Obadiah 1 · The Lantern

The vision of Obadiah. Thus says the Lord God to Edom: We have heard a report from the Lord, and he has sent an envoy to the nations: “Arise, and let us together rise up in battle against him.”

Behold, I have made you little among the nations. You are greatly contemptible.

The arrogance of your heart has lifted you up, living in the clefts of the rocks, exalting your throne. You say in your heart, “Who will pull me down to the ground?”

Though you have been lifted high like an eagle, and though you have placed your nest among the stars, from there I will pull you down, says the Lord.

If thieves had approached you, if robbers by night, how would you have remained unnoticed? Would they not have stolen all that they wanted? If the grape-pickers had approached you, would they not have left you at least a cluster?

In what way have they been examining Esau? They investigated his secrets.

They have sent you out all the way to the limit. All the men of your alliance have deceived you. Your men of peace have prevailed against you. Those who eat with you will place snares under you. There is no foresight in him.

Shall I not, in that day, says the Lord, wipe away understanding from Idumea and foresight from the mount of Esau?

And your strong from the Meridian will be afraid, so that man may perish from the mount of Esau.

Because of the execution, and because of the iniquity against your brother Jacob, confusion will cover you, and you will pass away into eternity.

In the day when you stood against him, when strangers seized his army, and foreigners entered into his gates, and they cast lots over Jerusalem: you also were just like one of them.

But you shall not show disdain for the day of your brother in the day of his sojourn. And you shall not rejoice over the sons of Judah in the day of their perdition. And you shall not magnify your mouth in the day of anguish.

And neither shall you enter into the gate of my people in the day of their ruin. And neither shall you also show disdain for his troubles in the day of his desolation. And you shall not send out against his army in the day of his desolation.

Neither shall you stand at the exits to execute those who will flee. And you shall not enclose their remnant in the day of tribulation.

For the day of the Lord is near, over all nations. Just as you have done, so will it be done to you. He will turn back your retribution on your own head.

The day of the Lord is near, O heretic, over all nations: the time of judgment is near when all nations will be judged. Just as you have done against the church, your pain will turn against you, and your wickedness will descend upon your head.

Again the time of war is predicted [as in Joel] when the neighboring nations will join together against Edom to inflict bitter punishment. That day is truly called the Day of the Lord. For God the Lord was the one who handed them over to the Israelites in their wickedness and injustice.

This is Obadiah (Abdiou) the fourth in order, who also was privileged to prophesy concerning the mystery regarding Christ, and who speaks thus: Because the day of the Lord is near upon all the nations. This taken in its obvious meaning is spoken of the Scythians, that is, of Gog and Magog, but it is most properly applicable to the Lord Christ.

For in the manner that you drank on my holy mountain, so shall all nations drink continually. And they will drink, and they will absorb, and they will be as if they were not.

You have drunk on my holy mountain from the cup of wrath, which David and Ahab mixed for you. All the nations around you shall drink constantly because of the Assyrians and the Chaldeans, in the days of Hezekiah and his sons.

These words "as you have drunk" indicate, I think, that the victors insolently gloried in victory. They had a festive celebration where they got drunk with their friends, boasting in praise of their part in the victory while they got drunk.

The drink of wine is called revenge, about which also blessed Jeremiah openly teaches when he says the nations will be commanded to drink even as they participated in the iniquities against my people. This is also understood from many other places that Edom will be given what it gave out.

And on mount Zion there will be salvation, and it will be holy. And the house of Jacob will possess those who had possessed them.

In mount Zion, there will be salvation, and it will be holy and possess the house of Jacob, those who possess it. And the house of Jacob will be a fire, and the house of Joseph a flame, and the house of Esau straw. They will set them on fire and consume them, and there will be no survivors in the house of Esau, for the Lord has spoken.

"On Mount Zion there will be salvation, and there will be holiness." For God is saying through the prophet, "I will bring them back from their captivity, and I will rebuild the sacred temple." And there is Obadiah, who prophesies the cause of salvation to all in Zion. From there God will disperse holiness into the entire inhabited earth through the saving cross.

for the prophet shortly afterwards says: But on Mount Zion there shall be salvation.

And the house of Jacob will be a fire, and the house of Joseph a flame, and the house of Esau stubble. And they will be set on fire among them, and they will devour them. And there will be no remnant of the house of Esau, for the Lord has spoken.

The Hebrews, like a fire, will consume the Edomites like stubble. If anything remains, they will scatter it. What David and Amaziah had begun was accomplished by the Jews after their return, when many Israelites who came back from Persia joined them, and the Edomites were deprived of any form of domination and were forced to change their religion and to embrace the Jewish ritua…

The prosperity of Israel was made manifest as well as the punishment of their wicked enemies.… Yahweh proved himself as a true king to his people because he brought the very salvation they needed.

The foolish Edomites thought that they alone were about to possess the house of Jacob. Instead the land was divided with them and with the Chaldeans. That very unforseen thing was turned against them, it says. They would be possessed by the house of Jacob and likewise be consumed like chaff or stubble by a flame.

And those who are towards the South, and who are in the camps of the Philistines, will inherit the mount of Esau. And they will possess the region of Ephraim, and the region of Samaria. And Benjamin will possess Gilead.

And the exiles of this army of the sons of Israel, all the places of the Canaanites all the way to Sarepta, and the exiles of Jerusalem who are in Bosphoro, will possess the cities of the South.

Here he indicates the prisoners of both the kingdoms of Samaria and Jerusalem, and also those who had gone to very far regions.

At this place in the text, the migration of Israel back to the land is mentioned, more specifically, from those Jews taken away into Babylon.… Perhaps here he is saying that everything that is to the south and to the north and to the east and to the west will be fully occupied by Israel as they will easily possess the whole region around them.

Ezekiel also predicts something similar at the end of his prophecy when he describes the division of the land. He too predicts the return of the people, and after they return we learn they will receive power and obtain strength from God. O that we also would obtain this from our most generous God.

And the saviors will ascend to mount Zion to judge the mount of Esau. And the kingdom will be for the Lord.

Obadiah1