse reminds us that no one is exempt from weariness, regardless of their strength or youth.
Frequently Asked Questionsgenerated
It means that even the strongest and most energetic individuals can become exhausted, highlighting a universal human experience.
It illustrates that youth, often seen as a time of strength, can still face challenges and failures, emphasizing human vulnerability.
The surrounding verses contrast human weakness with God's everlasting strength, suggesting that reliance on God can renew one's strength.
Stumbling conveys not just physical weakness but also the idea of faltering in faith or purpose, which can happen to anyone.
Reflection Questionsgenerated
- In what areas of life do I feel weary, and how can I seek renewal?
- How can I support others who are feeling tired or overwhelmed?
- What does this verse teach about the nature of strength and weakness?
- How can I remind myself of God's strength when I feel weak?
Commentators on this verse — 8 expositors, verse by verse
Each of these wrote on Isaiah 40:30 itself, not merely on the chapter around it.
John Gill1697–1771Gill's Exposition of the Entire BibleEven the youths shall faint and be weary,.... Such as are in the prime of their strength, and glory in it, yet through the hand of God upon them, by one disease or another, their strength is weakened
Read John Gill on Isaiah 40 →Robert Jamieson1802–1880Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown's CommentaryEven the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: The young men (Hebrew, bachuwriym (H970)) - literally, those selected. men picked out on account of their youthful vigour for an enterprise.
Read Robert Jamieson on Isaiah 40 →Matthew Poole1624–1679Matthew Poole's Commentary on the Holy BibleThe youngest and strongest men, left to themselves, or without God’ s help, or which do not wait upon God; which is easily understood from the opposition in the following verse.
Read Matthew Poole on Isaiah 40 →John Trapp1601–1669Trapp's Complete Commentary on the Old and New TestamentsIsaiah 40:30 Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall:Ver. 30. Even the youths shall faint.] All that trust to their own strength shall tire out. Like as the hare, that trusteth to the swiftness of her legs, is at length overtaken and torn in pieces; when the coney, that flieth to the holes in the rocks, doth easily avoid the dogs that pursue her.
Read John Trapp on Isaiah 40 →Charles John Ellicott1819–1905Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(30) Even the youths . . .—The second word implies a nearer approach to manhood than the first, the age when vigour is at its highest point.
Read Charles John Ellicott on Isaiah 40 →CambridgeThe Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges30. Even the youths shall faint …] Better: And though youths faint and are weary and choice young men stumble (the protasis to Isaiah 40:31). Natural strength at its best is exhausted, but—
Read Cambridge on Isaiah 40 →Albert Barnes1798–1870Barnes' Notes on the BibleEven the youths shall faint - The most vigorous young men, those in whom we expect manly strength, and who are best suited to endure hardy toil. They become weary by labor. Their powers are soon exhausted.
Read Albert Barnes on Isaiah 40 →Daniel Denison Whedon1808–1885Whedon's Commentary on the Bible30, 31. Youths shall faint — Young men chosen for war or other hard service, even, lose all their vigour. But they that wait upon (or for) the Lord, however weak physically. Shall renew… strength — Become spiritually strong.
Read Daniel Denison Whedon on Isaiah 40 →The verse in English, compared — 17 translations, and where they part company
Every translation on this page is a decision someone had to make and commit to. Read down a column and you see one translator's judgement; read across a row and you see the range the Greek actually allows. The BSB is the wording the rest of this page is measured against, so it is listed first.
Modern formal
Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall.
Even the youths faint and get weary, and the young men utterly fall;
Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall.
Even youths get tired and weary; even strong young men clumsily stumble.
Tyndale line
Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall:
Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall:
Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall:
Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall:
Euen the yong men shall faint, and be wearie, and the yong men shall stumble and fall.
Strictly literal
Even the youths shall faint and shall tire, and the young men shall stumble and fall;
Even youths are wearied and fatigued, And young men utterly stumble,
Even youths are wearied and fatigued, || And young men utterly stumble,
Though youths should grow faint and be weary, and young men should utterly stumble:
Even young people become tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall:
From the Latin
Youths shall faint, and labour, and young men shall fall by infirmity.
Simplified
Even young people grow weak and tired—they fall down when they're exhausted.
Even the young men will become feeble and tired, and the best of them will come to the end of his strength;
Counted from the translations carried on this site, not from a survey of every English Bible. A rendering shared by many versions is usually inherited rather than independently arrived at — the Tyndale line in particular runs through most of them.
The sentence as the grammar sees it — from the MACULA Hebrew treebank
This is not our own analysis: it is the scholarly syntax tree for the verse, showing how the clause actually holds together.
Boxes are the grammarian's groupings — clause, noun phrase, prepositional phrase.
The four witnesses to this verse — Masoretic, Septuagint, Samaritan, Qumran
The Masoretic Text, the Septuagint, and the Dead Sea Scrolls all agree on the wording of this verse. The Septuagint's translation aligns closely with the Hebrew, reflecting the same concepts of weariness and stumbling.
וְיִֽעֲפ֥וּ נְעָרִ֖ים וְיִגָ֑עוּ וּבַחוּרִ֖ים כָּשׁ֥וֹל יִכָּשֵֽׁלוּ׃
6 of the 6 words are matched. This is the word-by-word correspondence, not the Septuagint's own sentence — its word order and its articles are its own.
ויעפו נערים ויגעו ובחורים כשול יכשולו
6 words on the leather.
Four traditions, not one. “On the leather” means the letters physically survive on the scroll, as against letters an editor has supplied to fill a hole in it — a restoration is a scholar’s reading, not a reading of the manuscript. Words in [square brackets] are supplied; the notes count them apart from what survives.
The map of this verse — what each word keeps company with
This is a map of two things, both counted rather than judged. Company kept: which words stand within three words of each of these, anywhere in the Hebrew Bible — the thicker the line, the more often the pair meet compared with chance. Built from: the words a word is made out of, taken from its own Strong’s entry. It is not a map of meaning: nothing here claims two words mean the same thing. Click any circle to see the numbers behind it.
Lexicons — every word in Isaiah 40:30
One dossier per word, with every reference work grouped by kind — Hebrew lexicons, morphology, Bible dictionaries, topical chains and the English of the translators themselves. The verse sits at the head of each block with the word under study lit, so you never lose your place. The panel above gives the short answer; this is the long one, and it is the part of the page worth indexing.
Every entry below is the lexicographer's own text. On the Hebrew: Brown-Driver-Briggs entire and its gloss set, Strong's Hebrew Dictionary, and Tyndale House's Translators Brief lexicon. Where a cell says a work has no entry, that work genuinely has none for this word.
יָעֵף (ya`aph) is a Hebrew verb meaning to be weary or faint. It describes a state of fatigue or weariness, with forms indicating both active and passive states, such as 'to grow weary' in the Qal stem and 'wearied' in the Hophal stem. The entries consistently focus on the concept of tiredness without significant disagreement.
[יָעֵף] vb. be weary, faint
Qal be or grow weary; be faint
Hoph. wearied
base
H3286 יָעֵף be weary, faint
3286 ya`aph yaw-af'
a primitive root; to tire (as if from wearisome
flight):--faint, cause to fly, (be) weary (self).
יָעֵף (ya.aph) — to faint.
1) to be or grow weary, be fatigued, be faint
1a) (Qal) to be or grow weary, be fatigued, be faint
1b) (Hophal) wearied (participle)
Conj | V-Qal-Imperf-3mp — Conjunction · verb qal third person masculine pluralHC/Vqu3mp
נַ֫עַר (na`ar) generally refers to a boy, lad, or youth, covering ages from infancy to adolescence. It can also imply a servant or retainer and, in some contexts, may refer to a girl of similar age. The term appears in various forms across different lexicons, with Brown-Driver-Briggs noting its usage as a shaking or scattering.
נַ֫עַר 239 n.m. 1. boy, lad, youth. 2. retainer (not in P)
boy, lad, youth (c. 133 t.)
servant, retainer (c. 105 t.)
base
H5288a נַ֫עַר usu. interpr. as a shaking, scattering H5288b נַ֫עַר, נַ֫עַר . boy, lad, youth
. retainer
5288 na`ar nah'-ar
from 5287; (concretely) a boy (as active), from the age of
infancy to adolescence; by implication, a servant; also (by
interch. of sex), a girl (of similar latitude in age):--babe,
boy, child, damsel (from the margin), lad, servant, young
(man).
see HEBREW for 05287
נַ֫עַר (na.ar) — youth.
1) a boy, lad, servant, youth, retainer
1a) boy, lad, youth
1b) servant, retainer
N-mp — Noun common · masculine plural absoluteHNcmpa
יָגֵעַ (yaga`) is a Hebrew verb that encompasses the concepts of toil and weariness. It can mean to labor or grow tired, with various forms indicating different nuances, such as causing weariness or making someone toil. The entries consistently highlight its association with exhaustion and labor.
[יָגֵעַ, יָגַע] vb. toil, grow or be weary
Qal
toil, labour
grow or be weary
Pi. weary, make weary
Hiph. make to toil
base
H3021 יָגֵעַ, יָגַע toil, grow or be weary
3021 yaga` yaw-gah'
a primitive root; properly, to gasp; hence, to be exhausted,
to tire, to toil:--faint, (make to) labour, (be) weary.
יָגֵעַ (ya.ga) — be weary/toil.
1) to toil, labour, grow weary, be weary
1a) (Qal)
1a1) to toil, labour
1a2) to grow weary, be weary
1b) (Piel) to weary, make weary, cause to go toilsomely
1c) (Hiphil) to make to toil, make weary, cause to be weary
Conj | V-Qal-Imperf-3mp — Conjunction · verb qal third person masculine pluralHC/Vqu3mp
בָּחוּר (bachuwr) refers to a young man or youth, often implying someone who has been selected or chosen. The term appears in contexts that highlight youthfulness, and it is derived from a root meaning 'to select.' It is notably referenced in Isaiah 62:5.
בָּחוּר n.m. young man Is 62:5 7 t.
base
H970 בָּחוּר young man
970 bachuwr baw-khoor'
or bachur {baw-khoor'}; participle passive of 977; properly,
selected, i.e. a youth (often collective):--(choice) young
(man), chosen, X hole.
see HEBREW for 0977
בָּחוּר (ba.chur) — youth.
youth, young man
Conj | N-mp — Conjunction · noun common masculine plural absoluteHC/Ncmpa
כָּשַׁל (kashal) means to stumble or totter, often due to weakness. It can refer to physical stumbling, as well as metaphorical weakness or failure. The verb has various forms, including causing others to stumble or making them weak. The entries suggest a range of meanings from literal stumbling to broader implications of ruin and weakness.
כָּשַׁל vb. stumble, stagger, totter
Qal
stumble at, over, something (lit. by means of)
totter
Niph.
stumble
be tottering, feeble
Pi. only apparent
Hiph.
cause to stumble
make feeble, weak
Hoph. either and let them be ones who have stumbled before thee, i.e. regard them as such, or and let them be ones overthrown before thee
base
H3782 כָּשַׁל stumble, stagger, totter .. stumble at, over, something (lit. by means of)
. totter
. . stumble
. be tottering, feeble
. only apparent
. . cause to stumble
. make feeble, weak
. either and let them be ones who have stumbled before thee, i.e. regard them as such, or and let them be ones overthrown before thee
3782 kashal kaw-shal'
a primitive root; to totter or waver (through weakness of the
legs, especially the ankle); by implication, to falter,
stumble, faint or fall:--bereave (from the margin), cast down,
be decayed, (cause to) fail, (cause, make to) fall
(down, -ing), feeble, be (the) ruin(-ed, of), (be) overthrown,
(cause to) stumble, X utterly, be weak.
כָּשַׁל (ka.shal) — to stumble.
1) to stumble, stagger, totter
1a) (Qal)
1a1) to stumble
1a2) to totter
1b) (Niphal)
1b1) to stumble
1b2) to be tottering, be feeble
1c) (Hiphil)
1c1) to cause to stumble, bring injury or ruin to, overthrow
1c2) to make feeble, make weak
1d) (Hophal) to be made to stumble
1e) (Piel) bereave
V-Qal-Ptc — Verb · Qal · infinitive absoluteHVqaa
כָּשַׁל (kashal) means to stumble or totter, often due to weakness. It can refer to physical stumbling, as well as metaphorical weakness or failure. The verb has various forms, including causing others to stumble or making them weak. The entries suggest a range of meanings from literal stumbling to broader implications of ruin and weakness.
כָּשַׁל vb. stumble, stagger, totter
Qal
stumble at, over, something (lit. by means of)
totter
Niph.
stumble
be tottering, feeble
Pi. only apparent
Hiph.
cause to stumble
make feeble, weak
Hoph. either and let them be ones who have stumbled before thee, i.e. regard them as such, or and let them be ones overthrown before thee
base
H3782 כָּשַׁל stumble, stagger, totter .. stumble at, over, something (lit. by means of)
. totter
. . stumble
. be tottering, feeble
. only apparent
. . cause to stumble
. make feeble, weak
. either and let them be ones who have stumbled before thee, i.e. regard them as such, or and let them be ones overthrown before thee
3782 kashal kaw-shal'
a primitive root; to totter or waver (through weakness of the
legs, especially the ankle); by implication, to falter,
stumble, faint or fall:--bereave (from the margin), cast down,
be decayed, (cause to) fail, (cause, make to) fall
(down, -ing), feeble, be (the) ruin(-ed, of), (be) overthrown,
(cause to) stumble, X utterly, be weak.
כָּשַׁל (ka.shal) — to stumble.
1) to stumble, stagger, totter
1a) (Qal)
1a1) to stumble
1a2) to totter
1b) (Niphal)
1b1) to stumble
1b2) to be tottering, be feeble
1c) (Hiphil)
1c1) to cause to stumble, bring injury or ruin to, overthrow
1c2) to make feeble, make weak
1d) (Hophal) to be made to stumble
1e) (Piel) bereave
V-Niphal-Imperf-3mp — Verb · Niphal · imperfect third person masculine pluralHVNi3mp