Isaiah 21:11-12 The burden of Dumah. He calls to me out of Seir, Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night?… The word Dumah means "silence," "the land of silent desolation." It is a very suggestive thought. Sin is the great silencer. The end of sin is silence. Assuredly that was true in the case of Edom. It was true of it at the time when the prophet spoke, it was to be true of it still more completely in the ages to follow. Travellers tell us that if we want to know how Providence can turn a fruitful land into barrenness, and make a defenced city a heap, for the iniquity of the inhabitants thereof, we have only to look at Edom, with its hills and plains picked clean of every vestige of vegetation, and its ruined palaces, once the home of busy men, now the haunt of vultures and the lair of scorpions, all human sound gone — the voice of mirth, the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, the voice of the bride! But why go to Edom for an illustration? Look nearer home. Go to any city churchyard. Pass through the iron gates that divide those strangely contrasted crowds, the throng of the living and the congregation of the dead. How still! Everything may be orderly, everything trim — winding walks, flowery borders, spreading shrubs, grassy mounds, careen monuments white and clean, but all so still, no sound nor motion anywhere, save the wind that shudders through the yew trees, and the measured chime of the steeple clock as it tolls its hourly reminder that we too shall be still, still as the throngs beneath. What makes that stillness? Sin. Sin is the great silencer, and death is the climax of the silence that it makes. (W. A. Gray.) Parallel Verses KJV: The burden of Dumah. He calleth to me out of Seir, Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night? |
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