Obadiah 1
Berean Standard Bible · Compare translations · 586 BC – 500 BC · Exile in Babylon · Tap a verse to copy, share or highlight ·
21 verses · 614 words · ~3 min read · ~4 min listen
The Destruction of Edom
1This is the vision of Obadiah:
This is what the Lord God says about Edom—
We have heard a message from the Lord;
an envoy has been sent among the nations
to say, “Rise up,
and let us go to battle against her!”—
2“Behold, I will make you small among the nations;
you will be deeply despised.
3The pride of your heart has deceived you,
O dwellers in the clefts of the rocks
whose habitation is the heights,
who say in your heart,
‘Who can bring me down to the ground?’
4Though you soar like the eagle
and make your nest among the stars,
even from there I will bring you down,”
declares the Lord.
5“If thieves came to you,
if robbers by night—
oh, how you will be ruined—
would they not steal only what they wanted?
If grape gatherers came to you,
would they not leave some gleanings?
6But how Esau will be pillaged,
his hidden treasures sought out!
7All the men allied with you
will drive you to the border;
the men at peace with you
will deceive and overpower you.
Those who eat your bread
will set a trap for you
without your awareness of it.
8In that day, declares the Lord,
will I not destroy the wise men of Edom
and the men of understanding
in the mountains of Esau?
9Then your mighty men, O Teman,
will be terrified,
so that everyone in the mountains of Esau
will be cut down in the slaughter.
10Because of the violence against your brother Jacob,
you will be covered with shame
and cut off forever.
11On the day you stood aloof
while strangers carried off his wealth
and foreigners entered his gate
and cast lots for Jerusalem,
you were just like one of them.
12But you should not gloat in that day,
your brotherʼs day of misfortune,
nor rejoice over the people of Judah
in the day of their destruction,
nor boast proudly
in the day of their distress.
13You should not enter the gate of My people
in the day of their disaster,
nor gloat over their affliction
in the day of their disaster,
nor loot their wealth
in the day of their disaster.
14Nor should you stand at the crossroads
to cut off their fugitives,
nor deliver up their survivors
in the day of their distress.
The Deliverance of Israel
15For the Day of the Lord is near
for all the nations.
As you have done, it will be done to you;
your recompense will return upon your own head.
16For as you drank on My holy mountain,
so all the nations will drink continually.
They will drink and gulp it down;
they will be as if they had never existed.
17But on Mount Zion there will be deliverance,
and it will be holy,
and the house of Jacob
will reclaim their possession.
18Then the house of Jacob will be a blazing fire,
and the house of Joseph a burning flame;
but the house of Esau will be stubble—
Jacob will set it ablaze and consume it.
Therefore no survivor will remain
from the house of Esau.”
For the Lord has spoken.
19Those from the Negev will possess the mountains of Esau;
those from the foothills will possess the land of the Philistines.
20And the exiles of this host of the Israelites
will possess the land of the Canaanites as far as Zarephath;
will possess the cities of the Negev.
21The deliverers will ascend Mount Zion
to rule over the mountains of Esau.
And the kingdom will belong to the Lord.
Footnotes (5)
- a v3 Or in the retreats of Sela
- b v7 Hebrew does not include Those who eat.
- c v12 Hebrew nor enlarge your mouth
- d v19 Hebrew Shephelah or lowlands; that is, the western foothills of Judea
- e v21 Or The deliverers will go up from; LXX Those being delivered will go up
Study notes on this chapter · 1
Prophecy & fulfillmentWidely held reading
Edom brought down
Obadiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Malachi pronounce judgment on Edom for gloating over Jerusalem's fall and for taking advantage of it. Edomite territory was overrun by the Nabataean Arabs after c. 550–400 BC, and the Edomites moved into southern Judea (Idumea). The Idumeans were forcibly absorbed by the Hasmonean John Hyrcanus c. 125 BC, and Herod the Great came from an Idumean family.
When: Obadiah, c. 586 BC (or earlier); Edom displaced by Nabataeans from the 6th–4th centuries BC.
Ways people read this (3)
- The prophecies were fulfilled as Edom lost its land and identity over several centuries.
- Some readings see in Edom a symbol for the nations opposed to God at the end of the age (Obadiah 15-21).
- The date of Obadiah depends on which invasion of Jerusalem is meant (c. 845 BC or 586 BC).
Editorial note by BibleWay. Interpretations vary; dates are approximate scholarly estimates.