Isaiah 21:11-12 The burden of Dumah. He calls to me out of Seir, Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night?… The land of Edom pleads for some vision to her also. Judah is to be rescued. The prophet has seen the Persian host in its varied array — troops of chariots and horsemen crashing through the brazen gates of idolatrous Babylon, extinguishing its feasts in blood, issuing from it with the cry of victory. It is good news for Judah, but what shall it be for Edom? It is as if the voice of Esau cried out once more, "Hast Thou but one blessing, O my Father. Bless me, even me also, O my Father." And as the prophet stands in imagination on the peak of the hill, he hears a voice calling to him out of Seir, the stronghold of the Edomites, a sharp, agitated cry, "Watchman, how far in the night? Watchman, what hour of the night? Does the darkness still linger, is the morning near?" Well might Edom be in terror; the sons of Esau had behaved to Judah in her hour of affliction with malignant hatred which had wounded her to the heart. In Obadiah, in Amos, in Ezekiel, in Jeremiah, you may read traces of their crime. When the Jews fled before the advances of Nebuchadnezzar, the Edomites, true to their miserable destiny, their hand against every man and every man's hand against them, had cruelly massacred and intercepted the helpless fugitives, and had urged Nebuchadnezzar to destroy the Holy City. It is to this that the sad Psalmist of the Exile alludes when he says: "Remember, O Lord, against the children of Edom, in the day of Jerusalem, how they cried, 'Down with it, down with it, even to the ground.'" Naturally, therefore, in the approaching hour of Judah's emancipation, the prophet has not much comfort to bestow on these cruel and treacherous" sons of the desert. All he can say to the Edomites at first is a riddling message of which not much can be made. But then, after this stern and dubious answer, as though somewhat relenting, the watchman cries, "If ye wish to inquire again, inquire ye," and then, very briefly, "Return, come." In other words. "The oracle for you, sons of Edom, is no vaticination about a mere earthly future." It may be summed up in two words — in the warning, "Repent," and in the invitation, "Come." (Dean Farrar, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: The burden of Dumah. He calleth to me out of Seir, Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night? |
    |