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Old TestamentIsaiah 40:28Major Prophets
“Hast thou not known?”

The full verse · Isaiah 40:28 · KJV

Hast thou not ? hast thou not , that the , the , the of the of the , not, neither is ? there is no of his .

Asked by

Isaiah

Asked to

Israel

The exiled Jewish community in Babylon, weary and doubting God’s power to deliver them.

Why It Was Asked

Isaiah confronts spiritual amnesia by asking rather than declaring, forcing Israel to acknowledge what they already know but have functionally forgotten in their discouragement. The rhetorical questions rebuke their doubt while simultaneously reassuring them of God’s unchanging nature.

The Response

The text provides no recorded verbal response from Israel. Isaiah continues his prophetic discourse by declaring that God gives power to the faint and increases strength to those who have no might (Isaiah 40:29).

The Bigger Picture

Isaiah’s double question confronts Israel’s forgetfulness with covenant truth they have known from childhood and heard in worship for generations. The Hebrew construction expects an affirmative answer, functioning less as inquiry and more as emphatic assertion. Rather than flatly declaring God’s nature, Isaiah uses interrogative form to engage his audience’s conscience and memory, making them participants in their own correction. The piling up of divine titles, everlasting God, Yahweh, Creator, builds theological weight, climaxing in the assertion that God’s understanding is ʾên ḥēqer, literally without searching or limit. This matters because a weary, discouraged people need more than comfort; they need theological recalibration that reminds them their God operates on an entirely different plane than they do.

For Your Life Today

When exhaustion makes you question whether God still cares, remember He never grows tired of helping you. Israel’s discouragement in exile mirrors our seasons of waiting when circumstances tempt us to forget God’s character. Like them, we must rehearse what we know to be true rather than trust what we feel in the moment. God’s understanding is unsearchable, meaning His ways of working exceed our ability to track or predict, but His commitment never wavers. When you cannot trace His hand, trust His heart, knowing the Creator who flung stars into space has endless resources for your specific need (Psalm 121:3-4).

Built from the biblical text and checked against trusted commentaries and lexicons. References & Sources