Yesaya 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 

Yesaya 29:2

29:2 I will threaten Ariel,

and she will mourn intensely

and become like an altar hearth ⁴  before me.

Yesaya 49:12

49:12 Look, they come from far away!

Look, some come from the north and west,

and others from the land of Sinim! ⁵ 

Yesaya 57:14

57:14 He says, ⁶ 

“Build it! Build it! Clear a way!

Remove all the obstacles out of the way of my people!”

[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.

[29:2]  ⁴ tn The term אֲרִיאֵל (’ari’el, “Ariel”) is the word translated “altar hearth” here. The point of the simile is not entirely clear. Perhaps the image likens Jerusalem’s coming crisis to a sacrificial fire.

[49:12]  ⁵ tc The MT reads “Sinim” here; the Dead Sea Scrolls read “Syene,” a location in Egypt associated with modern Aswan. A number of recent translations adopt this reading: “Syene” (NAB, NRSV); “Aswan” (NIV); “Egypt” (NLT).

[49:12]  sn The precise location of the land of Sinim is uncertain, but since the north and west are mentioned in the previous line, it was a probably located in the distant east or south.

[57:14]  ⁶ tn Since God is speaking throughout this context, perhaps we should emend the text to “and I say.” However, divine speech is introduced in v. 15.