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Read the Bible

THE MESSAGE

Isaiah 35:3

Energize the limp hands, strengthen the rubbery knees. Tell fearful souls, "Courage! Take heart! God is here, right here, on his way to put things right And redress all wrongs. He's on his way! He'll save you!"

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Church;   Despondency;   Faith;   Gentiles;   Jesus, the Christ;   Readings, Select;   Thompson Chain Reference - Awakenings and Religious Reforms;   Revivals;   The Topic Concordance - Fear;   Israel/jews;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Missionaries, All Christians Should Be as;  

Dictionaries:

- Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - Day of the Lord, God, Christ, the;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Gestures;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Joy;   Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament - Walk (2);  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Confirm;   Eschatology of the Old Testament (with Apocryphal and Apocalyptic Writings);   Feeble-Minded;   Gesture;   Glowing, Sand;   Isaiah;   The Jewish Encyclopedia - Bat Ḳol;  

Devotionals:

- Daily Light on the Daily Path - Devotion for December 12;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
Strengthen the weak hands,steady the shaking knees!
Hebrew Names Version
Strengthen you the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees.
King James Version
Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees.
English Standard Version
Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees.
New American Standard Bible
Strengthen the exhausted, and make the feeble strong.
New Century Version
Make the weak hands strong and the weak knees steady.
Amplified Bible
Encourage the exhausted, and make staggering knees firm.
World English Bible
Strengthen you the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees.
Geneva Bible (1587)
Strengthen the weake handes, and comfort the feeble knees.
Legacy Standard Bible
Strengthen limp hands, and give courage to the knees of the stumbling.
Berean Standard Bible
Strengthen the limp hands and steady the feeble knees!
Contemporary English Version
Here is a message for all who are weak, trembling, and worried:
Complete Jewish Bible
Strengthen your drooping arms, and steady your tottering knees.
Darby Translation
Strengthen the weak hands and confirm the tottering knees.
Easy-to-Read Version
Make the weak arms strong again. Strengthen the weak knees.
George Lamsa Translation
Strengthen the weak hands and make firm the feeble knees.
Good News Translation
Give strength to hands that are tired and to knees that tremble with weakness.
Lexham English Bible
Strengthen the weak hands and make the staggering knees firm.
Literal Translation
Make the weak hands strong, and firm up the stumbling knees.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
And therfore strength ye weake hodes, and conforte the feble knees.
American Standard Version
Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees.
Bible in Basic English
Make strong the feeble hands, give support to the shaking knees.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
Strengthen ye the weak hands, and make firm the tottering knees.
King James Version (1611)
Strengthen yee the weake hands, and confirme the feeble knees.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
And therfore strength the weake handes, and comfort the feeble knees.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
Be strong, ye relaxed hands and palsied knees.
English Revised Version
Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Coumforte ye comelid hondis, and make ye strong feble knees.
Update Bible Version
Strengthen the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees.
Webster's Bible Translation
Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees.
New English Translation
Strengthen the hands that have gone limp, steady the knees that shake!
New King James Version
Strengthen the weak hands, And make firm the feeble knees.
New Living Translation
With this news, strengthen those who have tired hands, and encourage those who have weak knees.
New Life Bible
Give strength to weak hands and to weak knees.
New Revised Standard
Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Strengthen ye the weak hands, - The trembling knees, make ye firm:
Douay-Rheims Bible
Strengthen ye the feeble hands, and confirm the weak knees.
Revised Standard Version
Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees.
Young's Literal Translation
Strengthen ye the feeble hands, Yea, the stumbling knees strengthen.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
Encourage the exhausted, and strengthen the feeble.

Contextual Overview

1 Wilderness and desert will sing joyously, the badlands will celebrate and flower— Like the crocus in spring, bursting into blossom, a symphony of song and color. Mountain glories of Lebanon—a gift. Awesome Carmel, stunning Sharon—gifts. God 's resplendent glory, fully on display. God awesome, God majestic. 3Energize the limp hands, strengthen the rubbery knees. Tell fearful souls, "Courage! Take heart! God is here, right here, on his way to put things right And redress all wrongs. He's on his way! He'll save you!"

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Isaiah 40:1, Isaiah 40:2, Isaiah 52:1, Isaiah 52:2, Isaiah 57:14-16, Judges 7:11, Job 4:3, Job 4:4, Job 16:5, Luke 22:32, Luke 22:43, Acts 18:23, Hebrews 12:12

Reciprocal: Exodus 17:12 - stayed up his hands Leviticus 11:22 - General Deuteronomy 20:3 - let not Joshua 1:6 - Be strong 1 Samuel 23:16 - strengthened 2 Samuel 4:1 - his hands 2 Samuel 9:7 - Fear not 2 Chronicles 15:7 - ye strong Ezra 4:4 - weakened Ezra 10:4 - be of good Nehemiah 2:17 - come Nehemiah 6:9 - Their hands Job 26:2 - helped Job 29:25 - one that Job 42:11 - they bemoaned Psalms 31:24 - Be of Proverbs 27:17 - so Ecclesiastes 4:10 - if Isaiah 40:9 - be not Isaiah 42:3 - bruised Ezekiel 21:7 - all hands Daniel 5:6 - and his knees Daniel 10:18 - he Hosea 2:14 - and speak Micah 4:6 - will I Zephaniah 3:16 - be said Zechariah 8:13 - fear not Acts 14:22 - Confirming Acts 15:32 - confirmed Acts 20:35 - how that Romans 14:1 - weak 1 Corinthians 8:9 - weak 2 Corinthians 12:9 - for Galatians 6:1 - restore Ephesians 6:10 - be 1 Thessalonians 5:14 - comfort Hebrews 12:13 - make Revelation 3:2 - strengthen

Cross-References

Genesis 31:3
That's when God said to Jacob, "Go back home where you were born. I'll go with you."
Genesis 32:7
Jacob was scared. Very scared. Panicked, he divided his people, sheep, cattle, and camels into two camps. He thought, "If Esau comes on the first camp and attacks it, the other camp has a chance to get away."
Genesis 32:24
But Jacob stayed behind by himself, and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. When the man saw that he couldn't get the best of Jacob as they wrestled, he deliberately threw Jacob's hip out of joint.
Genesis 35:1
God spoke to Jacob: "Go back to Bethel. Stay there and build an altar to the God who revealed himself to you when you were running for your life from your brother Esau."
Genesis 35:2
Jacob told his family and all those who lived with him, "Throw out all the alien gods which you have, take a good bath and put on clean clothes, we're going to Bethel. I'm going to build an altar there to the God who answered me when I was in trouble and has stuck with me everywhere I've gone since."
Genesis 35:13
And then God was gone, ascended from the place where he had spoken with him.
Genesis 35:14
Jacob set up a stone pillar on the spot where God had spoken with him. He poured a drink offering on it and anointed it with oil. Jacob dedicated the place where God had spoken with him, Bethel (God's-House).
Genesis 35:16
They left Bethel. They were still quite a ways from Ephrath when Rachel went into labor—hard, hard labor. When her labor pains were at their worst, the midwife said to her, "Don't be afraid—you have another boy."
Genesis 35:18
With her last breath, for she was now dying, she named him Ben-oni (Son-of-My-Pain), but his father named him Ben-jamin (Son-of-Good-Fortune).
Genesis 35:19
Rachel died and was buried on the road to Ephrath, that is, Bethlehem. Jacob set up a pillar to mark her grave. It is still there today, "Rachel's Grave Stone."

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Strengthen ye the weak hands,.... These are the words of the prophet, as the Targum,

"the prophet said, strengthen the weak hands;''

or rather of God, by the prophet, to the converted Gentiles, to those who saw the glory of the Lord; particularly to the ministers of the Gospel, who have to do with weak and feeble persons, who can scarcely lift up their hands, or stand upon their legs, under a sense of sin, in a view of wrath, and immediate ruin and destruction, ready to sink and faint, because of their enemies, or through want of food; and their business is to comfort and strengthen them, by preaching the Gospel, and pointing out the promises of it to them:

and confirm the feeble knees; that so they may keep their ground against their enemies; shake off their fears and trembling; go on their way courageously and rejoicing; run, and not be weary; walk, and not faint: "hands" and "knees" are mentioned particularly, because a man's strength lies greatly in them; and his weakness is seen by the languor and trembling of them.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Strengthen ye - That is, you who are the religious teachers and guides of the people. This is an address made by the prophet in view of what he had said and was about to say of the proraised blessings. The sense is, strengthen and sustain the feeble and the desponding by the promised blessings; by the assurances Isaiah 34:0 that all the enemies of God and his people will be destroyed; and that he will manifest himself as their Protector, and send upon them the promised blessings. Or it may be regarded as addressed to the officers and ministers of religion when these blessings should have come; and as being an exhortation to them to make use of the influences, the promises, and the consolations which would attend the coming of the Messiah, to strengthen the feeble, and confirm those who were faint-hearted.

The weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees - Strength resides mainly in the arms, and in the lower limbs, or the knees. If these are feeble, the whole frame is feeble. Fear relaxes the strength of the arms, and the firmness of the knees; and the expressions ‘weak hands,’ and ‘feeble knees,’ become synonymous with saying, of a timid, fearful, and desponding frame of mind. Such were to be strengthened by the assurance of the favor of God, and by the consolations which would flow from the reign of the Messiah. The Jews, who looked abroad upon the desolations of their country, were to be comforted by the hope of future blessings; those who lived in those future times were to be consoled by the assurances of the favor of God through the Messiah (compare the notes at Isaiah 40:1).


 
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