My heart panted
Fluttered about, and could hardly keep its place: or, "my mind wandered" F18; 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 F19, being an annual one; or, as Josephus ben Gorion F20 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 Daniel 5:30 ) . 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 Revelation 18:8 ) .