Isa 21:11, Mal 2:7 | JFB | STEP | 11. Dumah —a tribe and region of Ishmael in Arabia ( ); now called Dumah the Stony, situated on the confines of Arabia and the Syrian desert; a part put for the whole of Edom. VITRINGA thinks "Dumah," Hebrew, "silence," is here used for Idumea, to imply that it was soon to be reduced to silence or destruction. Seir —the principal mountain in Idumea, south of the Dead Sea, in Arabia-Petræa. "He calleth" ought to be rather, " There is a call from Seir." to me —Isaiah. So the heathen Balak and Ahaziah received oracles from a Hebrew prophet. Watchman —the prophet ( ), so called, because, like a watchman on the lookout from a tower, he announces future events which he sees in prophetic vision ( ). what of the night —What tidings have you to give as to the state of the night? Rather, "What remains of the night?" How much of it is past? [MAURER ]. "Night" means calamity ( ), which, then, in the wars between Egypt and Assyria, pressed sore on Edom; or on Judah (if, as BARNES thinks, the question is asked in mockery of the suffering Jews in Babylon). The repetition of the question marks, in the former view, the anxiety of the Idumeans.

Isaiah 21:11

11. Dumah—a tribe and region of Ishmael in Arabia (Ge 25:14; 1Ch 1:30); now called Dumah the Stony, situated on the confines of Arabia and the Syrian desert; a part put for the whole of Edom. VITRINGA thinks "Dumah," Hebrew, "silence," is here used for Idumea, to imply that it was soon to be reduced to silence or destruction.

Seir—the principal mountain in Idumea, south of the Dead Sea, in Arabia-Petræa. "He calleth" ought to be rather, "There is a call from Seir."

to me—Isaiah. So the heathen Balak and Ahaziah received oracles from a Hebrew prophet.

Watchman—the prophet (Isa 62:6; Jer 6:17), so called, because, like a watchman on the lookout from a tower, he announces future events which he sees in prophetic vision (Hab 2:1, 2).

what of the night—What tidings have you to give as to the state of the night? Rather, "What remains of the night?" How much of it is past? [MAURER]. "Night" means calamity (Job 35:10; Mic 3:6), which, then, in the wars between Egypt and Assyria, pressed sore on Edom; or on Judah (if, as BARNES thinks, the question is asked in mockery of the suffering Jews in Babylon). The repetition of the question marks, in the former view, the anxiety of the Idumeans.

Malachi 2:7

7. In doing so (Mal 2:6) he did his duty as a priest, "for," &c.

knowledge—of the law, its doctrines, and positive and negative precepts (Le 10:10, 11; De 24:8; Jer 18:18; Hag 2:11).

the law—that is, its true sense.

messenger of . . . Lord—the interpreter of His will; compare as to the prophets, Hag 1:13. So ministers are called "ambassadors of Christ" (2Co 5:20); and the bishops of the seven churches in Revelation, "angels" or messengers (Re 2:1, 8, 12, 18; 3:1, 7, 14; compare Ga 4:14).