Verse 11
An Edomite kept asking Isaiah, the watchman who saw by prophetic revelation how things would go (cf. Isaiah 21:6-9), how long the night of oppression on his nation would last. "Edom" is "Dumah" in the Hebrew text, a word play. Dumah also may have been the name of a place in Edom or the Akkadian designation for Edom (Udumu). The Dumah in Genesis 25:14 was one of Ishmael’s rather than Esau’s descendants. Dumah means "silence," which is appropriate here since this oracle is silent (Heb. dumah) concerning Edom’s (Heb. ’edom) ultimate fate.
"As a sick person lying awake through the long, agonizing hours of night cries out to know what the time is and how much of the night has passed, so Edom, feeling the oppression of Assyria, will call out to the prophet to ask him how much longer the oppression must endure." [Note: Young, 2:77.]
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