20. Why is the pronouncement recorded at Isaiah 21:11, 12 significant to Jehovah’s people today?

²⁰ This short pronouncement has meant a great deal to Jehovah’s people in modern times.e We understand that mankind is deep into the dark night of spiritual blindness and alienation from God that will lead to the destruction of this system of things. (Romans 13:12; 2 Corinthians 4:4) During this nighttime, any glimmerings of hope that mankind can somehow bring about peace and security are like those illusory gleamings of dawn that are followed only by still darker times. A genuine dawn is approaching​—the dawn of Christ’s Millennial Reign over this earth. But as long as the night lasts, we must follow the lead of the watchman class by staying spiritually alert and courageously announcing the nearness of the end of this corrupt system of things.​—1 Thessalonians 5:6.

18. How is the pronouncement, “The morning has to come, and also the night,” fulfilled upon ancient Edom?

¹⁸ At the time of the writing of Isaiah, Edom lies in the path of the powerful Assyrian army. Some in Edom yearn to know when the night of oppression will end for them. The answer? “The watchman said: ‘The morning has to come, and also the night.’” (Isaiah 21:12a) Things do not bode well for Edom. A glimmer of morning will show on the horizon, but it will be brief, illusory. Night​—another dark time of oppression—​will follow quickly on the heels of morning. What an apt picture of Edom’s future! The Assyrian oppression will end, but Babylon will succeed Assyria as a world power and will decimate Edom. (Jeremiah 25:17, 21; 27:2-8) This cycle will be repeated. Babylonian oppression will be followed by Persian and then Greek oppression. There will then be a brief “morning” during Roman times, when the Herods​—Edomite in origin—​gain power in Jerusalem. But that “morning” will not last. Finally, Edom will descend permanently into silence, vanishing from history. The name Dumah will fittingly describe her at last.