Compared to the second oracle in the first series of five, this one reveals greater ignorance about what is coming.
21:11 An Edomite kept asking Isaiah, the watchman who saw by prophetic revelation how things would go (cf. vv. 6-9), how long the night of oppression on his nation would last. "Edom"is "Dumah"in the Hebrew text, a word play.199Dumah means "silence,"which is appropriate here since this oracle is silent concerning Edom's 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."200
21:12 The watchman responded that there was hope, but there were also more bad things coming. The Edomites could request further information about the future again later.
Edom would experience a kind of darkness that would last a long time before her night would pass even though better times would come. Therefore it was foolish for Judah to trust in her.
