Obadiah 1 · The Lantern

Thus said the Lord Jehovah to Edom, A report we have heard from Jehovah, And an ambassador among nations was sent, `Rise, yea, let us rise against her for battle.'

Lo, little I have made thee among nations, Despised art thou exceedingly.

The pride of thy heart hath lifted thee up, O dweller in clifts of a rock, (A high place is his habitation, He is saying in his heart, `Who doth bring me down to earth?')

If thou dost go up high as an eagle, And if between stars thou dost set thy nest, From thence I bring thee down, An affirmation of Jehovah.

If thieves have come in to thee, If spoilers of the night, How hast thou been cut off! Do they not steal their sufficiency? If gatherers have come in to thee, Do they not leave gleanings?

How hath Esau been searched out! Flowed out have his hidden things,

Unto the border sent thee have all thine allies, Forgotten thee, prevailed over thee, have thy friends, Thy bread they make a snare under thee, There is no understanding in him!

Is it not in that day--an affirmation of Jehovah, That I have destroyed the wise out of Edom, And understanding out of the mount of Esau?

And broken down have been thy mighty ones, O Teman, So that every one of the mount of Esau is cut off.

For slaughter, for violence to thy brother Jacob, Cover thee doth shame, And thou hast been cut off--to the age.

In the day of thy standing over-against, In the day of strangers taking captive his force, And foreigners have entered his gates, And for Jerusalem have cast a lot, Even thou art as one of them!

And--thou dost not look on the day of thy brother, On the day of his alienation, Nor dost thou rejoice over sons of Judah, In the day of their destruction, Nor make great thy mouth in a day of distress.

Nor come into a gate of My people in a day of their calamity, Nor look, even thou, on its misfortune in a day of its calamity, Nor send forth against its force in a day of its calamity,

Nor stand by the breach to cut off its escaped, Nor deliver up its remnant in a day of distress.

For near is the day of Jehovah, on all the nations, As thou hast done, it is done to thee, Thy deed doth turn back on thine 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--as ye have drunk on My holy mount, Drink do all the nations continually, And they have drunk and have swallowed, And they have been as they have not been.

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 in mount Zion there is an escape, And it hath been holy, And the house of Jacob have possessed their possessions.

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 hath been a fire, And the house of Joseph a flame, And the house of Esau for stubble, And they have burned among them, And they have consumed them, And there is not a remnant to the house of Esau, For Jehovah hath 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 they have possessed the south with the mount of Esau, And the low country with the Philistines, And they have possessed the field of Ephraim, And the field of Samaria, And Benjamin with Gilead.

And the removed of this force of the sons of Israel, That is with the Canaanites unto Zarephat, And the removed of Jerusalem that is with the Sepharad, 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 gone up have saviours on mount Zion, To judge the mount of Esau, And the kingdom hath been to Jehovah!'

Obadiah1