Obadiah chapter 1
Edom will be destroyed. They will be plundered. They will be slaughtered. Why these things will happen. The LORD God will judge Israel’s enemies. He will bless his people.
EDOM WILL BE DESTROYED
VERSE 1. The vision of Obadiah. This is what the Lord GOD says about Edom. We have heard news from the LORD, and an ambassador is sent among the nations, saying, “Arise, and let’s rise up against her in battle.
vision. The Hebrew word is חֲז֖וֹן (“chazon”). It simply means vision.
Obadiah. The Hebrew word is עֹֽבַדְיָ֑ה (“Obadyah”). It means servant of Yah.
the Lord. The Hebrew word translated “Lord” (mixed case) is “Adonai.”
the LORD. When rendered in ALL CAPITAL LETTERS, “LORD” or “GOD” is the translation of God’s Proper Name.
an ambassador is sent among the nations. Nations send ambassadors abroad. And the Lord Jesus Christ sends us out as his ambassadors to the world. Read more »
VERSE 2. Behold, I have made you small among the nations. You are greatly despised.
Behold. This is from the Hebrew word הִנֵּה. It means look at, take notice, observe, see, or gaze at. It is often used as an interjection.
I have made you small. The LORD God will humble them.
VERSE 3. The pride of your heart has deceived you, you who dwell in the clefts of the rock, whose habitation is high, who says in his heart, ‘Who will bring me down to the ground?’
pride. The Hebrew word is זְד֤וֹן (“zə·ḏō·wn”). It means insolence, presumptuousness, to boil up, to be presumptuous. Their pride will be their undoing.
In the kings of the Old Testament, we see powerful examples that power corrupts. That absolute power corrupts absolutely. Read more »
dwell in the clefts of the rock. Edom prided itself in its geographic location, which was nearly unassailable.
whose habitation is high. Edom prided itself in its great wealth.
VERSE 4. Though you mount on high as the eagle, and though your nest is set among the stars, I will bring you down from there,” says the LORD.
I will bring you down. In the previous verse, Edam asked who could bring them down to the ground.
The LORD God replies. He will bring them down.
EDOM WILL BE PLUNDERED
VERSE 5. “If thieves came to you, if robbers by night—oh, what disaster awaits you—wouldn’t they only steal until they had enough? If grape pickers came to you, wouldn’t they leave some gleaning grapes?
VERSE 6. How Esau will be ransacked! How his hidden treasures are sought out!
Esau will be ransacked. Their wealth will be plundered.
VERSE 7. All the men of your alliance have brought you on your way, even to the border. The men who were at peace with you have deceived you, and prevailed against you. Friends who eat your bread lay a snare under you. There is no understanding in him.”
the men of your alliance. Their political alliances will be plundered.
EDOM’S PEOPLE WILL BE SLAUGHTERED
VERSE 8. “Won’t I in that day”, says the LORD, “destroy the wise men out of Edom, and understanding out of the mountain of Esau?
the wise men out of Edom. Their wise philosophers will be slaughtered.
VERSE 9. Your mighty men, Teman, will be dismayed, to the end that everyone may be cut off from the mountain of Esau by slaughter.
Your mighty men. Their army will be slaughtered.
WHY THESE THINGS WILL HAPPEN
VERSE 10. For the violence done to your brother Jacob, shame will cover you, and you will be cut off forever.
violence done to your brother Jacob. These terrible things will happen because of Edom’s cruelty to Jacob.
VERSE 11. In the day that you stood on the other side, in the day that strangers carried away his substance and foreigners entered into his gates and cast lots for Jerusalem, even you were like one of them.
you stood on the other side. These terrible things will happen because of Edom’s indifference when foreign forces went against Judah.
VERSE 12. But don’t look down on your brother in the day of his disaster, and don’t rejoice over the children of Judah in the day of their destruction. Don’t speak proudly in the day of distress.
VERSE 13. Don’t enter into the gate of my people in the day of their calamity. Don’t look down on their affliction in the day of their calamity, neither seize their wealth on the day of their calamity.
enter into the gate of my people. Edom had entered the gates of Jerusalem.
seize their wealth. Edom had plundered Jerusalem, looting their wealth.
VERSE 14. Don’t stand in the crossroads to cut off those of his who escape. Don’t deliver up those of his who remain in the day of distress.
stand in the crossroads. Edom had killed people who escaped from Jerusalem.
deliver up those of his who remain. Edom had handed over survivors to the attacking armies.
THE LORD GOD WILL JUDGE ISRAEL’S ENEMIES
VERSE 15. For the day of the LORD is near all the nations! As you have done, it will be done to you. Your deeds will return upon your own head.
As you have done, it will be done to you. There is a law of “sowing and reaping” throughout the Bible. How shall we reconcile it with grace and mercy? Here are the verses we’ve found »
VERSE 16. For as you have drunk on my holy mountain, so all the nations will drink continually. Yes, they will drink, swallow down, and will be as though they had not been.
THE LORD GOD WILL BLESS HIS PEOPLE
VERSE 17. But in Mount Zion, there will be those who escape, and it will be holy. The house of Jacob will possess their possessions.
HCSB translation. But there will be a deliverance on Mount Zion, and it will be holy; the house of Jacob will dispossess those who dispossessed them.
there will be a deliverance. The LORD God is always about the project of delivering his people.
He delivers them from all sorts of things. He delivered them from slavery in Egypt.
In this verse, he delivers them from oppression.
it will be holy. When the LORD God delivers you, it is a holy thing.
Jacob will dispossess those who dispossessed them. The tail will become the head.
VERSE 18. The house of Jacob will be a fire, the house of Joseph a flame, and the house of Esau for stubble. They will burn among them and devour them. There will not be any remaining to the house of Esau.” Indeed, the LORD has spoken.
fire … flame. They go together.
VERSE 19. Those of the South will possess the mountain of Esau, and those of the lowland, the Philistines. They will possess the field of Ephraim, and the field of Samaria. Benjamin will possess Gilead.
VERSE 20. The captives of this army of the children of Israel, who are among the Canaanites, will possess even to Zarephath; and the captives of Jerusalem, who are in Sepharad, will possess the cities of the Negev.
VERSE 21. Saviors will go up on Mount Zion to judge the mountains of Esau, and the kingdom will be the LORD’s.
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OBADIAH
CHAPTERS: 01
RESOURCES: Summary, Outline, Memorize
Unless otherwise noted, all Bible quotations on this page are from the World English Bible and the World Messianic Edition. These translations have no copyright restrictions. They are in the Public Domain.