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Proud Edom Will Be Brought Low

¹ The vision of Obadiah.

Thus says the Lord G od concerning Edom:

We have heard a report from the L ord,

and a messenger has been sent among the nations:

“Rise up! Let us rise against it for battle!”

I will surely make you least among the nations;

you shall be utterly despised.

Your proud heart has deceived you,

you that live in the clefts of the rock,

whose dwelling is in the heights.

You say in your heart,

“Who will bring me down to the ground?”

Though you soar aloft like the eagle,

though your nest is set among the stars,

from there I will bring you down,

says the L ord.

Pillage and Slaughter Will Repay Edom’s Cruelty

If thieves came to you,

if plunderers by night

—how you have been destroyed!—

would they not steal only what they wanted?

If grape-gatherers came to you,

would they not leave gleanings?

How Esau has been pillaged,

his treasures searched out!

All your allies have deceived you,

they have driven you to the border;

your confederates have prevailed against you;

those who ate your bread have set a trap for you—

there is no understanding of it.

On that day, says the L ord,

I will destroy the wise out of Edom,

and understanding out of Mount Esau.

Your warriors shall be shattered, O Teman,

so that everyone from Mount Esau will be cut off.

Edom Mistreated His Brother

For the slaughter and violence done to your brother Jacob,

shame shall cover you,

and you shall be cut off forever.

On the day that you stood aside,

on the day that strangers carried off his wealth,

and foreigners entered his gates

and cast lots for Jerusalem,

you too were like one of them.

But you should not have gloated over your brother

on the day of his misfortune;

you should not have rejoiced over the people of Judah

on the day of their ruin;

you should not have boasted

on the day of distress.

You should not have entered the gate of my people

on the day of their calamity;

you should not have joined in the gloating over Judah’s disaster

on the day of his calamity;

you should not have looted his goods

on the day of his calamity.

You should not have stood at the crossings

to cut off his fugitives;

you should not have handed over his survivors

on the day of distress.

For the day of the L ord is near against all the nations.

As you have done, it shall be done to you;

your deeds shall return on your own head.

For as you have drunk on my holy mountain,

all the nations around you shall drink;

they shall drink and gulp down,

and shall be as though they had never been.

Israel’s Final Triumph

But on Mount Zion there shall be those that escape,

and it shall be holy;

and the house of Jacob shall take possession of those who dispossessed them.

The house of Jacob shall be a fire,

the house of Joseph a flame,

and the house of Esau stubble;

they shall burn them and consume them,

and there shall be no survivor of the house of Esau;

for the L ord has spoken.

Those of the Negeb shall possess Mount Esau,

and those of the Shephelah the land of the Philistines;

they shall possess the land of Ephraim and the land of Samaria,

and Benjamin shall possess Gilead.

The exiles of the Israelites who are in Halah

shall possess Phoenicia as far as Zarephath;

and the exiles of Jerusalem who are in Sepharad

shall possess the towns of the Negeb.

Those who have been saved shall go up to Mount Zion

to rule Mount Esau;

and the kingdom shall be the L ord’s.

New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

The Prophet here sets forth the reason why God would deal so severely and dreadfully with the Idumeans. Had he simply prophesied of their destruction, it would have been an important matter; for the Jews might have thereby known that their ruin was not chance, but the scourge of God; they might have known that they themselves were with others chastised by God, and this would have been a useful instruction to them: but what brought them the chief consolation was to hear, that they were so dear to God that he would undertake the defense of their wrongs and avenge them, that he would have a regard for their safety. Hence, when they heard that God, because he loved them, would punish the Idumeans, it was doubtless an invaluable comfort to them in their calamities. To this subject the Prophet now comes.

For the unjust oppression of thy brother Jacob, etc. The word חמס chemes, violence, is to be taken passively; as though he said, “See, how thou hast acted towards thy brother Jacob.” And he calls him his brother, not for honor’s sake, but, on the contrary, for the purpose of showing forth more fully the cruelty of the Idumeans; for consanguinity had had no effect in preventing them from raging against their own brethren, and as it were against their own bowels. It was therefore a proof of barbarous inhumanity, that the Idumeans, forgetting their common nature, had been so inflamed with hatred against their own brethren: for, as it is well known, they had descended from the same common father, Abraham, and also from Isaac, and had the symbol of circumcision. The Idumeans indeed professed that they were the descendants of Abraham, and were God’s peculiar people. Since then God had made his covenant with their common father Isaac, and since they had equally retained circumcision, which was the seal of that covenant, how did it happen, that the Idumeans conducted themselves so cruelly towards their brethren? We hence see, that the name of brother in this clause — for the oppression of thy brother Jacob, is mentioned for the purpose of enhancing their crime.

As then, he says, thou hast been so violent against thy brother, cover thee shall reproach, and forever shalt thou be cut off. He intimates that the calamity would not be only for a time as in the case of Israel, but that the Lord would execute such a punishment as would prove that the Idumeans were aliens to him; for God in chastising his Church ever observes certain limits, as he never forgets his covenant. He proves indeed that the Idumeans were not his people, however much they might falsely boast that they were the children of Abraham, and make claim to the sign of circumcision; for they were professedly enemies, and had entirely departed from all godliness: it was then no wonder that their circumcision, which they had impiously profaned, was made no account of. But he afterwards more fully and largely unfolds the same thing.