Isaiah 21:12

The watchman replies, “Morning has come, but also the night. If you would inquire, then inquire. Come back yet again.”

BSB

Parallel translations

4 additional translations

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KJV

The watchman said, The morning cometh, and also the night: if ye will enquire, enquire ye: return, come.

ASV

The watchman said, The morning cometh, and also the night: if ye will inquire, inquire ye: turn ye, come.

YLT

The watchman hath said, `Come hath morning, and also night, If ye inquire, inquire ye, turn back, come.'

DBT

The watchman said, The morning cometh, and also the night: if ye will inquire, inquire; return, come.

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Commentary voices

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Voices6

On this verse

520. Second, the refusal of their petition is set out: and the watchman, namely, God, said: the morning comes, the time of liberation for the Jews, also the night of captivity still remains for the Idumeans: but over them only was spread a heavy night …

Thomas Aquinas· Commentary on Isaiah, 1274patristic

Related commentary

(Verse 11, 12.) Oracle concerning Dumah. One calls to me from Seir: 'Watchman, what time of the night? Watchman, what time of the night?' The watchman says: 'Morning comes, and also the night. Seek if you will, inquire if you will, come.' For Dumah they set seventy idols, not over the entire Idumean province, but in a certain region that extends towards the south and is twenty miles distant from the city of Palestine, which is now called Eleutheropolis. Near it are the mountains of Seir, taking their name from Seir, the hairy and shaggy one, that is, Esau.

Jerome· Commentary on Isaiah, 420patristic

The watchman said, the morning cometh, and also the night,....

John Gill· Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763)reformed

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.

Albert Barnes· Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)evangelical

This view is favored by Ob 10-21. if ye will inquire, inquire--If ye choose to consult me again, do so (similar phrases occur in Ge 43:14; Es 4:16). return, come--"Be converted to God (and then), come" [GESENIUS]; you will then receive a more favorable answer. PROPHECY THAT ARABIA WOULD BE OVERRUN BY A FOREIGN FOE WITHIN A YEAR.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871reformed

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.

John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament, 1765evangelical

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Cross-references

12 linked verses

The verses this one reaches12

Acts 17:30–32
Although God overlooked the ignorance of earlier times, He now commands all people everywhere to repent.
Acts 2:37–38
When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and asked Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”
Ezekiel 14:1–6
Then some of the elders of Israel came and sat down before me.
Isaiah 17:14
In the evening, there is sudden terror! Before morning, they are no more! This is the portion of those who loot us and the lot of those who plunder us.
Isaiah 55:7
Let the wicked man forsake his own way and the unrighteous man his own thoughts; let him return to the LORD, that He may have compassion, and to our God, for He will freely pardon.
Ezekiel 7:5–7
This is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Disaster! An unprecedented disaster— behold, it is coming!
Ezekiel 7:12
The time has come; the day has arrived. Let the buyer not rejoice and the seller not mourn, for wrath is upon the whole multitude.
Ezekiel 7:10
Behold, the day is here! It has come! Doom has gone out, the rod has budded, arrogance has bloomed.
Jeremiah 42:19–22
The LORD has told you, O remnant of Judah, ‘Do not go to Egypt.’ Know for sure that I have warned you today!
Ezekiel 18:30–32
Therefore, O house of Israel, I will judge you, each according to his ways, declares the Lord GOD. Repent and turn from all your transgressions, so that your iniquity will not become your downfall.
Acts 17:19–20
So they took Paul and brought him to the Areopagus, where they asked him, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting?
Jeremiah 50:27
Kill all her young bulls; let them go down to the slaughter. Woe to them, for their day has come— the time of their punishment.

Cross-references

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The quotation web

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Around this verse

Word doors

Rare words are the text's own signal of a deliberate thread — the fewer the occurrences, the more the places it appears belong together.

About this book

The Prophet Isaiah — Gustave Doré, Doré's English Bible (1866), public domain

Isaiah — The gospel prophet — a Judean court-prophet across Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah (c. 740–700 BC) who sees past Assyria to Babylon and past Babylon to the Messiah. Sixty-six chapters divided into the Book of Judgment (1–39) and the Book of Comfort (40–66), climaxing in the Servant wounded for our transgressions.

Canon: Old Testament
Author: Isaiah ben Amoz — Heb. Yəša'yāhû, 'Yahweh saves' (1:1); Jewish tradition (b. Megillah 10b; b. Yevamot 49b) holds he was of royal blood and was martyred 'sawn asunder' under Manasseh — a tradition, not Scripture
Date: Ministry c. 740–700 BC — call 'in the year that king Uzziah died' (6:1) through Sennacherib's 701 BC siege of Jerusalem (36–37); spanning the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah (1:1)

Where the connections lead

Follow this verse’s cross-references two steps out. Each card is a verse this one points to, and beneath it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several different paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first — the text keeps returning to it. Every stop shows its own words, and every stop is a page.

Through
Isaiah 55:7
Let the wicked man forsake his own way and the unrighteous man his own thoughts; let him return to the LORD, that He may have compassion, and to our God, for He will freely…
leads to
- Proverbs 28:13
  He who conceals his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them will find mercy.
- James 4:8–10
  Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
- Ezekiel 18:21–23
  But if the wicked man turns from all the sins he has committed, keeps all My statutes, and does what is just and right, he will surely live; he will not die.
- Isaiah 44:22
  I have blotted out your transgressions like a cloud, and your sins like a mist. Return to Me, for I have redeemed you.
- Luke 15:10
  In the same way, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of God’s angels over one sinner who repents.”
Through
Isaiah 17:14
In the evening, there is sudden terror! Before morning, they are no more! This is the portion of those who loot us and the lot of those who plunder us.
leads to
- 2 Kings 19:35
  And that very night the angel of the LORD went out and struck down 185,000 men in the camp of the Assyrians. When the people got up the next morning, there were all the…
- Proverbs 22:23
  for the LORD will take up their case and will plunder those who rob them.
- Ezekiel 39:10
  They will not gather wood from the countryside or cut it from the forests, for they will use the weapons for fuel. They will loot those who looted them and plunder those who plundered…

The whole web at once: see the Arc.

Where the connections lead

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