The watchman said, “The morning comes, and also the night. If you will inquire, inquire. Come back again.”
Parallel Translations
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The watchman said, “The morning comes, and also the night. If you will inquire, inquire. Come back again.”
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The watchman said, The morning cometh, and also the night: if ye will enquire, enquire ye: return, come.
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The watchman said: 'The morning cometh, and also the night — if ye will inquire, inquire ye; return, come.'
Cross-references (12)
Passages linked to Isaiah 21:12 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Acts 17:30-32 The times of ignorance therefore God overlooked. But now he commands that all people everywhere should repent, because he has appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom he has ordained; of which he has given assurance to all men, in that he has raised him from the dead.” Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked; but others said, “We want to hear you again concerning this.”
- Acts 2:37-38 Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” Peter said to them, “Repent, and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
- Isaiah 17:14 At evening, behold, terror! Before the morning, they are no more. This is the portion of those who plunder us, and the lot of those who rob us.
- Isaiah 55:7 Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Let him return to Yahweh, and he will have mercy on him, to our God, for he will freely pardon.
- Jeremiah 42:19-22 “Yahweh has spoken concerning you, remnant of Judah, ‘Don’t go into Egypt!’ Know certainly that I have testified to you today. For you have dealt deceitfully against your own souls; for you sent me to Yahweh your God, saying, ‘Pray for us to Yahweh our God; and according to all that Yahweh our God says, so declare to us, and we will do it.’ I have declared it to you today; but you have not obeyed Yahweh your God’s voice in anything for which he has sent me to you. Now therefore know certainly that you will die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence in the place where you desire to go to live there.”
- Ezekiel 7:5-7 “The Lord Yahweh says: ‘An evil! A unique evil! Behold, it comes. An end has come. The end has come! It awakes against you. Behold, it comes. Your doom has come to you, inhabitant of the land! The time has come! The day is near, a day of tumult, and not of joyful shouting, on the mountains.
- Ezekiel 7:10 “ ‘Behold, the day! Behold, it comes! Your doom has gone out. The rod has blossomed. Pride has budded.
- Ezekiel 7:12 The time has come! The day draws near. Don’t let the buyer rejoice, nor the seller mourn; for wrath is on all its multitude.
- Ezekiel 14:1-6 Then some of the elders of Israel came to me, and sat before me. Yahweh’s word came to me, saying, “Son of man, these men have taken their idols into their heart, and put the stumbling block of their iniquity before their face. Should I be inquired of at all by them? Therefore speak to them, and tell them, ‘The Lord Yahweh says: “Every man of the house of Israel who takes his idols into his heart, and puts the stumbling block of his iniquity before his face, and comes to the prophet; I Yahweh will answer him therein according to the multitude of his idols; that I may take the house of Israel in their own heart, because they are all estranged from me through their idols.” ’ “Therefore tell the house of Israel, ‘The Lord Yahweh says: “Return, and turn yourselves from your idols! Turn away your faces from all your abominations.
- Ezekiel 18:30-32 “Therefore I will judge you, house of Israel, everyone according to his ways,” says the Lord Yahweh. “Return, and turn yourselves from all your transgressions; so iniquity will not be your ruin. Cast away from you all your transgressions, in which you have transgressed; and make yourself a new heart and a new spirit: for why will you die, house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of him who dies,” says the Lord Yahweh. “Therefore turn yourselves, and live!
- Acts 17:19-20 They took hold of him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new teaching is, which you are speaking about? For you bring certain strange things to our ears. We want to know therefore what these things mean.”
- Jeremiah 50:27 Kill all her bulls. Let them go down to the slaughter. Woe to them! For their day has come, the time of their visitation.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (12 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain He describeth the unquietness of the people of Dumah,…
He describeth the unquietness of the people of Dumah, who were night and day in fear of their enemies, and ever ran to and fro to inquire news.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Isa 21:12 The watchman said, The morning cometh, and…
Isa 21:12 The watchman said, The morning cometh, and also the night: if ye will enquire, enquire ye: return, come.
Ver. 12. The watchman said, The morning cometh, and also the night.] This is a short and sharp answer - q.d., say it be yet morning with you and clear day; yet, as sure as the night followeth the day, a change will come such as whereof you shall have small comfort. {a}
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If ye will inquire,] sc., Of the Lord by me, whom you call watchman, in disdain; but I profess myself to be so - that is, to be a prophet, and do take it for an honour.
Inquire ye.] Do it seriously, and not sarcastically. "Be not ye mockers, lest your bonds be increased." {Isa 28:22}
Return.] To God by true repentance.
Come.] Come over to us who are his people. And all this is delivered by an elegant Asyndeton {b} in short and quick terms, importing that haste must be made if the aforementioned danger shall be prevented. Habent aulae suum cito, cito; they must be nimble that shall find favour in the court of heaven. It is an unsafe thing always to begin to live. How many are taken away in their offers and essays before they have prepared their hearts to cleave to God! Castigemus ergo mores et moras. Up, therefore, and be doing, that the Lord may be with you.
{a} Non omnium dierum sol occidit. Nescis quid serus vesper vebat.
b} A rhetorical figure which omits the conjunction.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain The morning cometh, and also the night: the night…
The morning cometh, and also the night: the night is past without any great mischief to you, and the comfortable light of the morning is approaching, which freeth men’s minds from the terrors of the night; but although the morning be coming, it will be gone, and the night will return, and your fears with it. The night seems to be here taken properly, as the morning is; yet so that he alludes to the metaphorical signification of the word, and intimates that the night of affliction was coming upon them.
If ye will inquire, inquire ye: return, come. If this watchman be the prophet Isaiah, then the sense of these words is this, If you will be inquiring, inquire sincerely and seriously of God, by me, concerning your danger, and the way to prevent it; return unto the Lord by true repentance, who alone can secure you, and come unto me for direction. But if it be their own watchman, which, with submission, I conceive most probable, the sense is, If you will inquire, inquire: I perceive, by what I have observed this night, that your danger is not passed, and there will be occasion for further inquiries from time to time; and therefore return, come, i.e. either return to them that sent you with this message, and then come to me for further tidings; or come again, as return, lie down, is put for lie down again, 1Sa 3:5; come to me the next morning, as you have reason to do, and so from morning to morning, for I see every night is likely to bring some evil tidings to you.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain The watchman said, the morning cometh, and also the…
The watchman said, the morning cometh, and also the night,.... Not only a morning, but a night; and as sure as the morning comes, so shall the night; there wilt be a constant succession of morning and night; as a morning of prosperity, so a night of adversity: the morning of the Gospel dispensation was coming on, or of Christ's coming in the flesh, which was attended with joy and cheerfulness; like the morning, it dispersed the shadows of the law, introduced light, which gradually and irresistibly spread itself over the Gentile world; but then followed a night of darkness to the Jews, blindness happened to them, which still continues; and to the Arabians, Saracens, and Turks, when the bottomless pit was opened by Mahomet, which let out smoke and locusts in the eastern part of the world; and to the western part, when the Romish antichrist established himself as universal bishop: a morning came on again at the Reformation, and a night will follow, which is now begun; it is already a time of darkness, coldness, sleepiness, and of error and heresy, which will issue in an eventide, in a dark night: if it be asked what time it is with us, or how far we are gone toward the night? the answer is, we are in and toward the close of the Sardian church state; we are in the twilight, or in that part of time which is neither day nor night, Zac 14:6 the slaying of the witnesses is yet to come, which, with the general spread of Popery all over Christendom, will make it entire night; after which will come on the morning of the spiritual reign of Christ, when the light of the Gospel will be spread everywhere, and joy and gladness will attend the saints in all places; and it will be a time of great prosperity, both spiritual and temporal; which will be succeeded by another night of coldness, deadness, and carnal security, and will last till the second and personal coming of Christ; which will bring on the morning of a glorious resurrection to the saints, after which there will be no more night to them, though there will be an eternal one to the wicked. The Targum is,
"the prophet said, there is a reward for the righteous, and punishment for the wicked;''
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and so the Jews elsewhere (d) interpret it of the morning of redemption to the righteous, and of the night of darkness to the wicked; or, as they sometimes express it (e), the morning is for the righteous, and the night for the wicked; the morning for Israel, and the night for the nations of the world. Dumah they sometimes (f) make to be the angel appointed over spirits, who they suppose gather together, and say to him, "watchman", &c.
if ye will inquire, inquire ye; seriously and in good earnest, diligently and constantly, with all humility and reverence, by prayer to God and by searching the Scriptures, and by application to the watchmen, the ministers of the word, who make it their business to study it, and have the mind of Christ:
return, come; return by repentance, and come to God, who receives backsliders, heals their backslidings, and loves them freely; or, "come again", to the watchman, and to the Lord, and renew your inquiries till you get satisfaction.
(d) Gloss. in T. Bab. Sanhedrin, fol. 94. 1. & in Bava Kama fol, 3. 2. (e) T. Hieros. Taaniot, fol. 64. 1. & Kimchi in loc. (f) T. Bab. Sanhedrin, fol. 94. 1.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain The night - The night is past without any…
The night - The night is past without any mischief, and the light of the morning is approaching; but tho' the morning is coming, it will be gone, and the night will return, and your fears with it. Come - If you will inquire, inquire: I perceive your danger is not past, and there will be occasion for farther enquiries. Therefore return, come - Come to me the next morning, and so from morning to morning.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain The watchman said - Or rather “saith;” indicating that…
The watchman said - Or rather “saith;” indicating that this is the answer which the prophet returned to the inquiry from Idumea.
The morning cometh - There are signs of approaching day. The ‘morning’ here is an emblem of prosperity; as the light of the morning succeeds to the darkness of the night. This refers to the deliverance from the captivity of Babylon, and is to be supposed as having been spoken near the time when that captivity was at an end - or nearly at break of day after the long night of their bondage. This declaration is to be understood as referring to a different people from those referred to in the expression which immediately follows - ‘and also the night.’ ‘The morning cometh’ - to the captive Jews; ‘and also the night’ - to some other people - to wit, the Idumeans. It “might” mean that the morning was to be succeeded by a time of darkness to the same people; but the connection seems to demand that we understand it of others.
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And also the night - A time of calamity and affliction. This is emphatic. It refers to the Idumeans. ‘The morning cometh to the captive Jews; it shall be closely succeeded by a night - a time of calamity - to the taunting Idumeans.’ During the captivity of the Jews in Babylon, the Idumeans invaded and took possession of the southern part of Judea. The prophet here refers to the fact, perhaps, that on the return of the Jews to their native land, they would revenge this by expelling them, and by inflicting punishment on the land of Edom. For a full proof that calamities came upon the land of Idumea, see Keith “On the Prophecies.” Art. “Idumea,” and the notes at Isa. 34)
If ye will inquire, inquire ye - If you choose to ask anything further in regard to this, you can. The sense is probably this: ‘You Idumeans have asked respecting the night in derision and reproach. An answer has been given somewhat agreeably to that inquiry. But if you seriously wish to know anything further respecting the destiny of your land, you can ask me (Isaiah) or any other prophet, and it will be known. But ask it in seriousness and earnestness, and with a suitable regard for the prophetic character and for God. And especially if you wish a more favorable answer to your inquiries, it is to be obtained only by forsaking sin and turning to God, and then you may come with the hope of a brighter prospect for the future.’ The design of this is, therefore:
(1) to “reprove” them for the manner in which they had asked the question;
(2) to assure them that God was willing to direct humble and serious inquirers; and
(3) to show in what way a favorable answer could be obtained - to wit, by repentance. And this is as true of sinners now as it was then. “They” often evince the reproachful and taunting spirit which the Idumeans did. “They” hear only a similar response - that prosperity and happiness await the Christian, though now in darkness and affliction; and that calamity and destruction are before the guilty. They “might” have the same answer - an answer that God would bless them and save them, if they would inquire in a humble, serious, and docile manner.
Return - Turn from your sins; come back to God, and show respect for him and his declarations.
Come - “Then” come and you shall be accepted, and the watch man will also announce “morning” as about to dawn on you. This seems to be the sense of this very dark and difficult prophecy. It is brief, enigmatical, and obscure. Yet it is beautiful; and if the sense above given be correct, it contains most weighty and important truth - alike for the afflicted and persecuted friends, and the persecuting and taunting foes of God. With reference to the interpretation here proposed, which supposes, as will have been seen:
(1) a state of excited feeling on the part of the Jews toward the Idumeans, for the part which they took in the destruction of their city;
(2) the prospect of speedy deliverance to the Jews in Babylon; and
(3) a consequent desolation and vengeance on the Idumeans for the feelings which they had manifested in the destruction of Jerusalem, see the prophecy of Obadiah, Oba 1:8-21 :
Shall I not in that day, saith the Lord,
Even destroy the wise men out of Edom,
And understanding out of the mount of Esau?
And thy mighty men, O Teman, shall be dismayed,
To the end that every one of the mount of Esau
May be cut off by slaughter.
For thy violence against thy brother Jacob shame shall cover thee,
And thou shalt be cut off for ever.
In the day that thou stoodest on the other side;
In the day that the stranger carried away captive his forces;
And foreigners entered into his gates, and cast lots upon Jerusalem;
Even thou wast as one of them.
But thou shouldest not have looked on the day of thy brother
In the day that he became a stranger;
Neither shouldest thou have rejoiced over the children of Judah
In the day of their destruction;
Neither shouldest thou have spoken proudly in the day of distress.
For the day of the Lord is near upon all the heathen;
As thou hast done, it shall be done unto thee;
Thy reward shall return upon thine own head, etc.
In this prophecy these circumstances are all to be found;
(1) the hostility of the Edomites against Jerusalem, and the part which they took in the destruction of the city, in Isa 21:10-14;
(2) the fact of the deliverance of the Jews from captivity, in Isa 22:17;
(3) the consequent vengeance upon the Idumeans Isa 34:5-6.
This remarkable coincidence in an independent prophecy is a strong circumstance to prove that the interpretation above proposed is correct. In regard to the general reasons for the interpretation here proposed, and the lessons which the prophecy is suited to convey, I may be permitted to refer to my “Practical Sermons,” pp. 325-341.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Night. Instead of joy, I must announce dreadful things.…
Night. Instead of joy, I must announce dreadful things. (Haydock)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain Reply of the prophet, The morning (prosperity) cometh, and…
Reply of the prophet, The morning (prosperity) cometh, and (soon after follows) the night (adversity). Though you, Idumeans, may have a gleam of prosperity, it will soon be followed by adversity again. Otherwise, as BARNES, "Prosperity cometh (to the Jews) to be quickly followed by adversity (to you, Idumeans, who exult in the fall of Jerusalem, have seized on the southern part of their land in their absence during the captivity, and now deride them by your question)" (Isa 34:5-7). This view is favored by Oba 1:10-21.
if ye will inquire, inquire--If ye choose to consult me again, do so (similar phrases occur in Gen 43:14; Kg2 7:4; Est 4:16).
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return, come--"Be converted to God (and then), come" [GESENIUS]; you will then receive a more favorable answer.
Probably in the wars between Assyria and Egypt; Idumea and Arabia lay somewhat on the intermediate line of march.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 12. The morning cometh, and also the night] The…
12. The morning cometh, and also the night] The watchman’s answer is designedly obscure. It may mean either that the seer has obtained no clear vision of the destiny in store for Edom; or that he foresees a transient gleam of prosperity to be followed by a new night of distress; or that hope is dawning for some and gloom settling down on others.
if ye will inquire …] The answer is not final; another time the purpose of Jehovah may be more clearly indicated, if Edom earnestly desires to know it. For return, come render with R.V. marg. come again. It is impossible to suppose that “return” is used in the sense of “be converted to the worship of Jehovah.” The words for “cometh,” “inquire” (twice) and “come” are Aramaic.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (12) If ye will enquire . . .—The words…
(12) If ye will enquire . . .—The words pre-suppose a craving to know the meaning of the mysterious oracle just given. The prophet declines to answer. If they like to ask, they may, and return and go back after a bootless journey. Some interpreters, however. have seen in the “return” a call to repentance like that conveyed by the same word in Jer_3:22, but hardly on sufficient grounds. We should, in that case, have expected “return to Jehovah.”
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain The morning cometh, and also the night. An oracular…
The morning cometh, and also the night. An oracular reply, but probably meaning
(1) that a brighter time would soon dawn upon the Edomite people; and
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(2) that this brighter time would be followed by a return of misery and affliction. We may (conjecturally) understand the "morning" of the earlier part of Sennacherib"s reign, when Edom was at peace with Assyria, merely paying a moderate tribute (G. Smith, "Eponym Canon," p. 132), and the "night" of the later period in the same king"s reign, when (about B.C. 694-690) the country suffered from another Assyrian invasion, in which the king"s treasures and his gods were carried off to Nineveh (ibid., p. 137). If ye will inquire, inquire ye; return, come. Some take this very literally, as meaning, If ye would inquire further into the meaning of this answer, do so; return to me; come again." But this implies that the Edomites had sent an actual messenger to make the inquiry of ver. 5, which is improbable. Others understand a reproach to Edom: "If ye will have recourse to God in the time of trouble, do so; but then do more return to him altogether; come, and be one with Judah."
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 21:12 Morning is coming, but it would mark the…
21:12 Morning is coming, but it would mark the beginning of another oppressive era. Because the Babylonians were on the horizon, night will soon return.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.