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This is the prophecy of Obadiah—what the Sovereign Lord said about the nation of Edom.

The Lord Will Punish Edom

The Lord has sent his messenger to the nations,
    and we have heard his message:
    “Get ready! Let us go to war against Edom!”
The Lord says to Edom,
    “I will make you weak;
    everyone will despise you.
Your pride has deceived you.
Your capital is a fortress of solid rock;
    your home is high in the mountains,
and so you say to yourself,
    ‘Who can ever pull me down?’
Even though you make your home
    as high as an eagle's nest,
    so that it seems to be among the stars,
yet I will pull you down.

“When thieves come at night,
    they take only what they want.
When people gather grapes,
    they always leave a few.
But your enemies have wiped you out completely.
Descendants of Esau, your treasures have been looted.
Your allies have deceived you;
    they have driven you from your country.
People who were at peace with you have now conquered you.
    Those friends who ate with you have laid a trap for you;
    they say of you, ‘Where is all that cleverness he had?’

“On the day I punish Edom,
    I will destroy their clever men
    and wipe out all their wisdom.
The fighting men of Teman will be terrified,
    and every soldier in Edom will be killed.

Reasons for Edom's Punishment

10 “Because you robbed and killed
    your relatives,[a] the descendants of Jacob,
    you will be destroyed and dishonored forever.
11 You stood aside on that day
    when enemies broke down their gates.
You were as bad as those strangers
    who carried off Jerusalem's wealth
    and divided it among themselves.
12 You should not have gloated
    over the misfortune of your relatives in Judah.
You should not have been glad
    on the day of their ruin.
You should not have laughed at them
    in their distress.
13 You should not have entered the city of my people
    to gloat over their suffering
    and to seize their riches
    on the day of their disaster.
14 (A)You should not have stood at the crossroads
    to catch those trying to escape.
You should not have handed them over to the enemy
    on the day of their distress.

God Will Judge the Nations

15 “The day is near when I, the Lord,
    will judge all nations.
Edom, what you have done
    will be done to you.
    You will get back what you have given.
16 My people have drunk a bitter cup of punishment
    on my sacred hill.[b]
But all the surrounding nations will drink
    a still more bitter cup of punishment;
    they will drink it all and vanish away.

The Victory of Israel

17 “But on Mount Zion some will escape,
    and it will be a sacred place.
The people of Jacob will possess
    the land that is theirs by right.
18 The people of Jacob and of Joseph will be like fire;
    they will destroy the people of Esau
    as fire burns stubble.
    No descendant of Esau will survive.
I, the Lord, have spoken.

19 “People from southern Judah will occupy Edom;
    those from the western foothills will capture Philistia.
Israelites will possess the territory of Ephraim and Samaria;
    the people of Benjamin will take Gilead.
20 The army of exiles from northern Israel
    will return and conquer Phoenicia as far north as Zarephath.
The exiles from Jerusalem who are in Sardis
    will capture the towns of southern Judah.
21 The victorious men of Jerusalem
    will attack Edom and rule over it.
And the Lord himself will be king.”

Footnotes

  1. Obadiah 1:10 The Israelites were descended from Jacob, who was the brother of Esau, the ancestor of the Edomites.
  2. Obadiah 1:16 Mount Zion (see Zion in Word List).

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