To bind together (perhaps by twisting), i.e. collect ; (figuratively) to expect
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קָוָה is the OT's verb for hope-as-waiting — not passive resignation but taut, purposeful expectation directed at YHWH. ' The comparison to watchmen is exact: watchmen do not doubt that morning will come; they are simply not there yet, and the waiting is active, alert, and certain.
Reader summary
Full entry for קָוָה (H6960) · Open the biblical lexicon
קָוָה is the OT's verb for hope-as-waiting — not passive resignation but taut, purposeful expectation directed at YHWH. ' The comparison to watchmen is exact: watchmen do not doubt that morning will come; they are simply not there yet, and the waiting is active, alert, and certain.
The BSB source-word alignment has 49 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include Wait (5), Wait patiently (2), We hope (2), We hoped (2), . . . (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Genesis 1:9. Its strongest book concentrations include Psalms (17), Isaiah (15), Jeremiah (5), Job (5).
קָוָה is the OT's verb for hope-as-waiting — not passive resignation but taut, purposeful expectation directed at YHWH. Ps 130:5 gives the fullest picture: 'I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I hope; my soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning.' The comparison to watchmen is exact: watchmen do not doubt that morning will come; they are simply not there yet, and the waiting is active, alert, and certain.
The object of קָוָה is repeatedly personal, not merely an outcome, a circumstance, or a plan, but YHWH Himself. Isa 40:31 — 'those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength' — gives the promise attached to the waiting: the one who is held in tension toward God is not depleted by the wait but renewed through it. The cord-image is pastoral: hope is not the absence of strain but the presence of something holding firm at both ends.
קָוָה is indexed in the local Hebrew artifact at about 49 occurrences, with concentrated use in the Psalms and the prophets, especially Isaiah's servant and comfort sections. It also appears in Job's lament (Job 3:9; 6:19; 7:2; 17:13) and in eschatological contexts in the prophets (Isa 25:9; 51:5; 60:9).
I wait for the Lord; my soul does wait, and in His word I put my hope.
The psalm's double repetition of the watchmen image intensifies the certainty: morning surely comes; the wait is not uncertain, only unfinished. The Psalmist's קָוָה is grounded in the word — the promise — of YHWH. Waiting here is not emotionally neutral; it is the posture of one who believes the dawn is coming and will not stop watching for it.
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.
The most famous קָוָה promise. The contrast with the preceding verses (vv.28-30: even youth grow weary) makes waiting on YHWH the counter-intuitive source of strength. The strength is not the outcome of a long wait finally ending — it comes in the waiting itself. The eagle, the run, and the walk are three registers of endurance: spectacular, sustained, and ordinary.
I waited patiently for the Lord; He inclined to me and heard my cry.
The narrative arc of קָוָה: waiting (v.1) → YHWH responding (v.1b) → rescue (v.2). The waiting is not abandoned or bypassed — it is the posture that precedes the action. The Psalm is David's testimony that the waiting was not wasted.
And in that day it will be said, “Surely this is our God; we have waited for Him, and He has saved us. This is the Lord for whom we have waited. Let us rejoice and be glad in His salvation.”
The eschatological payoff of קָוָה: the people who waited recognize their God when He arrives and name the waiting as the right thing to have done. 'We waited for him' is not a complaint about the delay — it is the basis of the joy. The waiting and the arrival form a single story.
But when I hoped for good, evil came; when I looked for light, darkness fell.
Job's inversion: the same word used for confident waiting in the Psalms is used here for hope that was disappointed. This is not a theological correction of the Psalms but their lament-voice: the one who knows how to use קָוָה is the one who can also cry out when the expectation is not yet met.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Hebrew word. Hope as patient waiting—the act of binding oneself to anticipated divine action or promise.
Hope as patient waiting—the act of binding oneself to anticipated divine action or promise.
to bind together (perhaps by twisting), i.e. collect; (figuratively) to expect BDB: wait for Usage: gather (together), look, patiently, tarry, wait (for, on, upon).
How the stem changes the meaning of this verb across the biblical text.
This verb appears through different tense, voice, mood, or stem patterns. Those forms help readers see how the action is presented in context.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 1 selected witness from 49 lexical occurrence verses.
קָוָה is a primitive root - no further derivation.
Defines the posture of reliance that leads to renewed strength. Isaiah 40:12-31
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
The root image of cord-twisting — tension held between two fixed points — is the pastoral key to קָוָה. Hope in the OT is not optimism (the belief that things will probably work out) and it is not resignation (the acceptance that things may not). It is tension: the soul stretched between the present reality of unresolved pain and the certainty of YHWH's character and word.
Isa 40:31 is preachable not as a promise that the wait will end quickly but as a promise that waiting on YHWH specifically is the source of strength — not relief from waiting but renewal in it.
Ps.130.5
The related noun תִּקְוָה (H8615) appears in Josh 2:18 for the scarlet cord Rahab hangs in her window — the same word as hope. The cord that signals rescue and the confident expectation of the one who waits share a root. This is not coincidence: both are something held under tension toward a fixed point, with the outcome depending on what is on the other end of the cord.
Rom 8:24-25 — 'For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope... But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience' — is the NT's exact continuation of קָוָה logic: the unseen object, the patient waiting, the certainty not yet resolved into sight. Heb 6:19 calls hope 'an anchor for the soul, firm and secure' — the cord-tension metaphor of the Hebrew root arriving in the NT as an anchor.
The connection is not lexical but theological: both images describe hope as something holding firm under strain.
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