“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.” (Isaiah 40:31 KJV)
Now this is a very famous scripture, and we commonly know it as if we wait on the Lord, he will renew our strength. Yes He will, and the verse still indicates that, but actually much more than that! Why don’t we look more closely at a few words…
Now the first word we will look at is “wait.”
Strong’s Concordance 6960 קָוָה qavah
Original Word: קָוָה
Part of Speech: Verb
Transliteration: qavah
Phonetic Spelling: (kaw-vaw’)
Short Definition: wait
gather together, look, patiently, tarry, wait for, on, upon
A primitive root; to bind together (perhaps by twisting), i.e. Collect; (figuratively) to expect — gather (together), look, patiently, tarry, wait (for, on, upon).
So while it simply means to wait, as you can see, Strong’s adds to the meaning by adding words such as patience, looking, collecting, to expect… and what’s this “binding together, perhaps by twisting” mean? When people made rope, they would bind cords together and twist them, such as a three stranded rope. It would take some time I’d say. That is only my guess of that meaning, that it would be something like that. But basically what we can say, is that the term waiting means to wait expecting for the thing you’re waiting for to come, and being patient about it!
OK…next word: “renew.”
Original Word: חָלַף
Part of Speech: Verb
Transliteration: chalaph
Phonetic Spelling: (khaw-laf’)
Short Definition: changed
Word Origin – a prim. root
Definition – to pass on or away, pass through
NASB Translation
change (2), changed (5), gain new (2), go (1), move past (1), over (1), passed (1), passes (1), pierce (1), pierced (1), renewed (1), replace (2), slip (1), sprout (1), sprouts anew (2), sweep (2), sweep through (1), vanish (1), violated (1).
abolish, alter, change, cut off, go on forward, grow up, be over, pass away,
A primitive root; properly, to slide by, i.e. (by implication) to hasten away, pass on, spring up, pierce or change — abolish, alter, change, cut off, go on forward, grow up, be over, pass (away, on, through), renew, sprout, strike through.
HANG ON a minute! Let’s look at what the dictionary says “renew” means…
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to make or become new, fresh, or strong again – We renewed our friendship.
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to make, do, or begin again – We renewed our efforts.
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to put in a fresh supply of – Renew the water in the tank.
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to continue in force for a new period – We renewed our lease.
So this Hebrew word Chalaph actually means “change.” In a way that is renew, but as you can see the english word does not do this justice at all.
The NAS exhaustive concordance even says “to pass on or away, pass through.” What? Then Strong’s exhaustive concordance says “abolish, alter, change, cut off, go on forward…” etc, you can read it there. When I read the word renew, I don’t think of complete change. I think of renew as in “we will renew our lease,” to continue something.
So I thought this translation was very eye opening…now look at the next word!
“Strength.”
Strong’s Concordance 3581 כֹּ֫חַ Koach
Original Word: כֹּ֫חַ
Part of Speech: Noun Masculine
Transliteration: koach
Phonetic Spelling: (ko’-akh)
Short Definition: ability
I. כֹּחַ noun [masculine] a small reptile, probably a kind of lizard, in list of unclean creeping things Leviticus 11:30; ᵐ5 ᵑ9 AV chameleon; on various opinions see Di.
ability, able, chameleon, force, fruits, might, powerful, strength,
Or (Dan. 11:6) kowach {ko’-akh}; from an unused root meaning to be firm; vigor, literally (force, in a good or a bad sense) or figuratively (capacity, means, produce); also (from its hardiness) a large lizard — ability, able, chameleon, force, fruits, might, power(-ful), strength, substance, wealth.
