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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 proceeds with the same subject, — that God would not only gather the remnants of his people from the Babylonian exile, but would restore the exiles, that they might rule far and wide, and that their condition might be better than it was before: for the Prophet, as I think, directs the attention to the first blessing of God, which had been deposited in the hand of Abraham. God had promised to the posterity of Abraham the whole land from Euphrates to the sea. Now this land had never been possessed by the children of Abraham. This happened, as it is well known, through their sloth and ingratitude. David in his time enlarged the borders; but yet he only made those tributaries whom God had commanded to be destroyed. So this blessing had never been fulfilled, because the people put a hindrance in the way. The Prophet now, speaking of the restoration of the Church, tells the people, who would return from exile, that they were to occupy the country which had been promised to their fathers as though he said, “There will come to you a full and complete inheritance.”

Now it is certain that this prophecy has never been completed: we know that but a small portion of the land was possessed by the Jews. What then are we to understand by this prophecy? It does unquestionably appear that the Prophet speaks here of the kingdom of Christ; and we know that the Church was then really restored, and that the Jews not only recovered their former state from which they had fallen, but that their kingdom was increased: for how great became the splendor of the kingdom and of the temple under Christ? This then is what the Prophet now means, when he promises to the Jews the heritage which they had lost; yea, God then enlarged the borders of Judea. Hence he shows that they should not only be restored to their former condition, but that the kingdom would be increased in splendor and wealth, when Christ should come. Let us now run over the words.

Possess then shall they the south of the mount of Esau. The space was no doubt great: even when David reigned, the Jews did not possess that part or south portion of mount Seir. Then the Prophet, as I have said, shows that the borders of the kingdom would be more extensive than they had been. And the plain, he says, of the Philistines On that side also the Lord would cause that the Jews would extend farther than their kingdom. And possess they shall the fields of Ephraim Here I will not spend much labor in describing the land: but it is enough for us to understand that the design of the Prophet was to show, that the state of the people after their exile would be far more splendid than it had been before, even under the reign of David. What he means by Gilead is not very clear: but it is not probable that mount Gilead is referred to here, which was not far distant from the tribe of Benjamin, but rather that a town or some place distant from that part, and not included in their portion, is pointed out.