Isaiah Chapter 21 verse 12 Holy Bible
The watchman said, The morning cometh, and also the night: if ye will inquire, inquire ye: turn ye, come.
read chapter 21 in ASV
The watchman says, The morning has come, but night is still to come: if you have questions to put, put them, and come back again.
read chapter 21 in BBE
The watchman said, The morning cometh, and also the night: if ye will inquire, inquire; return, come.
read chapter 21 in DARBY
The watchman said, The morning cometh, and also the night: if ye will enquire, enquire ye: return, come.
read chapter 21 in KJV
read chapter 21 in WBT
The watchman said, "The morning comes, and also the night. If you will inquire, inquire. Come back again."
read chapter 21 in WEB
The watchman hath said, `Come hath morning, and also night, If ye inquire, inquire ye, turn back, come.'
read chapter 21 in YLT
Pulpit Commentary
Pulpit CommentaryVerse 12. - 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 (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."
Ellicott's Commentary
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(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 Jeremiah 3:22, but hardly on sufficient grounds. We should, in that case, have expected "return to Jehovah."
