Isaiah 21:11

World English Bible (2000)

The burden of Dumah. One calls to me out of Seir, "Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night?"

📖 Grammatical Analysis

Original Text

מַשָּׂ֖א דּוּמָ֑ה אֵלַי֙ קֹרֵ֣א מִשֵּׂעִ֔יר שֹׁמֵר֙ מַה־מִלַּ֔יְלָה שֹׁמֵ֖ר מַה־מִלֵּֽיל׃

Transliteration

maśśā' dūmāh to me qōrē' from śē'îr šōmēr what-from llaylāh šōmēr what-from llêl

Grammar Details

• *maśśā'*: noun, masculine singular construct - burden/oracle
• *dūmāh*: proper noun - Dumah (Edom)
• *qōrē'*: verb participle, qal active - calling
• *śē'îr*: proper noun - Seir (Edom)
• *šōmēr*: verb participle, qal active - watchman/guardian
• *llaylāh*: noun, masculine singular with prefix min - from night
• *llêl*: noun, masculine singular with prefix min - from night

Word Meanings

• *maśśā'*: burden/oracle/prophecy
• *dūmāh*: Dumah/silence (wordplay on Edom)
• *šōmēr mah-millaylāh*: watchman, what of the night?/guard, how far gone is the night?

Referenced Verses

• Gen 25:14 : 14 Mishma, Dumah, Massa,
• 1 Chr 1:30 : 30 Mishma, and Dumah, Massa, Hadad, and Tema,
• Ps 137:7 : 7 Remember, Yahweh, against the children of Edom, the day of Jerusalem; who said, "Raze it! Raze it even to its foundation!"
• Isa 21:6 : 6 For the Lord said to me, "Go, set a watchman. Let him declare what he sees.
• Isa 34:1-9 : 1 Come near, you nations, to hear! Listen, you peoples. Let the earth and all it contains hear; the world, and everything that comes from it. 2 For Yahweh is enraged against all the nations, and angry with all their armies. He has utterly destroyed them. He has given them over for slaughter. 3 Their slain will also be cast out, and the stench of their dead bodies will come up; and the mountains will melt in their blood. 4 All of the army of the sky will be dissolved. The sky will be rolled up like a scroll, and all its armies will fade away, as a leaf fades from off a vine or a fig tree. 5 For my sword has drunk its fill in the sky. Behold, it will come down on Edom, and on the people of my curse, for judgment. 6 Yahweh's sword is filled with blood. It is covered with fat, with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams; for Yahweh has a sacrifice in Bozrah, And a great slaughter in the land of Edom. 7 The wild oxen will come down with them, and the young bulls with the mighty bulls; and their land will be drunken with blood, and their dust made greasy with fat. 8 For Yahweh has a day of vengeance, a year of recompense for the cause of Zion. 9 Its streams will be turned into pitch, its dust into sulfur, And its land will become burning pitch. 10 It won't be quenched night nor day. Its smoke will go up forever. From generation to generation, it will lie waste. No one will pass through it forever and ever. 11 But the pelican and the porcupine will possess it. The owl and the raven will dwell in it. He will stretch the line of confusion over it, and the plumb line of emptiness. 12 They shall call its nobles to the kingdom, but none shall be there; and all its princes shall be nothing. 13 Thorns will come up in its palaces, nettles and thistles in its fortresses; and it will be a habitation of jackals, a court for ostriches. 14 The wild animals of the desert will meet with the wolves, and the wild goat will cry to his fellow. Yes, the night creature shall settle there, and shall find herself a place of rest. 15 The arrow snake will make her nest there, and lay, hatch, and gather under her shade. Yes, the kites will be gathered there, every one with her mate. 16 Search in the book of Yahweh, and read: not one of these will be missing. none will lack her mate. For my mouth has commanded, and his Spirit has gathered them. 17 He has cast the lot for them, and his hand has divided it to them with a measuring line. They shall possess it forever. From generation to generation they will dwell in it.
• Isa 63:1-6 : 1 Who is this who comes from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah? this who is glorious in his clothing, marching in the greatness of his strength? "It is I who speak in righteousness, mighty to save." 2 Why are you red in your clothing, and your garments like him who treads in the wine vat? 3 "I have trodden the winepress alone; and of the peoples there was no man with me: yes, I trod them in my anger, and trampled them in my wrath; and their lifeblood is sprinkled on my garments, and I have stained all my clothing. 4 For the day of vengeance was in my heart, and the year of my redeemed is come. 5 I looked, and there was none to help; and I wondered that there was none to uphold: therefore my own arm brought salvation to me; and my wrath, it upheld me. 6 I trod down the peoples in my anger, and made them drunk in my wrath, and I poured out their lifeblood on the earth."
• Jer 37:17 : 17 Then Zedekiah the king sent, and fetched him: and the king asked him secretly in his house, and said, Is there any word from Yahweh? Jeremiah said, There is. He said also, You shall be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon.
• Jer 49:7-9 : 7 Of Edom. Thus says Yahweh of Armies: Is wisdom no more in Teman? is counsel perished from the prudent? is their wisdom vanished? 8 Flee, turn back, dwell in the depths, inhabitants of Dedan; for I will bring the calamity of Esau on him, the time that I shall visit him. 9 If grape gatherers came to you, would they not leave some gleaning grapes? if thieves by night, wouldn't they destroy until they had enough? 10 But I have made Esau bare, I have uncovered his secret places, and he shall not be able to hide himself: his seed is destroyed, and his brothers, and his neighbors; and he is no more. 11 Leave your fatherless children, I will preserve them alive; and let your widows trust in me. 12 For thus says Yahweh: Behold, they to whom it didn't pertain to drink of the cup shall certainly drink; and are you he who shall altogether go unpunished? You shall not go unpunished, but you shall surely drink. 13 For I have sworn by myself, says Yahweh, that Bozrah shall become an astonishment, a reproach, a waste, and a curse; and all its cities shall be perpetual wastes. 14 I have heard news from Yahweh, and an ambassador is sent among the nations, [saying], Gather yourselves together, and come against her, and rise up to the battle. 15 For, behold, I have made you small among the nations, and despised among men. 16 As for your terror, the pride of your heart has deceived you, O you who dwell in the clefts of the rock, who hold the height of the hill: though you should make your nest as high as the eagle, I will bring you down from there, says Yahweh. 17 Edom shall become an astonishment: everyone who passes by it shall be astonished, and shall hiss at all its plagues. 18 As in the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah and the neighbor cities of it, says Yahweh, no man shall dwell there, neither shall any son of man live therein. 19 Behold, he shall come up like a lion from the pride of the Jordan against the strong habitation: for I will suddenly make them run away from it; and whoever is chosen, him will I appoint over it: for who is like me? and who will appoint me a time? and who is the shepherd who will stand before me? 20 Therefore hear the counsel of Yahweh, that he has taken against Edom; and his purposes, that he has purposed against the inhabitants of Teman: Surely they shall drag them away, [even] the little ones of the flock; surely he shall make their habitation desolate over them. 21 The earth trembles at the noise of their fall; there is a cry, the noise which is heard in the Red Sea. 22 Behold, he shall come up and fly as the eagle, and spread out his wings against Bozrah: and the heart of the mighty men of Edom at that day shall be as the heart of a woman in her pangs.
• Ezek 35:1-9 : 1 Moreover the word of Yahweh came to me, saying, 2 Son of man, set your face against Mount Seir, and prophesy against it, 3 and tell it, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Behold, I am against you, Mount Seir, and I will stretch out my hand against you, and I will make you a desolation and an astonishment. 4 I will lay your cities waste, and you shall be desolate; and you shall know that I am Yahweh. 5 Because you have had a perpetual enmity, and have given over the children of Israel to the power of the sword in the time of their calamity, in the time of the iniquity of the end; 6 therefore, as I live, says the Lord Yahweh, I will prepare you for blood, and blood shall pursue you: since you have not hated blood, therefore blood shall pursue you. 7 Thus will I make Mount Seir an astonishment and a desolation; and I will cut off from it him who passes through and him who returns. 8 I will fill its mountains with its slain: in your hills and in your valleys and in all your watercourses shall they fall who are slain with the sword. 9 I will make you a perpetual desolation, and your cities shall not be inhabited; and you shall know that I am Yahweh. 10 Because you have said, These two nations and these two countries shall be mine, and we will possess it; whereas Yahweh was there: 11 therefore, as I live, says the Lord Yahweh, I will do according to your anger, and according to your envy which you have shown out of your hatred against them; and I will make myself known among them, when I shall judge you. 12 You shall know that I, Yahweh, have heard all your insults which you have spoken against the mountains of Israel, saying, They are laid desolate, they have been given us to devour. 13 You have magnified yourselves against me with your mouth, and have multiplied your words against me: I have heard it. 14 Thus says the Lord Yahweh: When the whole earth rejoices, I will make you desolate. 15 As you rejoiced over the inheritance of the house of Israel, because it was desolate, so will I do to you: you shall be desolate, Mount Seir, and all Edom, even all of it; and they shall know that I am Yahweh.
• Joel 3:19 : 19 Egypt will be a desolation, and Edom will be a desolate wilderness, for the violence done to the children of Judah, because they have shed innocent blood in their land.
• Amos 1:6 : 6 Thus says Yahweh: "For three transgressions of Gaza, yes, for four, I will not turn away its punishment; because they carried away captive the whole community, to deliver them up to Edom;
• Amos 1:11-12 : 11 Thus says Yahweh: "For three transgressions of Edom, yes, for four, I will not turn away its punishment; because he pursued his brother with the sword, and cast off all pity, and his anger raged continually, and he kept his wrath forever; 12 but I will send a fire on Teman, and it will devour the palaces of Bozrah."
• Obad 1:1-9 : 1 The vision of Obadiah. This is what the Lord Yahweh says about Edom. We have heard news from Yahweh, and an ambassador is sent among the nations, saying, "Arise, and let's rise up against her in battle. 2 Behold, I have made you small among the nations. You are greatly despised. 3 The pride of your heart has deceived you, you who dwell in the clefts of the rock, whose habitation is high, who says in his heart, 'Who will bring me down to the ground?' 4 Though you mount on high as the eagle, and though your nest is set among the stars, I will bring you down from there," says Yahweh. 5 "If thieves came to you, if robbers by night--oh, what disaster awaits you--wouldn't they only steal until they had enough? If grape pickers came to you, wouldn't they leave some gleaning grapes? 6 How Esau will be ransacked! How his hidden treasures are sought out! 7 All the men of your alliance have brought you on your way, even to the border. The men who were at peace with you have deceived you, and prevailed against you. Friends who eat your bread lay a snare under you. There is no understanding in him." 8 "Won't I in that day," says Yahweh, "destroy the wise men out of Edom, and understanding out of the mountain of Esau? 9 Your mighty men, Teman, will be dismayed, to the end that everyone may be cut off from the mountain of Esau by slaughter. 10 For the violence done to your brother Jacob, shame will cover you, and you will be cut off forever. 11 In the day that you stood on the other side, in the day that strangers carried away his substance, and foreigners entered into his gates, and cast lots for Jerusalem, even you were like one of them. 12 But don't look down on your brother in the day of his disaster, and don't rejoice over the children of Judah in the day of their destruction. Don't speak proudly in the day of distress. 13 Don't enter into the gate of my people in the day of their calamity. Don't look down on their affliction in the day of their calamity, neither seize their wealth on the day of their calamity. 14 Don't stand in the crossroads to cut off those of his who escape. Don't deliver up those of his who remain in the day of distress. 15 For the day of Yahweh is near all the nations! As you have done, it will be done to you. Your deeds will return upon your own head. 16 For as you have drunk on my holy mountain, so will all the nations drink continually. Yes, they will drink, swallow down, and will be as though they had not been.
• Mal 1:2-4 : 2 "I have loved you," says Yahweh. Yet you say, "How have you loved us?" "Wasn't Esau Jacob's brother?" says Yahweh, "Yet I loved Jacob; 3 but Esau I hated, and made his mountains a desolation, and gave his heritage to the jackals of the wilderness." 4 Whereas Edom says, "We are beaten down, but we will return and build the waste places;" thus says Yahweh of Armies, "They shall build, but I will throw down; and men will call them 'The Wicked Land,' even the people against whom Yahweh shows wrath forever."
• Gen 32:3 : 3 Jacob sent messengers in front of him to Esau, his brother, to the land of Seir, the field of Edom.
• Num 24:18 : 18 Edom shall be a possession. Seir, his enemies, also shall be a possession, while Israel does valiantly.
• Deut 2:5 : 5 don't contend with them; for I will not give you of their land, no, not so much as for the sole of the foot to tread on; because I have given Mount Seir to Esau for a possession.