Kommentar zu Jeschijahu 21:11

The harsh prophecy of Dumah That is Edom, and so does Scripture say (Ezekiel 27:32): “Who is like Tyre, like Dumah in the midst of the sea?”

Dumah. Comp. Gen. 25:18.

To Me one calls from Seir Said the Holy One, blessed be He: “To Me the prophet or the angel calls from the yoke of the kingdom of Seir.”

He calleth to me. The prophet here represents Dumah as speaking, and we have to imagine a spy coming from Seir to search Dumah; he asks the watchman, Watchman, tell me, what is the time of the night, what is the time of the night? just as one of the people of Dumah would ask who had to rise early for a journey, or for work in the field, as is usual in a great many places. The repetition indicates that he asks several men. I, however, think that this question is put to see whether the watchmen sleep.

Watchman, what will be of the night? Watcher of Israel, what will be of this night and this darkness?

מליל Of the night. It should be followed by a genitive; it is without the genitive,²²See c. xv., Note 1.—Of the two examples mentioned here, the first is wrong, since the constructive form יִיִן is properly followed by the genitive of the noun חלבון whiteness, or Helbon (name of a place), not by an adjective white, or good, as I. E. seems to suppose; in the other example, if יִיִן is necessarily to be taken as the construct state, הטוב the best (of the before- mentioned vine and apples) can serve as the required genitive of a noun (the wine of the best grapes and apples); but the supposition of a second form besides יַיִן in the absolute state, recommends itself as more natural, and at at once aside all the difficulties. I. E. himself, repeatedly recommends the rule, that the form of the noun is subject to variation, and the application of this rule in the case of מִלִּיִל is supported by the parallelism; מַה מִלַּיְלָה in the first part appears to have the same meaning as מַה מִלֵּיל in the second part. like בייז חלבון in the good wine of²³A. V., The wine of Helbon; like the best wine.²³A. V., The wine of Helbon; like the best wine. (Ez. 27:18); מיין הטוב like the good wine of (Song 7:10), where the name of the place, whence the wine comes, is omitted. According to the Gaon (Saadiah), the meaning of the phrase is, O watchman, how much has passed of the night? O watchman, how much is left?²⁴The words of the Gaon referred to, are the following: يا حافظ أجْمُرْنَا كم مضي من آللَّيْل وكم بقي منْهُ I explain it thus, O watchman, what of such and such a night of the week; comp. 15:1