🕊️WEB · Isaiah 40:28
What does Isaiah 40:28 mean?
"Haven’t you known? Haven’t you heard? The everlasting God, Yahweh, The Creator of the ends of the earth, doesn’t faint. He isn’t weary. His understanding is unsearchable."
— Isaiah 40:28 (World English Bible)
Surrounding context
“To whom then will you liken me? Who is my equal?” says the Holy One.
Lift up your eyes on high, and see who has created these, who brings out their army by number. He calls them all by name. by the greatness of his might, and because he is strong in power, Not one is lacking.
Why do you say, Jacob, and speak, Israel, “My way is hidden from Yahweh, and the justice due me is disregarded by my God?”
Haven’t you known? Haven’t you heard? The everlasting God, Yahweh, The Creator of the ends of the earth, doesn’t faint. He isn’t weary. His understanding is unsearchable.
He gives power to the weak. He increases the strength of him who has no might.
Even the youths faint and get weary, and the young men utterly fall;
But those who wait for Yahweh will renew their strength. They will mount up with wings like eagles. They will run, and not be weary. They will walk, and not faint.
Explanation
Isaiah 40:28 opens with two pointed rhetorical questions — "Haven't you known? Haven't you heard?" — that function almost like a rebuke. The prophet is addressing people who should already know this truth but are acting as though they have forgotten it. The verse then answers its own question with a cluster of descriptions of God: he is everlasting, he is Yahweh (the personal covenant name of God revealed to Israel), he is the Creator of the entire earth down to its farthest reaches, he never grows faint or weary, and his understanding cannot be fully grasped or searched out by human minds.
The context matters a great deal here. Isaiah 40 marks a turning point in the book, addressed to Judah in or near the Babylonian exile — a people who had lost their homeland, their temple, and seemingly the evidence of God's presence and power. They were tempted to believe that Yahweh had abandoned them, or that he was simply outmatched by Babylon's gods and armies, or that he was too distant and tired to care about their suffering (the chapter goes on to say "my way is hidden from Yahweh, and the justice due me escapes the notice of my God," v. 27). Isaiah's response is to remind them of who God actually is: not a tribal deity limited by geography or stamina, but the Creator of the whole earth, untouched by fatigue, whose wisdom and purposes are too vast for human beings to trace out or second-guess.
Theologically, this verse teaches two intertwined truths: God's transcendence and his sustaining power. Because he
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