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Obadiah

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!⁠ 3 Your presumptuous heart has deceived you—you who reside in the safety of the rocky cliffs, whose home is high in the mountains. You think to yourself, ‘No one can bring me down to the ground!’ 4 Even if you were to soar high like an eagle, even if you were to make your nest among the stars, I can bring you down even from there!”⁠ says the Lord. 5 “If thieves came to rob you during the night, they would steal only as much as they wanted. If grape pickers came to harvest your vineyards, they would leave some behind for the poor.⁠ But you will be totally destroyed! 6 How the people of Esau will be thoroughly plundered! Their hidden valuables will be ransacked! 7 All your allies will force you from your homeland! Your treaty partners will deceive you and overpower you.⁠ Your trusted friends will set an ambush for you that will take you by surprise!⁠ 8 “At that time,” the Lord says, “I will destroy the wise sages of Edom, the advisers from Esau’s mountain. 9 Your warriors will be shattered, O Teman, so that everyone will be destroyed from Esau’s mountain!⁠ 10 “Because you violently slaughtered your relatives, the people of Jacob,⁠ shame will cover you, and you will be destroyed forever.⁠ 11 You stood aloof while strangers took his army captive and foreigners advanced to his gates. When they cast lots over Jerusalem, you behaved as though you were in league with them.⁠ 12 You should not have gloated when your relatives suffered calamity.⁠ You should not have rejoiced over the people of Judah when they were destroyed. You should not have boasted when they suffered adversity. 13 You should not have entered the city of my people when they experienced distress. You should not have joined in gloating over their misfortune when they suffered distress. You should not have looted their wealth when they endured distress. 14 You should not have stood at the fork in the road to slaughter those trying to escape.⁠ You should not have captured their refugees when they suffered adversity. 15 “For the day of the Lord is approaching for all the nations! Just as you have done, so it will be done to you. You will get exactly what your deeds deserve.⁠ 16 For just as you have drunk on my holy mountain, so all the nations will drink continually. They will drink, and they will gulp down; they will be as though they had never been.⁠ 17 But on Mount Zion there will be a remnant of those who escape, and it will be a holy place once again.⁠ The descendants of Jacob will conquer those who had conquered them.⁠ 18 The descendants of Jacob will be a fire and the descendants of Joseph a flame. The descendants of Esau will be like stubble. They will burn them up and devour them. There will not be a single survivor of the descendants of Esau!” Indeed, the Lord has spoken it. 19 The people of the Negev will take possession of Esau’s mountain,⁠ and the people of the foothills will take possession of the land of the Philistines. They will also take possession of the territory of Ephraim and the territory of Samaria, and the people of Benjamin will take possession of Gilead. 20 The exiles of this fortress of the people of Israel will take possession of what belongs to the people of Canaan, as far as Zarephath, and the exiles of Jerusalem who are in Sepharad⁠ will take possession of the towns of the Negev. 21 Those who have been delivered will go up on Mount Zion in order to rule over Esau’s mountain. Then the Lord will reign as King!

Texts in conversation

Compare Amos 9:2 and Obadiah 1:4

Hebrew Bible

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Summary

Obadiah warns Edom that even from the heights God will bring them down. Amos uses nearly identical language to warn Israel that no hiding place can protect them from divine judgment.

Passages

Amos 9:2

Hebrew Bible
1 I saw the Lord standing by the altar and he said, “Strike the tops of the support pillars, so the thresholds shake! Knock them down on the heads of all the people, and I will kill the survivors with the sword. No one will be able to run away; no one will be able to escape. 2 Even if they could dig down into the netherworld, my hand would pull them up from there. Even if they could climb up to heaven, I would drag them down from there. 3 Even if they were to hide on the top of Mount Carmel, I would hunt them down and take them from there. Even if they tried to hide from me at the bottom of the sea, from there I would command the Sea Serpent to bite them. 4 Even when their enemies drive them into captivity, from there I will command the sword to kill them. I will not let them out of my sight; they will experience disaster, not prosperity.”
600–501 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Amos

Obadiah 1:4

Hebrew Bible
2 The Lord says, “Look! I will make you a weak nation; you will be greatly despised! 3 Your presumptuous heart has deceived you—you who reside in the safety of the rocky cliffs, whose home is high in the mountains. You think to yourself, ‘No one can bring me down to the ground!’ 4 Even if you were to soar high like an eagle, even if you were to make your nest among the stars, I can bring you down even from there!” says the Lord.
600–501 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Obadiah

References

"... The phrase "from there I will bring them/you down" appears in only three places in the Hebrew Bible: Amos 9:2; Obadiah 4; and the parallel text from Jeremiah 49:16. In all likelihood, this phrase already existed in the Jeremiah context and served as the motivation for bringing the prophetic condemnations of Edom into this context in the Book of the Twelve. Third, Amos 9:2-4 contains five clauses that all have the phrase "if . . . from there," while the parallel text in Obadiah 4-5 has five "if" clauses (only two of which appear in the parallel text in Jeremiah). This combination of "if . . . from there I will bring you down" along with a total of five "if" clauses, whether intentional or not, certainly causes the reader of Obadiah to hear the echo of the final vision of Amos. ..."
James Nogalski, The Smyth & Helwys Bible Commentary: Hosea-Jonah (Macon, GA: Smyth & Helwys, 2011), 372.
"... The allusion to Obadiah here is with the use of Hiphil סגר ("hand over") in connection with the "exiling" activities of Philistia and Tyre (see Obadiah 14). The background for these events, I believe, may be identified positively as the same state of affairs spoken of in Joel 4:1–8. For one, Tyre and Philistia are only very infrequently linked in biblical texts. And two, both Amos and Joel use "captivity language" in contexts that do not reflect the exile of either the Northern Kingdom or the Southern Kingdom. The similarities between the two texts are striking and should not be ignored. It follows from this that Amos is intertextually linked also with Obadiah, given the close affinities between Joel 4 and Obadiah mentioned above. ..."
Daniel Forbes, “The Intertextual Impact of Obadiah on the Writing Prophets” (MA diss., The Master's College, 2014), 41–42.

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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Amos 9:2 and Obadiah 1:4

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