Isaiah 21:11-12

B.—AGAINST EDOM

Isaiah 21:11-12

That under Dumah we are to understand Edom is conceded by almost all modern interpreters. In favor of this view there are the following reasons: 1) All other localities, which actually bear the name of Dumah, are either too near or too remote, and do not furnish any hold for the assumption that Isaiah made them the objects of a Massa (oracle). What would such a Massa mean as directed against the isolated city of Dumah, situated in the mountains of Judah (Joshua 15:52), or against that Ishmaelitish Dumah, of which mention is made in Genesis 25:14; 1 Chronicles 1:30, or against the three still more distant and insignificant places called Dumah, which are not once mentioned in the Old Testament, and which according to the Arabian geographers are situated in Irak, Mesopotamia and Syria (comp. Gesenius, Delitzsch, and Knobel on our place)? We could most readily think of the Ishmaelitish Dumah (Genesis 25:14). But how far-fetched is the assumption that the Simeonites, who, according to 1 Chronicles 4:42 sq., emigrated to Edom, settled just in Dumah! And does not our Massa stand among prophecies directed against heathen nations? 2) The Prophet declares expressly that the cry came to him from Seir. But would he have uttered the taunting expression of Isaiah 21:12 against Israelites dwelling on mount Seir? 3) All the four prophecies in chaps. 21 and 23 have, as was already remarked, emblematic inscriptions. It accords, therefore, entirely with the manner of forming inscriptions observed in these chapters, if we assume that דוּמָה is intentionally formed from אֱדוֹם. Consul Wetzstein indeed affirms in his Excursus on Isa. xxi. in Delitzsch’s Commentary, p. 692, that the putting of Dumah for Edom by a play upon the name, would necessarily be misunderstood. But this is by no means the case. For the character of the other inscriptions gives every reader an obvious hint how this one too is to be taken. And then we have the words “out of Seir” immediately following.

That Isaiah is the author of this prophecy is disputed by some rationalistic interpreters (Paulus, Baur, Eichhorn, Rosenmueller), but is maintained by even Gesenius, Hitzig, Hendewerk, Ewald and Knobel. It most clearly bears the stamp of Isaiah’s style, which only the most obstinate prejudice can fail to see. It is difficult to say anything respecting the time of composition. If we should insist with Knobel that the question put by the Idumeans to the Prophet supposes a close relation between them and the Jews, and that such a relation existed only during the rule of Uzziah and Jotham over Judah, which lasted till 743, we should arrive at the conclusion that the prophecy was composed before 743. But the night here spoken of, if we have respect to the then existing state of affairs and to the analogy of all Isaiah’s prophecies, cannot possibly mean anything else than the misery threatened by the Assyrian power. If now the Edomites are represented as inquiring if this calamity will soon end, they must in that case have had some experience of it. During the reign of Uzziah and Jotham, however, they had not yet suffered from the Assyrian dominion. The time when the Assyrians threatened the freedom of all nations as far as Egypt (Ewald, Gesch. des V. Isr. III. p. 670; comp. Hitzig, Gesch. des V. Isr. p. 221) was rather the period after the capture of Samaria, when the Assyrian king was engaged in war against Egypt, and was obliged to take care to secure his left flank, and his line of retreat against the warlike nations that occupied the country between Palestine and Egypt. This was the time of Hezekiah (comp. remarks on Isaiah 20:1), or more exactly, the time between the capture of Samaria and the baffled attempt on Jerusalem by the army of Sennacherib (36 and 37). At that time the Assyrians frequently penetrated into the South of Palestine. Then, if ever, was the time when an inquiry, like that contained in this prophecy, could come from Edom to the Prophet of Jehovah in Jerusalem.

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Isaiah 21:11-12

11          The Burden of Dumah.

He calleth to me out of Seir,Watchman, what of the night?Watchman, what of the night?

12     The watchman said,

The morning cometh, and also the night;If ye will enquire, enquire ye;Return, come.

TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL

Isaiah 21:11. The participle without specification of subject is often used for the finite verb (Exodus 5:16; Genesis 24:30; Genesis 32:7; Isaiah 11:6, etc.,). Here קֹרֵא stands for קָרָא and implies the impersonal or indefinite subject (Isaiah 9:5; Jeremiah 23:6; Jeremiah 33:16, et saepe). The form לֵיל in the second question may have been chosen for the sake of variety, as לַיְלָה had been employed in the first question. Moreover, it is not improbable that לֵיל is the Idumean form of the word, as we have already in Isaiah 15:1 found it to be the form used by the Moabites.

Isaiah 21:12. אתא is the Aramaean word for בּוֹא, but occurs not unfrequently in Hebrew authors. Isaiah, in particular, uses the word often, Isaiah 21:14; Isaiah 41:5; Isaiah 41:23; Isaiah 41:25; Isaiah 44:7; Isaiah 45:11; Isaiah 56:9; Isaiah 56:12 (in the two last the imperative form אֵתָיוּ also). But the אתא (with א as the last radical letter) is found only here and Deuteronomy 33:21.—בּעה occurs in the Hebrew parts of the Old Testament only in three other places, viz., Isaiah 30:13; Isaiah 64:1 in the sense of tumescere, ebullire, and Obadiah 1:6 in the sense of searching, seeking out, studiose quaerere. In this latter signification the word is common in the Aramaean (Daniel 2:13; Daniel 2:16; Daniel 2:23; Daniel 6:5; Daniel 6:8, etc.).

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

1. The Prophet hears a cry sounding forth from Seir putting to him as watchman the question: How much of the night is past? Thereupon the watchman answers: Morning comes, and also night i.e., first a ray of morning light, then immediately dark night again. And when it will have become night again, you can, if you please, again inquire. Quaerere licet. Whether you will receive a favorable answer is another question.

2. The burden—return, come.

Isaiah 21:11-12. The appellative noun דּוּמָה occurs only in two places of the Old Testament: Psalms 94:17; Psalms 115:17. In these places the word denotes that world of death where everlasting silence reigns. In the passage before us the word has manifestly a similar meaning. Dumah has, it is true, no etymological connection with Edom. For the latter is derived from the root אדםrubrum, rufum esse in Genesis 25:30. But as the Prophet represents Babylon under the name of the “desert of the sea,” Jerusalem (Isaiah 22:1), under the name of “the valley of vision,” and further in Isaiah 21:13 takes ערב in a double sense, alluding to its radical meaning as an appellative, so here by a slight modification of the name he calls Edom Dumah; and hereby he intimates that Edom is destined to become Dumah, i.e., silence, to sink into the silence of nonentity.—Seir is themountainous region which extends from the south of the Dead Sea to the Elanitic gulf, and which became the abode of Esau,(Genesis 32:3; Genesis 33:14; Genesis 33:16; Genesis 36:8) and of his descendants, who are thence called the children of Seir (2 Chronicles 25:11; 2 Chronicles 25:14). The word is found only here in Isaiah. Elsewhere the Prophet always uses Edom. It is natural for him to employ the name Seir here. For if the call is to sound forth from Edom to Jerusalem, it must proceed from the mountain-height, and not from the valley. The Prophet is addressed as שֹׁמֵר, because he is regarded as standing on his watch. The word is of like import with מְצַפֶּה Isaiah 21:6, and this affinity of signification is one reason for placing together the prophecies against Babylon (Isaiah 21:1-10) and Edom (Isaiah 21:11-12). מִו before לילה is partitive. How much of the night (the night of tribulation, comp. Isaiah 5:30; Isaiah 8:20 sqq. Isaiah 47:5; Jeremiah 15:9; Micah 3:6, etc.), is past? As a sick man who cannot sleep or compose himself, so Edom in distress inquires if the night will not soon come to an end. The repetition of the question indicates the intensity of the wish that the night may speedily be gone. The answer to the question is obscure, and seems to be designedly oracular, and at the same time ironical. The first part of the answer runs (Isaiah 21:12) morning is come, and also night. What does this mean? How can morning and night come together? Or, how can it be yet night if the morning is come? If we compare the historical events to which the Prophet’s answer refers, we can understand these words which must have been unintelligible to the first hearers or readers of the oracle. For, in fact, a ray of morning light was then very soon to shine. The overthrow of Sennacherib before Jerusalem was at hand. That was morning twilight, the dawn. But the glory did not last long. For after the Assyrian power, the Babylonian quickly arises, and completes what the former began (Jeremiah 25:21; Jeremiah 27:3; Jeremiah 49:7 sqq.). This change is frequently repeated: the Chaldaean time of judgment is followed by the Persian, the Persian by the Grecian, the Grecian by the Roman; ever for a brief interval a gleam of morning for Edom (think particularly of the time of the Herods), which was quickly lost in the returning night, till Edom was turned entirely into דּוּמָה silence, and disappeared from history (Delitzsch). The second part of the answer is, if possible, still more enigmatical than the first. The Prophet in dismissing those who question him, by telling them that they may come again, manifestly intends to mock them. For of what advantage is it to be allowed to come again? They knew they might do so. But what will they hear if they come again? What has the Prophet to announce to them as the final doom of their nation? The answer for him who can understand the hint is given by the word Dumah. The words for “come” and “inquire” belong rather to the Aramaean than to the Hebrew dialect, the word for “inquire” occurs farther in this sense, only in Daniel, and in the prophecy of Obadiah, of which Edom is the subject. Further, the singular verbal ending, which Isaiah here multiplies, making a sort of rhyme out of it, was probably current in the Idumean idiom. He mocks the inquirers, therefore, with Idumean sounds. “Return, come,” is a pleonasm employed for the sake of the rhyme in the Hebrew. If, then, in Isaiah 21:12 there is irony both in the style and sense, it is more than probable that an actual inquiry came to the Prophet from Edom, than that he invented such a question as suitable to the circumstances. For why should he have taunted the Edomites for their questioning, if they had not really inquired of him? That would have been a mockery altogether unjust and uncalled for. But it is quite probable that such a question was really put to the Prophet.

The Edomites saw in Jehovah the national God of the Israelites, and conceded to Him the same real existence which they ascribed to their own false gods. From their point of view Jehovah could have prophets by whom He revealed His will and futurity; as their gods had their oracles and their organs in the goëtae. Such recognition on the part of the heathen of a divine power in the prophets of Israel is oftentimes met with. The king of Assyria, for example, sent Naaman to Samaria that Elisha might heal him (2 Kings 5:1 sqq.). The Syrian king believed that the same Elisha betrayed all his plans to the king of Israel (2 Kings 6:12 sqq.). The Syrian Benhadad sent Hazael to Elisha to inquire if he would recover from his sickness (2 Kings 8:7 sqq.). The fame too of Isaiah, as a great Prophet of Jehovah, could have extended to Edom, and, though Edom was no longer in a state of dependence on Judah, the common distress could have occasioned the inquiry. But this question, as it did not proceed from the right believing state of heart, but from an essentially heathen way of thinking, drew from the Prophet an ironical rebuff. [May not those closing words, “if ye will inquire, inquire ye,” be intended to intimate that further disclosures would be afterwards made in regard to the future of Edom? The Prophet in the 34th chapter actually returns to this subject, and gives in plain terms the information which he here withholds. Other prophets, as Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Obadiah and Malachi foretell the judgment that would come upon Edom, and the solitude and desolation to which it should be reduced. All travellers who have visited the country, testify to the fulfilment of these predictions, and report that Edom has become a veritable Dumah, a land of silence.—D. M.]