Isaiah 21:4

New American Standard Bible (1995)

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

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.

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

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,

Contextual Overview

¹ The oracle concerning the wilderness of the sea. As windstorms in the Negev sweep on, It comes from the wilderness, from a terrifying land. ² A harsh vision has been shown to me; The treacherous one still deals treacherously, and the destroyer still destroys. Go up, Elam, lay siege, Media; I have made an end of all the groaning she has caused. ³ For this reason my loins are full of anguish; Pains have seized me like the pains of a woman in labor. I am so bewildered I cannot hear, so terrified I cannot see. ⁴ My mind reels, horror overwhelms me; The twilight I longed for has been turned for me into trembling.⁵ They set the table, they spread out the cloth, they eat, they drink; "Rise up, captains, oil the shields," ⁶ For thus the Lord says to me, "Go, station the lookout, let him report what he sees. ⁷ "When he sees riders, horsemen in pairs, A train of donkeys, a train of camels, Let him pay close attention, very close attention." ⁸ Then the lookout called, "O Lord, I stand continually by day on the watchtower, And I am stationed every night at my guard post. ⁹ "Now behold, here comes a troop of riders, horsemen in pairs." And one said, "Fallen, fallen is Babylon; And all the images of her gods are shattered on the ground." ¹⁰ O my threshed people, and my afflicted of the threshing floor! What I have heard from the LORD of hosts, The God of Israel, I make known to you.

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
But God said to Abraham, "Do not be distressed because of the lad and your maid; whatever Sarah tells you, listen to her, for through Isaac your descendants shall be named.

Genesis 21:22
Now it came about at that time that Abimelech and Phicol, the commander of his army, spoke to Abraham, saying, "God is with you in all that you do;

Genesis 21:23
now therefore, swear to me here by God that you will not deal falsely with me or with my offspring or with my posterity, but according to the kindness that I have shown to you, you shall show to me and to the land in which you have sojourned."

Exodus 12:48
"But if a stranger sojourns with you, and celebrates the Passover to the LORD, let all his males be circumcised, and then let him come near to celebrate it; and he shall be like a native of the land. But no uncircumcised person may eat of it.

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

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

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

Luke 1:59
And it happened that on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child, and they were going to call him Zacharias, after his father.

Luke 2:21
And when eight days had passed, before His circumcision, His name was then called Jesus, the name given by the angel 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).