Jonathan Obadiah

Judgment on Edom

1 Obadiah’s prophecy. This is what the Lord God says about Edom: We have heard news from the Lord and a messenger has been dispatched among the nations. Get up! Let us get ready to fight against her. 2 Look, I have made you powerless among the nations. They hold you in utter contempt. 3 Your own wicked heart has misled you. You resemble an eagle living among the rocky crags, with its home high above, saying to itself, “Who can pull me down to the ground?” 4 Even if you rise as high as an eagle and make your home among the stars, I will bring you down from there through my Memra, says the Lord.

5 If thieves attacked you, if raiders came at night, how could you sleep until they had stolen enough? And if robbers came like grape pickers, wouldn’t they leave some grapes behind? 6 How thoroughly Esau has been searched! His concealed treasures have been exposed! 7 All your allies have expelled you from your territory. They have deceived you. Your friends have defeated you. Those who eat at your table have placed a trap beneath you, because you have no understanding.

8 At that time, says the Lord, won’t I remove Edom’s wise people and every person with understanding from Esau’s fortress? 9 And your warriors living in the south will be shattered, so that everyone in need will be wiped out from Esau’s fortress by slaughter.

Violence Against Jacob

10 Because you robbed your brother Jacob, shame will engulf you and you will be wiped out forever. 11 When you stood on the opposite side, when the nations looted his property and foreigners went into his cities and divided Jerusalem by lot, you too were one of them.

12 And you looked on at your brother’s downfall, and celebrated over the people of Judah when they were crushed, and spoke with great arrogance in their time of distress. 13 And you came through my people’s gates when they were crushed, and you too looked on at their suffering when they were crushed, and reached out to seize their property when they were crushed. 14 And you stationed yourself at the crossroads to destroy those who escaped and handed over those who survived in their time of distress.

15 For the day coming from the Lord against every nation is close. You will be treated as you treated others. Your actions will come back on your own head. 16 For just as you celebrated the destruction of my holy mountain, all the nations will drink without stopping from their cup of punishment. And they will drink and be swallowed up and become as though they had never existed.

Israel’s Restoration

17 But on Mount Zion there will be survivors, and they will be holy. And Jacob’s people will take possession of the property of the nations that had dispossessed them. 18 And Jacob’s people will be powerful like fire and Joseph’s people strong like a flame and Esau’s people frail like straw. And they will rule over them and kill them and none of Esau’s people will escape, because it has been decreed through the Memra of the Lord.

19 And the people living in the south will take possession of Esau’s fortress. And those living in the lowlands will take possession of the land of the Philistines and they will take possession of Ephraim’s cities and Samaria’s cities. And Benjamin’s people will take possession of the cities of Gilead. 20 And the exiles of this people, the Israelites, will possess the Canaanite land as far as Zarephath. And Jerusalem’s exiles in Spain will take possession of the cities in the southern land. 21 And rescuers will climb Mount Zion to pass judgment on Esau’s fortress and the Lord’s kingdom will be revealed to everyone living on earth.