Berean Standard Bible
But those who wait upon the LORD will renew their strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not faint.
King James Version
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.
About this verse
Read the sequence in order: "they will mount up with wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not faint." It descends — soaring, then running, then walking. You would expect a crescendo, but the verse ends at the least glamorous strength of the three, because walking without fainting is where most of life actually happens. The soaring days are rare; the promise covers the plodding ones.
Isaiah 40 opens the great comfort section of the book, addressed to a people facing exile in Babylon — worn out, far from home, tempted to think God had forgotten them. The verses just before this one insist that even the young and strong collapse, but the LORD never tires. The renewal belongs to "those who wait upon the LORD" — and waiting, in Isaiah's vocabulary, is not passivity but hope with its eyes fixed on God.
This is the burnout verse, and rightly so. Its economy is strange to us: strength comes not to those who strive hardest but to those who wait. If you are exhausted, the verse does not scold you for weariness — it assumes it — and it locates renewal somewhere other than your own reserves.
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