The Destruction of Edom 1 The vision of Obadiah. Thus says the Lord GOD concerning Edom: A report we have heard from the LORD, and an envoy is sent among the nations: Rise, and let us rise against her for the war!
Ephrem the Syrian · AD 373 "We have heard a report from the Lord," that is, the Lord of the world powers will do nothing if he has not first revealed his mystery to his servants, the prophets.
Theodore of Mopsuestia · AD 428 This differs not at all in its import from the phrase "Word of the Lord." Scripture calls God's activity "Word of the Lord" in reference to the spiritual grace by which the prophets received the revelations of the future. In the same way by "vision" he refers to the divine revelation by which in fact they received the knowledge of the unknown.
Glossa Ordinaria · AD 1274 He joins himself with the other prophets, those who spiritually heard a divine sentence against the Edomites.
2 See, I have made you small among the nations; you are greatly despised.
Ephrem the Syrian · AD 373 Obadiah shows here that the Edomites must be subjected to captivity because of their pride and the enmity they held against their brothers. In a different sense he says that the devil is made least, as the words that follow are extremely suitable to him as well.
Jerome · AD 420 (Version 2, verse 2) Behold, I have made you a little one among the nations: you are very contemptible. The pride of your heart has lifted you up, dwelling in the clefts of the rock, exalting your throne, saying in your heart: Who will bring me down to the ground?
3 The insolence of your heart has deceived you, you who dwell in the clefts of the rock, the height of his seat, saying in his heart, “Who will bring me down to the ground?”
Jerome · AD 420 Although you, o heretic, may seem great and despise the smallness of the Church, you are nonetheless small among the nations, and contemptible, and not only contemptible, but also very contemptible with arrogance. The pride of your heart has lifted you up.
4 Though you make yourself high like the eagle, and though among the stars you set your nest, from there I will bring you down — the utterance of the LORD.
Jerome · AD 420 The Savior came not to send peace upon the earth but a sword. Lucifer fell, Lucifer who used to rise at dawn;13 and he who was bred up in a paradise of delight had the well-earned sentence passed upon him, " 'Though you exalt yourself as your eagle, and though you set your nest among the stars, thence will I bring you down,' says the Lord." For Lucifer had said in his heart, "I…
5 If thieves came to you, if devastators by night — how you are destroyed! — would they not steal their fill? If grape-gatherers came to you, would they not leave gleanings?
Ephrem the Syrian · AD 373 If thieves came to you, oh, how you would be silenced! Everything would be open for plunder because of the overwhelming fear, until [the plunderers] have stolen enough [riches] for themselves, for they are people of insatiable and consuming greed. If grape gatherers came to you—that is, if plunderers invaded you with open violence—what would you do?
Jerome · AD 420 (Verse 4 onwards) If thieves entered your house, or robbers at night, how would you remain silent? Wouldn't they have stolen enough for themselves? If grape harvesters entered your vineyard, wouldn't they at least leave some grapes for you? How deeply they searched, how thoroughly they investigated his hidden places!
6 How Esau has been searched, his hoards sought!
7 To the border they have sent you, all the men of your covenant; the men at peace with you have deceived you, they have prevailed against you. Those who eat your bread set a wound under you — there is no insight in him.
Jerome · AD 420 (Verse 7) All the men of your covenant have sent you to the borders, they have mocked you, the men of your peace have prevailed against you, those who eat with you have set a trap under you: there is no wisdom in him.
8 Will it not be in that day — the utterance of the LORD — that I will destroy the wise from Edom, and insight from the mountain of Esau?
Jerome · AD 420 (Verse 8, 9.) Shall I not in that day, saith the Lord, destroy the wise out of Edom, and understanding out of the mount of Esau? And thy mighty men shall be dismayed, O Teman, to the end that every one of the mount of Esau may be cut off by slaughter. Septuagint: In that day, saith the Lord, I will destroy the wise out of Edom, and understanding out of the mount of Esau.
9 And your mighty men will be shattered, Teman, so that every man from the mountain of Esau may be cut off by carnage.
10 For the violence against your brother Jacob, shame will cover you, and you will be cut off forever.
Ephrem the Syrian · AD 373 Shame shall cover you over the Jews, whose ruin you enjoyed, after they are brought back to their original power. And you shall be cut off forever. After the Jews return from Chaldea, they will subjugate you Edomites and will vex you for a long time. This will continue until the coming of a foreign people, who will defeat the Jews.
Jerome · AD 420 (Verse 10, 11.) Because of the killing and (the Vulgate adds 'because of') the wickedness against your brother Jacob, shame shall cover you, and you shall perish forever. On the day when you stood against him, when strangers captured his army and foreigners entered his gates, and they cast lots for Jerusalem: you were also like one of them.
11 In the day you stood aloof, in the day strangers carried off his army and foreigners entered his gates and cast lots over Jerusalem — you too were like one of them.
12 And do not look on the day of your brother, on the day of his misfortune; and do not rejoice over the sons of Judah in the day of their perishing; and do not make your mouth great in the day of distress.
Ambrose of Milan · AD 397 Preserve, O Lord, Thy work, guard the gift which Thou hast given even to him who shrank from it. For I knew that I was not worthy to be called a bishop, because I had devoted myself to this world, but by Thy grace I am what I am.
Jerome · AD 420 (Verse 12.) And do not despise the day of your brother in the day of his journey. And do not rejoice over the children of Judah in the day of their destruction, and do not boast in the day of distress; nor enter the gate of my people in the day of their ruin. LXX: And do not despise the day of your brother in the day of strangers.
Theodoret of Cyrus · AD 458 "Do not despise the day of your brother in the day of his alienation." Here the time of punishment is called a "day."
13 Do not enter the gate of my people in the day of their calamity; do not look, even you, on his evil in the day of his calamity; and do not lay hands on his army in the day of his calamity.
Jerome · AD 420 (Verse 13, 14.) And you shall not despise them in their adversities on the day of their destruction, and you shall not send forth your army against them on the day of their destruction. And you shall not stand at the exits to kill those who flee, and you shall not capture the survivors on the day of their distress.
14 And do not stand at the crossroads to cut off his fugitives, and do not hand over his survivors in the day of distress.
The Deliverance of Israel 15 For the day of the LORD is near upon all the nations. As you have done, it will be done to you; your recompense will return on your own head.
Jerome · AD 420 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.
Cyril of Alexandria · AD 444 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.
Cosmas Indicopleustes · AD 550 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.
16 For as you drank on my holy mountain, all the nations will drink continually; and they will drink and swill, and they will be as though they had not been.
Ephrem the Syrian · AD 373 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.
Cyril of Alexandria · AD 444 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.
Theodoret of Cyrus · AD 458 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.
17 But on Mount Zion there will be an escaped remnant, and it will be holy; and the house of Jacob will possess their possessions.
Jerome · AD 420 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.
Theodoret of Cyrus · AD 458 "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.
Cosmas Indicopleustes · AD 550 for the prophet shortly afterwards says: But on Mount Zion there shall be salvation.
18 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 burn among them and devour them, and there will be no survivor for the house of Esau — for the LORD has spoken.
Ephrem the Syrian · AD 373 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…
Theodore of Mopsuestia · AD 428 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.
Cyril of Alexandria · AD 444 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.
19 And the Negev will possess the mountain of Esau, and the lowland the Philistines; and they will possess the field of Ephraim and the field of Samaria; and Benjamin, Gilead.
Jerome · AD 420 (Verse 19) And those who are in the South shall inherit the possessions of Esau, and those in the plains shall inherit the possessions of the Philistines. They shall possess the region of Ephraim and the region of Samaria, and Benjamin shall possess Gilead.
Cyril of Alexandria · AD 444 "Those in the south" signifies the area where the Babylonians invaded Jerusalem led by Nebuchadnezzar. The entire province of Judea was laid waste, sinking back into misery so that it was reduced to absolute silence and appeared entirely deserted.
20 And the exiles of this army of the sons of Israel who are among the Canaanites as far as Zarephath, and the exiles of Jerusalem who are in Sepharad, will possess the cities of the Negev.
Ephrem the Syrian · AD 373 Here he indicates the prisoners of both the kingdoms of Samaria and Jerusalem, and also those who had gone to very far regions.
Cyril of Alexandria · AD 444 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.
Theodoret of Cyrus · AD 458 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.
21 And saviors will go up on Mount Zion to judge the mountain of Esau; and the kingship will be the LORD’s.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 Obadiah, so far as his writings are concerned the briefest of all the prophets, speaks against Edom, that is, the nation of Esau, that reprobate elder of the twin sons of Isaac and of the grandsons of Abraham. Now by that form of speech in which a part is understood for the whole, we understand Edom as referring to the nations.
Cyril of Alexandria · AD 444 And people will ascend, gathered on top of Zion, which sums up the goal of the prophecy. For the inhabitants of Zion, he says, are saved by God, who will burst through their chains of servitude. At that time he will ascend and take vengeance against Mount Esau.