Texts in Conversation
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.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
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.”
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.
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Notes and 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.
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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