Isaiah 21:4

English Standard Version

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

Parallel Translations

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Contextual Overview

¹ The oracle concerning the wilderness of the sea. As whirlwinds in the Negeb sweep on, it comes from the wilderness, from a terrible land. ² A stern vision is told to me; the traitor betrays, and the destroyer destroys. Go up, O Elam; lay siege, O Media; all the sighing she has caused I bring to an end. ³ Therefore my loins are filled with anguish; pangs have seized me, like the pangs of a woman in labor; I am bowed down so that I cannot hear; I am dismayed so that I cannot see. ⁴ My heart staggers; horror has appalled me; the twilight I longed for has been turned for me into trembling. ⁵ They prepare the table, they spread the rugs, they eat, they drink. Arise, O princes; oil the shield! ⁶ For thus the Lord said to me: "Go, set a watchman; let him announce what he sees. ⁷ When he sees riders, horsemen in pairs, riders on donkeys, riders on camels, let him listen diligently, very diligently." ⁸ Then he who saw cried out: "Upon a watchtower I stand, O Lord, continually by day, and at my post I am stationed whole nights. ⁹ And behold, here come riders, horsemen in pairs!" And he answered, "Fallen, fallen is Babylon; and all the carved images of her gods he has shattered to the ground." ¹⁰ O my threshed and winnowed one, what I have heard from the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, I announce 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
So she said to Abraham, "Cast out this slave woman with her son, for the son of this slave woman shall not be heir with my son Isaac."

Genesis 21:12
But God said to Abraham, "Be not displeased because of the boy and because of your slave woman. Whatever Sarah says to you, do as she tells you, for through Isaac shall your offspring be named.

Genesis 21:22
At that time Abimelech and Phicol the commander of his army said to Abraham, "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 descendants or with my posterity, but as I have dealt kindly with you, so you will deal with me and with the land where you have sojourned."

Exodus 12:48
If a stranger shall sojourn with you and would keep the Passover to the Lord , let all his males be circumcised. Then he may come near and keep it; he shall be as a native of the land. But no uncircumcised person shall eat of it.

Leviticus 12:3
And on the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised.

Deuteronomy 12:32
"Everything that I command you, you shall be careful to do. You shall not add to it or take from it.

Luke 1:6
And they were both righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and statutes of the Lord.

Luke 1:59
And on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child. And they would have called him Zechariah after his father,

Luke 2:21
And at the end of eight days, when he was circumcised, he was 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).