Custos, quid de nocte?

[EstQuodFulmineIungo]

How would you translate the question:

"Custos, quid de nocte?" from Isaiah 21,11

The English version I've found says:
"Watchman, how much longer the night?"

An Italian (not official) version has an expression that roughly translates into English (my literal translation) as:
"Doorkeeper, at what point has the night set itself?"

I'm confused.

Is it just a way to ask "What's the time?" when it's dark outside or has it some other meaning?

 

[Pacifica]

At first sight it looks like it could be implying quid de nocte (restat), but ultimately I think one would need to look to the original Hebrew, which was translated literally here, as is often the case. Maybe it's an idiom in Hebrew. Unfortunately, I don't know that language.

Isaiah 21:11 Interlinear: The burden of Dumah. Unto me is one calling from Seir 'Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night?'

 

[EstQuodFulmineIungo]

At first sight it looks like it could be implying quid de nocte (restat)

Thank you for your answer. That would confirm the english translation.

Unluckily I don't know Hebrew too, reading from right to left makes me feel giddy.

 

[Pacifica]

Thank you for your answer. That would confirm the english translation.

I can see at least two other ways that it could be taken.

Quid de nocte (restat) would be the interpretation of the English translator. Based on the Italian one which you translated into English, though, you could have quid de nocte (est) in a sense like "What is it from (the beginning of) the night"? A third interpretation could be quid de nocte (est) in the sense of "What (time) of night is it?"

 

[Pacifica]

Or even "what about the night"... The Latin by itself could mean that, at least. I don't know about the Hebrew, but I've found some other translations online where it seems to have been interpreted that way.

 

[EstQuodFulmineIungo]

Thank you. Sometimes the Bible offers so many different possible interpretations...
So, to recap:
Quid de nocte (restat)? would mean "Watchman, how much longer the night?" which is the "official, church-approved" vulgar version.

Quid de nocte (est) ? means "What time of night is it?"

Thank you for your help.

 

[Glabrigausapes]

According to Brown-Driver-Briggs (which cites this example), Hebrew min is here used 'partitively', and so accords with your first option:
'How much of the night is left?'

Even though the two mean more or less the same thing, I reckon.

 

[Ybytyruna]

Inſpicias quoque verſionem Græcam. Illic fortaſſe reperies aliquid tibi uſui.

 

[Pacifica]

Interpretatio Graeca illa verba omnino non habet.

1 THE VISION OF THE DESERT. As though a whirlwind should pass through the deser... ISAIAH / ΗΣΑΪΑΣ21 - Bilingual Septuagint

www.ellopos.net

 

[scrabulista]

Literally, it's "what of the night?"

I'm no expert, but here's how I took it:

Back in verse 6, it says:
For thus hath the Lord said unto me, Go, set a watchman, let him declare what he seeth.

verse 8 continues:
I stand continually upon the watchtower in the daytime

So I took verse 10 as asking,
"What's out there that you don't see?"