The Book of the Prophet Obadiah The Sins and Punishment of Edom: The Restoration and Happiness of Israel

 The Book of the Prophet Obadiah

The Sins and Punishment of Edom: The Restoration and Happiness of Israel

1 The Vision of Obadiah: This is what the Sovereign Lord says concerning Edom: “We have heard a report from the Lord, and an ambassador has been sent to the nations, saying, ‘Rise up, and let us go up against her to battle.’

2 “See, I have made you small among the nations; you are greatly despised.

3 The pride of your heart has deceived you, you who dwell in the clefts of the rocks, whose habitation is high, who say in your heart, ‘Who will bring me down to the ground?’

4 Though you soar like the eagle and make your nest among the stars, from there I will bring you down,” declares the Lord.

5 If thieves came to you, if robbers by night (how you are destroyed!), would they not steal only enough for themselves? If grape gatherers came to you, would they not leave some clusters of grapes?

6 How Esau’s possessions were sought out! How thoroughly their hiding places have been searched!

7 All your allies have driven you out of your borders; those who enjoy your peace have deceived you, they have prevailed against you; those who eat your bread have laid a trap for you; there is no understanding in Edom.

8 And will it not happen on that day, declares the Lord, that I will cause the wise men of Edom to prevail, and understanding in the mountains of Esau?

9 And your mighty men, Teman, will be dismayed, so that everyone from the mountains of Esau will be cut off by slaughter.

10 Because of the violence done to your brother Jacob, shame will cover you, and you will be cut off forever.

11 On the day you stood before him, on the day when foreigners carried off his army captive, and strangers entered his gates and cast lots for Jerusalem, you yourself were among them.

12 But you should not have gloated over your brother on the day of his exile; nor rejoiced over the people of Judah on the day of their ruin; nor spoken aloud on the day of their distress;

13 Nor entered the gate of my people on the day of their calamity; yes, you should not have looked on with satisfaction at their misfortune on the day of their calamity; nor stretched out your hands against their army on the day of their calamity;

14 Nor stood at the crossroads to cut off those who escaped; nor handed over those who remained on the day of their distress.

15 For the day of the Lord is near upon all the nations; as you have done, so it will be done to you; your wickedness will fall upon your own head.

16 For as you drank on my holy mountain, so all the nations will drink continually; they will drink and swallow, and they will be as though they had never been.

17 But on Mount Zion there will be deliverance; it will be holy; and the house of Jacob will possess their inheritances.

18 The house of Jacob will be a fire, the house of Joseph a flame, and the house of Esau stubble; they will kindle fire against them and consume them, and no one will remain of the house of Esau, for the Lord has spoken.

19 Those from the south will possess the mountain of Esau, and those from the plains the Philistines; they will also possess the fields of Ephraim, and the fields of Samaria; and Benjamin and Gilead.

20 The captives of this army of the children of Israel, who are among the Canaanites, will possess as far as Zarephath; and the captives of Jerusalem, who are in Sepharad, will possess the cities of the south.

21 Saviors will arise on Mount Zion to judge the mountain of Esau; and the kingdom will be the Lord's.