Lectionary Calendar
Thursday, August 14th, 2025
the Week of Proper 14 / Ordinary 19
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Read the Bible

Douay-Rheims Bible

Isaiah 21:4

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

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Isaiah;   Persia;   Thompson Chain Reference - Rest-Unrest;   Unrest;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Babylon;  

Dictionaries:

- Bridgeway Bible Dictionary - Persia;   Fausset Bible Dictionary - Babel;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Baptism;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Isaiah, Book of;   Morrish Bible Dictionary - Babylon ;   Elam ;   The Hawker's Poor Man's Concordance And Dictionary - Medes;   Smith Bible Dictionary - Ba'bel;   Wilson's Dictionary of Bible Types - Pant;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Baptism (Lutheran Doctrine);   Evil;   Fear;   Hezekiah (2);   Horror;   Isaiah;   The Jewish Encyclopedia - Sun, Rising and Setting of the;  

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.
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

1 The burden of the desert of the sea. As whirlwinds come from the south, it cometh from the desert from a terrible land. 2 A grievous vision is told me: he that is unfaithful dealeth unfaithfully: and he that is a spoiler, spoileth. Go up, O Elam, besiege, O Mede: I have made all the mourning thereof to cease. 3 Therefore are my loins filled with pain, anguish hath taken hold of me, as the anguish of a woman in labour: I fell down at the hearing of it, I was troubled at the seeing of it. 4 My heart failed, darkness amazed me: Babylon my beloved is become a wonder to me. 5 Prepare the table, behold in the watchtower them that eat and drink: arise, ye princes, take up the shield. 6 For thus hath the Lord said to me: Go, and set a watchman: and whatsoever he shall see, let him tell. 7 And he saw a chariot with two horsemen, a rider upon an ass, and a rider upon a camel: and he beheld them diligently with much heed. 8 And a lion cried out: I am upon the watchtower of the Lord, standing continually by day: and I am upon my ward, standing whole nights. 9 Behold this man cometh, the rider upon the chariot with two horsemen, and he answered, and said: Babylon is fallen, she is fallen, and all the graven gods thereof are broken unto the ground. 10 O my thrashing, and the children of my floor, that which I have heard of the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, I have declared unto 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
Cast out this bondwoman and her son; for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with my son Isaac.
Genesis 21:12
And God said to him: Let it not seem grievous to thee for the boy, and for thy bondwoman: in all that Sara hath said to thee, hearken to her voice: for in Isaac shall thy seed be called.
Genesis 21:22
At the same time Abimelech, and Phicol the general of his army, said to Abraham: God is with thee in all that thou dost.
Genesis 21:23
Swear therefore by God, that thou wilt not hurt me, nor my posterity, nor my stock: but according to the kindness that I have done to thee, thou shalt do to me, and to the land wherein thou hast lived a stranger.
Exodus 12:48
And if any stranger be willing to dwell among you, and to keep the Phase of the Lord, all his males shall first be circumcised, and then shall he celebrate it according to the manner: and he shall be as he that is born in the land: but if any man be uncircumcised, he shall not eat thereof.
Leviticus 12:3
And on the eighth day the infant shall be circumcised:
Deuteronomy 12:32
What I command thee, that only do thou to the Lord: neither add any thing, nor diminish.
Luke 1:6
And they were both just before God, walking in all the commandments and justifications of the Lord without blame.
Luke 1:59
And it came to pass that on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child: and they called him by his father’s name Zachary.
Luke 2:21
And after eight days were accomplished, that the child should be circumcised, his name was called JESUS, which was called 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).


 
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