Isaiah 21:4

Amplified Bible

My mind reels, horror overwhelms me; The twilight I longed for has been turned into fear and trembling for me.

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
My heart staggers;horror terrifies me.He has turned my last glimmer of hopeinto sheer terror.

Hebrew Names Version
My heart flutters, horror has frightened me; the twilight that I desired has been turned into trembling to me.

King James Version
My heart panted, fearfulness affrighted me: the night of my pleasure hath he turned into fear unto me.

English Standard Version
My heart staggers; horror has appalled me; the twilight I longed for has been turned for me into trembling.

New American Standard Bible
My mind reels, horror overwhelms me; The twilight I longed for has been turned into trembling for me.

New Century Version
I am worried, and I am shaking with fear. My pleasant evening has become a night of fear.

World English Bible
My heart flutters, horror has frightened me; the twilight that I desired has been turned into trembling to me.

Geneva Bible (1587)
Mine heart failed: fearefulnesse troubled me: the night of my pleasures hath he turned into feare vnto me.

Legacy Standard Bible
My heart reels; horror terrorizes me;The twilight I longed for has been turned for me into trembling.

Berean Standard Bible
My heart staggers; fear makes me tremble. The twilight of my desire has turned to horror.

Contemporary English Version
My head spins; I'm horrified! Early evening, my favorite time, has become a nightmare.

Complete Jewish Bible
My mind reels, shuddering assails me. The twilight I longed for terrifies me.

Darby Translation
My heart panteth, horror affrighteth me: the night of my pleasure hath he turned into trembling unto me.

Easy-to-Read Version
I am worried and shaking with fear. My pleasant evening has become a nightmare.

George Lamsa Translation
My heart failed, pangs made me quake; the beauty of my pleasures has been turned into terror to me.

Good News Translation
My head is spinning, and I am trembling with fear. I had been longing for evening to come, but it has brought me nothing but terror.

Lexham English Bible
My mind staggers; fear terrifies me; the twilight I desired brought me fear.

Literal Translation
My heart wanders; terror overwhelms me; He has made the twilight of my desire into a fear.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Myne herte paunted, I trembled for feare. The darcknesse made me fearfull in my mynde.

American Standard Version
My heart fluttereth, horror hath affrighted me; the twilight that I desired hath been turned into trembling unto me.

Bible in Basic English
My mind is wandering, fear has overcome me: the evening of my desire has been turned into shaking for me.

JPS Old Testament (1917)
My heart is bewildered, terror hath overwhelmed me; the twilight that I longed for hath been turned for me into trembling.

King James Version (1611)
My heart panted, fearefulnesse affrighted me: the night of my pleasure hath he turned into feare vnto me.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
My heart panted, fearefulnesse came vpon me: the nyght of my voluptuousnesse hath he turned agaynst me into feare.

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
My heart wanders, and transgression overwhelms me; my soul is occupied with fear.

English Revised Version
My heart panteth, horror hath affrighted me: the twilight that I desired hath been turned into trembling unto me.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Myn herte fadide, derknessis astonieden me; Babiloyne, my derlyng, is set to me in to myracle.

Update Bible Version
My heart flutters, horror has frightened me; the twilight that I desired has been turned into trembling to me.

Webster's Bible Translation
My heart panted, fearfulness affrighted me: the night of my pleasure hath he turned into fear to me.

New English Translation
My heart palpitates, I shake in fear; the twilight I desired has brought me terror.

New King James Version
My heart wavered, fearfulness frightened me; The night for which I longed He turned into fear for me.

New Living Translation
My mind reels and my heart races. I longed for evening to come, but now I am terrified of the dark.

New Life Bible
My mind turns. Fear has come over me. The evening I have waited so long for has been turned into a time of shaking with fear.

New Revised Standard
My mind reels, horror has appalled me; the twilight I longed for has been turned for me into trembling.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
My heart fluttereth, A horror, terrifieth me, - My twilight of pleasure, hath he turned for me into a time of trembling.

Douay-Rheims Bible
My heart failed, darkness amazed me: Babylon my beloved is become a wonder to me.

Revised Standard Version
My mind reels, horror has appalled me; the twilight I longed for has been turned for me into trembling.

Young's Literal Translation
Wandered hath my heart, trembling hath terrified me, The twilight of my desire He hath made a fear to me,

New American Standard Bible (1995)
My mind reels, horror overwhelms me; The twilight I longed for has been turned for me into trembling.

Contextual Overview

¹The [mournful, inspired] oracle (a burden to be carried) concerning the Desert of the Sea (the seasonally flooded plains just south of Babylon): As windstorms in the Negev (the South) sweep through, So it (God's judgment) comes from the desert, from [the hostile armies of] a terrifying land. ²A harsh vision has been shown to me; The treacherous one deals treacherously, and the destroyer destroys. Go up, Elam! Lay siege, Media! All the groaning [caused by Babylon's ruthless oppressions] I [the LORD] have brought to an end. ³Therefore [continues Isaiah] my loins are filled with anguish; Pains have seized me like the pains of a woman in childbirth; I am so bent and bewildered that I cannot hear, I am so terrified that I cannot see. ⁴My mind reels, horror overwhelms me; The twilight I longed for has been turned into fear and trembling for me. ⁵They set the table [for the doomed banquet], they spread out the cloth, they eat, they drink; "Rise up, captains [of Belshazzar's court], oil your shields [for battle, for your enemy is at the gates]!" ⁶This is what the Lord says to me, "Go, station the lookout, let him report what he sees. ⁷"When he sees a chariot, horsemen in pairs, A train of donkeys and a train of camels, Let him pay attention and listen closely, very closely." ⁸And the lookout called like a lion, "O Lord, I stand continually on the watchtower by day, And I am stationed every night at my guard post. ⁹"Now look! Here comes a troop of riders, horsemen in pairs." And one said, "Fallen, fallen is Babylon; And all the carved images of her gods are shattered on the ground." ¹⁰O my threshed people [Judah, who must be judged and trampled down by Babylon], my afflicted of the threshing floor. What I have heard from the LORD of hosts, The God of Israel, I have [joyfully] announced to you [that Babylon is to fall].

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

heart panted: or, mind wandered

the night: Isaiah 5:11-14, 1 Samuel 25:36-38, 2 Samuel 13:28, 2 Samuel 13:29, Esther 5:12, Esther 7:6-10, Job 21:11-13, Jeremiah 51:39, Jeremiah 51:57, Daniel 5:1, Daniel 5:5, Daniel 5:30, Nahum 1:10, Luke 21:34-36

turned: Heb. put

Reciprocal: 1 Samuel 28:5 - he was afraid 1 Kings 1:49 - General Job 4:15 - the hair Job 20:23 - rain it Job 30:31 - General Psalms 38:10 - heart Psalms 69:23 - make their Psalms 73:19 - they are Psalms 91:5 - terror Ecclesiastes 7:4 - the heart Isaiah 5:14 - he that rejoiceth Isaiah 13:8 - pangs Isaiah 14:11 - pomp Isaiah 22:13 - behold Isaiah 47:8 - given Jeremiah 4:9 - that the heart Jeremiah 50:43 - king Daniel 5:6 - so that Amos 6:7 - and the Amos 8:10 - I will turn Luke 6:25 - mourn Luke 17:27 - General 1 Thessalonians 5:3 - Peace 1 Thessalonians 5:7 - and they Hebrews 11:25 - the pleasures

Cross-References

Genesis 21:10
Therefore she said to Abraham, "Drive out this maid and her son, for the son of this maid shall not be an heir with my son Isaac."

Genesis 21:12
God said to Abraham, "Do not let it distress you because of Ishmael and your maid; whatever Sarah tells you, listen to her and do what she asks, for your descendants will be named through Isaac.

Genesis 21:22
Now at that time Abimelech and Phicol, the commander of his army, said to Abraham, "God is with you in everything you do;

Genesis 21:23
so now, swear to me here by God that you will not deal unfairly with me [by breaking any agreements we have] or with my son or with my descendants, but as I have treated you with kindness, you shall do the same to me and to the land in which you have sojourned (temporarily lived)."

Exodus 12:48
"If a stranger living temporarily among you wishes to celebrate the Passover to the LORD, all his males must be circumcised, and then he may participate and celebrate it like one that is born in the land. But no uncircumcised person may eat it.

Leviticus 12:3
'On the eighth day the flesh of the male child's foreskin shall be circumcised.

Deuteronomy 12:32
"Everything I command you, you shall be careful to do it; you shall not add to it nor take away from it.

Luke 1:6
They both were righteous (approved) in the sight of God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and requirements of the Lord.

Luke 1:59
It happened that on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child [as required by the Law], and they intended to name him Zacharias, after his father;

Luke 2:21
At the end of eight days, when He was to be circumcised, He was named Jesus, the name given [to Him] by the angel [Gabriel] before He was conceived in the womb.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

My heart panted,.... Fluttered about, and could hardly keep its place: or, "my mind wandered" r; like a person in distraction and confusion, that knew not what to think say or do:

fearfulness affrighted me; the terror of Cyrus's army seized him, of its irruption into the city, and of his being destroyed by it; the writing on the wall threw him into a panic, and the news of the Medes and Persians being entered the city increased it:

the night of my pleasure hath he turned into fear unto me; in which he promised himself so much pleasure, at a feast he had made for his princes, wives, and concubines; either in honour of his god, as some think s, being an annual one; or, as Josephus ben Gorion t says, on account of the victory he had obtained over the Medes and Persians; and so was quite secure, and never in the least thought of destruction being at hand; but in the midst of all his revelling, mirth, and jollity, the city was surprised and taken, and he slain, Daniel 5:1. So mystical Babylon, in the midst of her prosperity, while she is saying that she sits a queen, and knows no sorrow, her judgment and plagues shall come upon her, Revelation 18:7.

r תעה לבבי "erravit cor meum", Montanus; "errat animus meus", Junius Tremellius "errat cor meum", Piscator. s Vid. Herodot. l. 1. c. 191. Xenophon. l. 7. c. 23. t L. 1. c. 5. p. 24. Ed. Braithaupt.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

My heart panted - Margin, ‘My mind wandered.’ The Hebrew word rendered ‘panted’ (תעה tâ‛âh) means to wander about; to stagger; to be giddy; and is applied often to one that staggers by being intoxicated. Applied to the heart, it means that it is disquieted or troubled. The Hebrew word “heart” here is to be taken in the sense of “mind.”

The night of my pleasure - There can be no doubt that the prophet here refers to the night of revelry and riot in which Babylon was taken. The prophet calls it the night of “his” pleasure, because he represents himself as being “in” Babylon when it should be taken, and, therefore, uses such language as an inhabitant of Babylon would use. “They” would call it the night of their pleasure, because it was set apart to feasting and revelry.

Hath he turned into fear - God has made it a night of consternation and alarm. The prophet here refers to the fact that Babylon would be taken by Cyrus during that night, and that consternation and alarm would suddenly pervade the affrighted and guilty city (see Daniel 5:0).