Watchman, What of the Night?
1 The burden of the wilderness of the sea. As whirlwinds in the South sweep through, it comes from the wilderness, from an awesome land. 2 A grievous vision is declared to me. The treacherous man deals treacherously, and the destroyer destroys. Go up, Elam; attack! I have stopped all of Media’s sighing. 3 Therefore my thighs are filled with anguish. Pains have seized me, like the pains of a woman in labor. I am in so much pain that I can’t hear. I am so dismayed that I can’t see. 4 My heart flutters. Horror has frightened me. The twilight that I desired has been turned into trembling for me. 5 They prepare the table. They set the watch. They eat. They drink. Rise up, you princes, oil the shield! 6 For the Lord said to me, “Go, set a watchman. Let him declare what he sees. 7 When he sees a troop, horsemen in pairs, a troop of donkeys, a troop of camels, he shall listen diligently with great attentiveness.” 8 He cried like a lion: “Lord, I stand continually on the watchtower in the daytime, and every night I stay at my post. 9 Behold, here comes a troop of men, horsemen in pairs.” He answered, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon; and all the engraved images of her gods are broken to the ground. 10 You are my threshing, and the grain of my floor!” That which I have heard from Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, I have declared to you. 11 The burden of Dumah. One calls to me out of Seir, “Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night?” 12 The watchman said, “The morning comes, and also the night. If you will inquire, inquire. Come back again.” 13 The burden on Arabia. You will lodge in the thickets in Arabia, you caravans of Dedanites. 14 They brought water to him who was thirsty. The inhabitants of the land of Tema met the fugitives with their bread. 15 For they fled away from the swords, from the drawn sword, from the bent bow, and from the heat of battle. 16 For the Lord said to me, “Within a year, as a worker bound by contract would count it, all the glory of Kedar will fail, 17 and the residue of the number of the archers, the mighty men of the children of Kedar, will be few; for Yahweh, the God of Israel, has spoken it.”
A lookout is posted, a city falls while its officers are at dinner, and a voice from Edom asks how much of the night is left.
The burden of the wilderness of the sea. As whirlwinds in the South sweep through, it comes from the wilderness, from an awesome land.
The title is a contradiction and the subject turns out to be Babylon, which lay on a plain among marshes. Three short oracles fill this chapter, and the first is the most vivid piece of reporting in the section.
Therefore my thighs are filled with anguish. Pains have seized me, like the pains of a woman in labor. I am in so much pain that I can’t hear. I am so dismayed that I can’t see.
The prophet's reaction to his own vision, and it is physical collapse. He cannot hear or see, which is an awkward condition for a man whose work is receiving messages.
My heart flutters. Horror has frightened me. The twilight that I desired has been turned into trembling for me.
The evening he had been looking forward to is the one this arrived in.
They prepare the table. They set the watch. They eat. They drink. Rise up, you princes, oil the shield!
Five clipped clauses, and the scene changes between the fourth and the fifth. A banquet is in progress; the alarm goes; officers are called from the table to grease their shields. It is the same picture Daniel gives of Babylon's last night Daniel 5:1–5.
For the Lord said to me, “Go, set a watchman. Let him declare what he sees.
He cried like a lion: “Lord, I stand continually on the watchtower in the daytime, and every night I stay at my post.
The lookout's report on his own diligence, given before he has anything to report. Most of a watchman's work is uneventful.
Behold, here comes a troop of men, horsemen in pairs.” He answered, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon; and all the engraved images of her gods are broken to the ground.
The riders bring the news and the words are repeated in the last book of Scripture of another city Revelation 18:2. What is specified as broken is the gods.
You are my threshing, and the grain of my floor!” That which I have heard from Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, I have declared to you.
The prophet turns to his own people. They are the grain that has been beaten, and this is what he has been given to tell them.
The burden of Dumah. One calls to me out of Seir, “Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night?”
The second oracle is four lines long and it is the finest miniature in the book. A voice from Edom, in the dark, asks the standard question put to a sentry — how much of the night is gone — and asks it twice.
The watchman said, “The morning comes, and also the night. If you will inquire, inquire. Come back again.”
The answer is not an answer. Morning is coming and so is another night; ask if you want to; come back. It is what a man says who can see the horizon and cannot see beyond it, and the invitation to return is the only comfort in it.
They brought water to him who was thirsty. The inhabitants of the land of Tema met the fugitives with their bread.
The third oracle concerns ARABIA, and its one bright detail is desert people carrying water out to refugees.
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