Isaiah 21:4
My heart panted, fearfulness affrighted me: the night of my pleasure hath he turned into fear unto me.
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} ybbl het "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.