Even youths will become weak and tired, and young men will fall in exhaustion.
Parallel translations
- WEB Even the youths faint and get weary, and the young men utterly fall;
- KJV Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall:
- BSB Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall.
- NKJV Even the youths shall faint and be weary, And the young men shall utterly fall,
- NASB Though youths grow weary and tired, And vigorous young men stumble badly,
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Even the strongest young people grow tired and stumble, showing the limits of human strength.
Overview
Isaiah concedes that youthful vigor, the height of natural strength, inevitably fails. Human ability has a ceiling and eventually collapses. This admission heightens the contrast with the God-given strength promised to those who wait on the Lord.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- Amos 2:14Flight will perish from the swift; and the strong won’t strengthen his force; neither shall the mighty deliver himself;
- Ps 34:10The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger, but those who seek Yahweh shall not lack any good thing.
- Ps 33:16There is no king saved by the multitude of an army. A mighty man is not delivered by great strength.
- Isa 9:17Therefore the Lord will not rejoice over their young men, neither will he have compassion on their fatherless and widows; for everyone is profane and an evildoer, and every mouth speaks folly. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.
- Isa 13:18Their bows will dash the young men in pieces; and they shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb. Their eyes will not spare children.
- Eccl 9:11I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favor to men of skill; but time and chance happen to them all.
- Ps 39:5Behold, you have made my days hand widths. My lifetime is as nothing before you. Surely every man stands as a breath.” Selah.
- Jer 6:11Therefore I am full of Yahweh’s wrath. I am weary with holding in. “Pour it out on the children in the street, and on the assembly of young men together; for even the husband with the wife shall be taken, the aged with him who is full of days.
- Jer 9:21For death has come up into our windows. It has entered into our palaces; to cut off the children from outside, and the young men from the streets.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Isaiah sees him most clearly: the virgin's son Immanuel, the child on David's throne, the shoot from Jesse, the light to the nations, and above all the Suffering Servant pierced for our transgressions (ch. 53).
How Isaiah 40:30 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.