Obadiah

Against Edom

¹The Vision of Obadiah. This is what the Lord God says about Edom:

We have heard news from the Lord, and a messenger has been sent to the nations to say, “Rise, let us go against Esau.”

²The day has come: you are now small among the nations and utterly despised.

³Your arrogance has led you astray,

you, who live in the clefts of the rock;

you, who make the heights your home;

you, who say to yourself:

Who can bring me down to the ground?

⁴Though you soar like an eagle, though you make your nests among the stars,

I will bring you down again.

⁵If thieves or plunderers come at night,

what a disaster awaits you then!

Would they not ransack till they had enough? If grape gatherers worked in your vineyard, would they not leave only gleanings? ⁶See how Esau has been looted,

even his hidden treasures pillaged!

⁷You have been driven to the frontiers:

And those were your very friends!

Those who partook of your bread

set for you a trap in secret.

⁸The Lord declares: Shall I not destroy

the wise men of Edom on that day

and deprive the mountain of Esau of sages?

⁹Your warriors, O Teman, will be afraid,

and all from Mount Esau will be slaughtered.

¹⁰For the violence done to Jacob, your brother,

you will be disgraced and destroyed forever.

¹¹You stood aloof in waiting,

when strangers carried off his wealth;

when foreigners entered his gates

and cast lots for Jerusalem,

you were as guilty as the rest of them.

¹²Do not come to see and gloat

over the misfortune of your brother.

Do not exult over Judah’s ruin,

nor brag on the day of her destruction.

¹³Do not go through the gate of my people

on the day of their disgrace;

nor gloat over them in their misfortune

on the day of their adversity;

nor lay your hands upon their possessions

on the day of their destruction.

¹⁴Do not wait at the crossroad

to slay their stragglers;

nor betray their survivors

on the day of their disaster.

¹⁵For the day of the Lord is near

for every nation.

As you have done to another,

so will it be done to you.

Whatever you have done

will come back upon your head.

¹⁶For as you have drunk on my holy mountain,

so will the surrounding nation drink;

drink, and drink up to the brim…

Then they shall be as if they had never been.

¹⁷But there will be survivors on Mount Zion

—a holy remnant.

The house of Jacob will take possession

of its inheritance.

¹⁸The nation of Jacob will be a fire,

the nation of Joseph a flame;

but those of Esau will be stubble;

and they will burn and consume them.

And of Esau’s house, none will remain, for it is the Lord who has spoken.

¹⁹People from the Negeb

will occupy Esau’s mountains;

those from the plains,

the land of the Philistines;

they will occupy Ephraim and Samaria,

and Benjamin will possess Gilead.

²⁰The Israelite exiles who are in Canaan

will possess Phoenicia as far as Zarephath;

the exiles from Jerusalem are now in Sepharad

will possess the towns of the Negeb.

²¹Deliverers will ascend Mount Zion

to rule over the mountains of Esau,

—then the Lord will reign.