Isaiah 21:11

Bad News for Seir

21:11 Here is a message about Dumah: ¹ 

Someone calls to me from Seir, ² 

“Watchman, what is left of the night?

Watchman, what is left of the night?” ³ 

Isaiah 15:1

The Lord Will Judge Moab

15:1 Here is a message about Moab:

Indeed, in a night it is devastated,

Ar of Moab is destroyed!

Indeed, in a night it is devastated,

Kir of Moab is destroyed!

Isaiah 21:12

21:12 The watchman replies,

“Morning is coming, but then night. ⁴ 

If you want to ask, ask;

come back again.” ⁵ 

Isaiah 27:3

27:3 I, the Lord, protect it; ⁶ 

I water it regularly. ⁷ 

I guard it night and day,

so no one can harm it. ⁸ 

Isaiah 38:13

38:13 I cry out ⁹  until morning;

like a lion he shatters all my bones;

you turn day into night and end my life. ¹⁰ 

Isaiah 16:3

16:3 “Bring a plan, make a decision! ¹¹ 

Provide some shade in the middle of the day! ¹² 

Hide the fugitives! Do not betray ¹³  the one who tries to escape!

Isaiah 21:8

21:8 Then the guard ¹⁴  cries out:

“On the watchtower, O sovereign master, ¹⁵ 

I stand all day long;

at my post

I am stationed every night.

Isaiah 26:9

26:9 I ¹⁶  look for ¹⁷  you during the night,

my spirit within me seeks you at dawn,

for when your judgments come upon the earth,

those who live in the world learn about justice. ¹⁸ 

Isaiah 28:19

28:19 Whenever it sweeps by, it will overtake you;

indeed, ¹⁹  every morning it will sweep by,

it will come through during the day and the night.” ²⁰ 

When this announcement is understood,

it will cause nothing but terror.

Isaiah 29:7

29:7 It will be like a dream, a night vision.

There will be a horde from all the nations that fight against Ariel,

those who attack her and her stronghold and besiege her.

Isaiah 30:29

30:29 You will sing

as you do in the evening when you are celebrating a festival.

You will be happy like one who plays a flute

as he goes to the mountain of the Lord, the Rock who shelters Israel. ²¹ 

Isaiah 34:10

34:10 Night and day it will burn; ²² 

its smoke will ascend continually.

Generation after generation it will be a wasteland

and no one will ever pass through it again.

Isaiah 38:12

38:12 My dwelling place ²³  is removed and taken away ²⁴  from me

like a shepherd’s tent.

I rolled up my life like a weaver rolls cloth; ²⁵ 

from the loom he cuts me off. ²⁶ 

You turn day into night and end my life. ²⁷ 

Isaiah 60:11

60:11 Your gates will remain open at all times;

they will not be shut during the day or at night,

so that the wealth of nations may be delivered,

with their kings leading the way. ²⁸ 

Isaiah 62:6

62:6 I ²⁹  post watchmen on your walls, O Jerusalem;

they should keep praying all day and all night. ³⁰ 

You who pray to ³¹  the Lord, don’t be silent!

Isaiah 4:5

4:5 Then the Lord will create

over all of Mount Zion ³² 

and over its convocations

a cloud and smoke by day

and a bright flame of fire by night; ³³ 

indeed a canopy will accompany the Lord’s glorious presence. ³⁴ 

[21:11]  ¹ tn The noun דּוּמָה (dumah) means “silence,” but here it is a proper name, probably referring to a site in northern Arabia or to the nation of Edom. See BDB 189 s.v. II דּוּמָה. If Dumah was an area in northern Arabia, it would be of interest to the Edomites because of its strategic position on trade routes which they used. See J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:398.

[21:11]  ² sn Seir is another name for Edom. See BDB 973 s.v. שֵׂעִיר.

[21:11]  ³ sn The “night” probably here symbolizes distress and difficult times. See BDB 539 s.v. לַיְלָה.

[21:12]  ⁴ sn Dumah will experience some relief, but it will be short-lived as night returns.

[21:12]  ⁵ sn The point of the watchman’s final instructions (“if you want to ask, ask; come again”) is unclear. Perhaps they are included to add realism to the dramatic portrayal. The watchman sends the questioner away with the words, “Feel free to come back and ask again.”

[27:3]  ⁷ tn Heb “her.” Apparently “vineyard” is the antecedent, though normally this noun is understood as masculine (see Lev 25:3, however).

[27:3]  ⁸ tn Or perhaps, “constantly.” Heb “by moments.”

[27:3]  ⁹ tn Heb “lest [someone] visit [harm] upon it, night and day I guard it.”

[38:13]  ¹⁰ tn The verb form in the Hebrew text is a Piel from שָׁוַה (shavah). There are two homonyms שָׁוַה, one meaning in the Piel “level, smooth out,” the other “set, place.” Neither fits in v. 13. It is likely that the original reading was שִׁוַּעְתִּי (shivva’ti, “I cry out”) from the verbal root שָׁוַע (shava’), which occurs exclusively in the Piel.

[38:13]  ¹¹ tn Heb “from day to night you bring me to an end.”

[16:3]  ¹³ sn It is unclear who is being addressed in this verse. Perhaps the prophet, playing the role of a panic stricken Moabite refugee, requests the leaders of Judah (the imperatives are plural) to take pity on the fugitives.

[16:3]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “Make your shade like night in the midst of noonday.” “Shade” here symbolizes shelter, while the heat of noonday represents the intense suffering of the Moabites. By comparing the desired shade to night, the speaker visualizes a huge dark shadow cast by a large tree that would provide relief from the sun’s heat.

[16:3]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “disclose, uncover.”

[21:8]  ¹⁶ tn The Hebrew text has, “the lion,” but this makes little sense here. אַרְיֵה (’aryeh, “lion”) is probably a corruption of an original הָרֹאֶה (haro’eh, “the one who sees”), i.e., the guard mentioned previously in v. 6.

[21:8]  ¹⁷ tn The Hebrew term translated “sovereign master” here is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay). Some translations take this to refer to the Lord (cf. NAB, NASB, NRSV), while others take it to refer to the guard’s human master (“my lord”; cf. NIV, NLT).

[26:9]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “with my soul I.” This is a figure for the speaker himself (“I”).

[26:9]  ²⁰ tn Or “long for, desire.” The speaker acknowledges that he is eager to see God come in judgment (see vv. 8, 9b).

[26:9]  ²¹ tn The translation understands צֶדֶק (tsedeq) in the sense of “justice,” but it is possible that it carries the nuance “righteousness,” in which case one might translate, “those who live in the world learn to live in a righteous manner” (cf. NCV).

[28:19]  ²² tn Or “for” (KJV, ASV, NASB, NRSV).

[28:19]  ²³ tn The words “it will come through” are supplied in the translation. The verb “will sweep by” does double duty in the parallel structure.

[30:29]  ²⁵ tn Heb “[you will have] joy of heart, like the one going with a flute to enter the mountain of the Lord to the Rock of Israel.” The image here is not a foundational rock, but a rocky cliff where people could hide for protection (for example, the fortress of Masada).

[34:10]  ²⁸ tn Heb “it will not be extinguished.”

[38:12]  ³¹ tn According to HALOT 217 s.v. דּוֹר this noun is a hapax legomenon meaning “dwelling place,” derived from a verbal root meaning “live” (see Ps 84:10). For an interpretation that understands the form as the well-attested noun meaning “generation,” see J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:679, n. 4.

[38:12]  ³² tn The verb form appears to be a Niphal from גָּלָה (galah), which normally means “uncovered, revealed” in the Niphal. Because of the following reference to a shepherd’s tent, some prefer to emend the form to וְנָגַל, a Niphal from גָלָל (galal, “roll”) and translate “is rolled [or “folded”] up.”

[38:12]  ³³ tn Heb “I rolled up, like a weaver, my life” (so ASV).

[38:12]  ³⁴ sn For a discussion of the imagery employed here, see J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:684.

[38:12]  ³⁵ tn Heb “from day to night you bring me to an end.”

[60:11]  ³⁴ tn Or “led in procession.” The participle is passive.

[62:6]  ³⁷ sn The speaker here is probably the prophet.

[62:6]  ³⁸ tn Heb “all day and all night continually they do not keep silent.” The following lines suggest that they pray for the Lord’s intervention and restoration of the city.

[62:6]  ³⁹ tn Or “invoke”; NIV “call on”; NASB, NRSV “remind.”

[4:5]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “over all the place, Mount Zion.” Cf. NLT “Jerusalem”; CEV “the whole city.”

[4:5]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “a cloud by day, and smoke, and brightness of fire, a flame by night.” Though the accents in the Hebrew text suggest otherwise, it might be preferable to take “smoke” with what follows, since one would expect smoke to accompany fire.

[4:5]  ⁴² tn Heb “indeed (or “for”) over all the glory, a canopy.” This may allude to Exod 40:34-35, where a cloud overshadows the meeting tent as it is filled with God’s glory.