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LXX Obadiah

Septuagint

1 The vision of Obadiah. Thus says the Lord God to Idumea; I have heard a report from the Lord, and he has sent forth a siege to the nations:⁠ Arise, and let us rise up against her to war. 2 Look, I have made you small among the Gentiles: you are greatly dishonored. 3 The pride of your heart has elated you, dwelling as you do in the holes of the rocks, as one that exalts his habitation, saying in his heart, Who will bring me down to the ground? 4 If you should mount up as the eagle, and if you should make your nest among the stars, from there I will bring you down, says the Lord. 5 If thieves came in to you, or robbers by night, where would you have been cast away? would they not have stolen just enough for themselves? and if grape gatherers went in to you, would they not leave a gleaning? 6 How has Esau been searched out, and how have his hidden things been detected? 7 They sent you to your borders: all the men of your covenant have withstood you; your allies have prevailed against you,⁠ they have set snares under you: they have no understanding. 8 In that day, says the Lord, I will destroy the wise men out of Idumea, and understanding out of the mount of Esau. 9 And your warriors from Teman shall be dismayed, to the end that man may be cut off from the mount of Esau. 10 Because of the slaughter and the impiety committed against your brother Jacob,⁠ shame shall cover you, and you shall be cut off for ever. 11 From the day that you stood in opposition to him, in the days when foreigners were taking captive his forces, and strangers entered into his gates, and cast lots on Jerusalem, you also were as one of them. 12 And you should not have looked on the day of your brother in the day of strangers; nor should you have rejoiced against the children of Judah in the day of their destruction; neither should you have boasted in the day of their affliction. 13 Neither should you have gone into the gates of the people in the day of their troubles; nor yet should you have looked upon their gathering in the day of their destruction, nor should you have attacked their host in the day of their perishing. 14 Neither should you have stood in their breaches, to destroy utterly those among them who were escaping;⁠ neither should you have shut up his fugitives in the day of affliction. 15 For the day of the Lord is near upon all the Gentiles: as you have done, so shall it be done to you: your repayment shall be returned on your own head. 16 For as you have drunk upon my holy mountain, so shall all the nations drink wine; they shall drink, and go down, and be as if they were not. 17 But on mount Zion there shall be deliverance, and there shall be a sanctuary; and the house of Jacob shall take for an inheritance those that took them for an inheritance. 18 And the house of Jacob shall be fire, and the house of Joseph a flame, and the house of Esau shall be for stubble; and they shall flame forth against them, and shall devour them, and there shall not be a grain-field left to the house of Esau; because the Lord has spoken. 19 And they that dwell in the south shall inherit the mount of Esau, and they in the plain the Philistines: and they shall inherit the mount of Ephraim, and the plain of Samaria, and Benjamin, and the land of Gilead. 20 And this shall be the domain of the captivity of the children of Israel, the land of the Canaanites as far as Zarephath; and the captives of Jerusalem shall inherit as far as Ephrathah;⁠ they shall inherit the cities of the south. 21 And they that escape shall come up from mount Zion, to take vengeance on the mount of Esau; and the kingdom shall be the Lord's.

Texts in conversation

Compare Obadiah 1:1 and LXX Obadiah 1:1

Hebrew Bible · Septuagint

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Summary

The Hebrew version of Obadiah opens with a call to battle against Edom and sending a messenger among the nations. The Greek Septuagint reads the letters of the Hebrew in a different order, changing the messenger to a siege wall.

Passages

Obadiah 1:1

Hebrew Bible
1 The vision that Obadiah saw. The Sovereign Lord says this concerning Edom: We have heard a report from the Lord. An envoy was sent among the nations, saying, “Arise! Let us make war against Edom!” 2 The Lord says, “Look! I will make you a weak nation; you will be greatly despised!
600–501 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Obadiah

LXX Obadiah 1:1

Septuagint
1 The vision of Obadiah. Thus says the Lord God to Idumea; I have heard a report from the Lord, and he has sent forth a siege to the nations: Arise, and let us rise up against her to war. 2 Look, I have made you small among the Gentiles: you are greatly dishonored.
100–1 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in LXX Obadiah

References

... Schoeps had already called attention to the Septuagint of Obadiah 1, where "and a messenger has been sent among the nations" is rendered: "and he sent a rampart unto the nations," and Schoeps had traced the remarkable translation back to a confusion of the stems [tsir] ("messenger") and [tsur] ("to enclose"; [tsur] "rampart, enclosure"). But Baltzer and Koster were the first to observe that—without resorting to a hypothetical Hebrew text which Hegesippus would have read or perhaps would himself have written—the Septuagint of Obadiah 1 is all that is needed to explain Hegesippus' interpretation of Obadias, the traditional honorary name of the Lord's brother. Moreover, reference to the prophets then becomes both understandable and significant. Furthermore, in James 1:1 there could be an allusion to Obadias meaning "servant of the Lord." ...
Martin Dibelius, James: A Commentary on the Epistle of James, ed. Revised by Heinrich Greeven (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1976), 15–16.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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