Isaiah 21:12

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

The watchman said, The morning cometh, and also the night. Reply of the prophet, Then morning (prosperity) cometh, and (soon after follows) the night (adversity). Though you Idumeans may have a gleam of prosperity, it will soon be followed by adversity again (cf. Malachi 1:4). Inasmuch as ye exult in the fall of Jerusalem, and have seized on the southern part of the Jews land in their absence during the captivity. This view is favoured by Obadiah 1:10.

If ye will inquire, inquire ye - if you choose to consult me again, then you must do so; but ye will always be sent away with the same answer. Similar phrases occur, Genesis 43:14; 2 Kings 7:4; Esther 4:16. The Hebrew [ baa`aah (H1158)] for "inquire" expresses fervent inquiry; the heart boiling, with eagerness (cf. Isaiah 64:2).

Return, come - `come again,' and you will get no better response, however often and eagerly you come. This seems to me preferable to the view of conversion being understood as the only way of obtaining prosperity. 'Be converted to God (and then), come' (Gesenius). You will then receive a more favourable answer. But there is no hint of Edom's conversion in any word of the whole "burden of Dumah;" nor is there in the case of the other two nations in the chapter-Babylon and Arabia.

Probably in the wars between Assyria and Egypt. Idumea and Arabia lay somewhat on the intermediate line of march.