A free printable Bible study for your group.

Want everyone to read Isaiah 21 during the week, answer privately, and see every answer appear together when you meet? That's Favor. Start your free week or see the Isaiah 21 Bible study.

Bible study · Isaiah 21:1-17

Isaiah 21: Watchman, what of the night?

Read Isaiah 21:1-17 before you meet.

In a few lines

Isaiah 21 is the only chapter of Isaiah with more than one burden heading, and it has three. Its first heading names no city: Babylon is named only in 21:9, "Fallen, fallen is Babylon" (21:9). And the pains that seize the one who speaks (21:3) are, in Hebrew, the words of Isaiah 13:8, where "the LORD’s day is at hand" (Isaiah 13:6).

The verse to carry

“The burden of Dumah. One calls to me out of Seir, “Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night?” The watchman said, “The morning comes, and also the night. If you will inquire, inquire. Come back again.””

Isaiah 21:11-12

To talk about

  1. 1. The watchman was set to "declare what he sees" (21:6), and the one on the watchtower stayed at his post "in the daytime, and every night" (21:8). What helps you keep at what you've been given to do when nothing seems to be happening?

  2. 2. One called out of Seir, "Watchman, what of the night?" (21:11), and "The watchman said" (21:12), "If you will inquire, inquire. Come back again" (21:12). When someone brings you a hard question, what helps you answer them?

  3. 3. "They brought water to him who was thirsty" (21:14), and met the fugitives with bread. Who near you is running from something hard, and what could you bring them this week?

Prayer requests