Obadiah

Name, Authorship, and Canonical Status

The name Obadiah means “servant of Yah[weh].” Other persons with the same name occur in the books of Kings, Chronicles, Ezra, and Nehemiah, though none of them seems related. Because no information about the prophet is found in the book, this oracle is functionally anonymous.

Obadiah is the shortest book in the Hebrew Bible, containing only verse numbers. Although some ancient manuscripts place it between Joel and Jonah, its placement in the Masoretic Text between Amos and Jonah (reflected in the NRSV) is seen by some scholars as reflection of the editors’ attempt to create a theologically unified Book of the Twelve. The similarity between Amos's final statements on Edom (Am 9.11–12) and Obadiah's critique of Edom lends credence to this view.

Contents and Date of Composition

Obadiah makes three interlocking claims: Edom, a nation east of Judah, is currently in distress; this distress is just recompense for its treatment of Judah, its brother; and in a future reversal of fortunes Judah's exiles will possess the land of Edom. The accusations leveled against Edom in vv. 10–14, that Edom stood aside while strangers attacked Jerusalem and even aided in the invasion of the city, are usually understood to refer to Ed-omite action during the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem in 586 bce.

Other biblical books share Obadiah's anger against Edom. Anti-Edomite oracles appear in Isa 34.5–8; 63.1–4; Ezek 25.12–13; 35.5–6,15; 36.5; Joel 3.19; and Jer 49.7–22; the language of the latter closely parallels Obadiah. Psalm 137.7 calls for revenge against Edom, and Ezek 36.5 and 1 Esd 4.50 join Obadiah in charging that Edomites/Idumeans confiscated Judah's land. Obadiah sees Edom's activities as especially heinous due to the brotherhood of the two nations; the tradition that Edom and Judah descend from the brothers Esau and Jacob is found in Gen 25; Deut 2.5; and Mal 1.2–5.

Archaeologists and historians confirm the instability of this area during the seventh and sixth centuries bce, fomented by a series of Babylonian invasions. Ostraca from Arad suggest that after the Babylonian invasion of Judah in 597 Edom gained control of Judean territory in the Negeb; after the second Babylonian invasion of Judah in 586, Edomite control may have reached farther north into the Shephelah.

In 552 bce, the Babylonian king Nabonidus invaded Edom, attacked the city of Sela, and integrated the Edom ite kingdom into the province of Arabia. Edomite territory later became part of the Arab kingdom of Qedar and then the Persian province of Idumea. The closing verses of Obadiah may reflect Judean glee in these territorial losses, as well as the hope that Judah would reclaim the Negeb and extend its borders in every direction. Hence, while many date Obadiah close to the traumatic events of 586, it instead may have been written in a later generation, as its author sought to establish Judah's land claims by recalling Edom's past crimes and appealing to the rhetoric of brotherhood. Perhaps already in the book of Obadiah, but certainly in the following centuries, “Edom” was used symbolically to describe nations who oppose God.

Julia M. O’Brien

¹The vision of Obadiah.

Thus says the Lord God concerning Edom:

We have heard a report from the Lord,

  and a messenger has been sent among the nations:

“Rise up! Let us rise against it for battle!”

²I will surely make you least among the nations;

  you shall be utterly despised.

³Your proud heart has deceived you,

  you that live in the clefts of the rock,^a

  whose dwelling is in the heights.

You say in your heart,

“Who will bring me down to the ground?”

⁴Though you soar aloft like the eagle,

  though your nest is set among the stars,

  from there I will bring you down, says the Lord.

⁵If thieves came to you,

  if plunderers by night

—how you have been destroyed!—

  would they not steal only what they wanted?

If grape-gatherers came to you,

  would they not leave gleanings?

⁶How Esau has been pillaged,

  his treasures searched out!

⁷All your allies have deceived you,

  they have driven you to the border;

your confederates have prevailed against you;

  those who ate^b your bread have set a trap for you—

  there is no understanding of it.

⁸On that day, says the Lord,

  I will destroy the wise out of Edom,

  and understanding out of Mount Esau.

⁹Your warriors shall be shattered, O Teman,

  so that everyone from Mount Esau will be cut off.

¹⁰For the slaughter and violence done to your brother Jacob,

shame shall cover you,

  and you shall be cut off forever.

¹¹On the day that you stood aside,

  on the day that strangers carried off his wealth,

and foreigners entered his gates

  and cast lots for Jerusalem,

  you too were like one of them.

¹²But you should not have gloated^a over^b your brother

  on the day of his misfortune;

you should not have rejoiced over the people of Judah

  on the day of their ruin;

you should not have boasted

  on the day of distress.

¹³You should not have entered the gate of my people

  on the day of their calamity;

you should not have joined in the gloating over Judah's^c disaster

  on the day of his calamity;

you should not have looted his goods

  on the day of his calamity.

¹⁴You should not have stood at the crossings

to cut off his fugitives;

you should not have handed over his survivors

  on the day of distress.

¹⁵For the day of the Lord is near against all the nations.

As you have done, it shall be done to you;

  your deeds shall return on your own head.

¹⁶For as you have drunk on my holy mountain,

  all the nations around you shall drink;

they shall drink and gulp down,^d

  and shall be as though they had never been.

¹⁷But on Mount Zion there shall be those that escape,

  and it shall be holy;

  and the house of Jacob shall take possession of those who dispossessed them.

¹⁸The house of Jacob shall be a fire,

  the house of Joseph a flame,

  and the house of Esau stubble;

they shall burn them and consume them,

  and there shall be no survivor of the house of Esau;

                                    for the Lord has spoken.

¹⁹Those of the Negeb shall possess Mount Esau,

  and those of the Shephelah the land of the Philistines;

they shall possess the land of Ephraim and the land of Samaria,

  and Benjamin shall possess Gilead.

²⁰The exiles of the Israelites who are in Halah^e

  shall possess^a Phoenicia as far as Zarephath;

and the exiles of Jerusalem who are in Sepharad

  shall possess the towns of the Negeb.

²¹Those who have been saved^b shall go up to Mount Zion

  to rule Mount Esau;

  and the kingdom shall be the Lord's.

1a: Superscription. A distinctively prophetic term, vision also occurs in Isa 1.1 and Nah 1.1.

1b–4: Edom's pending destruction. These verses closely parallel Jer 49.12–16, although in Jeremiah feminine forms are used to describe Edom. The theme of reversal runs throughout the book: Edom's fortunes have changed. 1b–2: “Thus says the Lord” is the classic form of “prophetic messenger speech,” marking the words as those of the deity. Both other nations and God are described as rising up against Edom. 3: Prophetic books frequently condemn the proud, especially among the nations (Isa 10.12; 13.11,19; 16.6; Jer 48.29; Zeph 2.10; 9.6; Zech 10.11). 3–4: Clefts of the rock: the same Heb word means “rock” (see Ps 137.9) and “Sela,” an Edomite city captured by the Babylonian armies in 552 bce and linked with the later city of Petra. Repeated pairs of opposites (proud/despised; heights/ground; soar aloft/bring down) underscore the reversal of Edom's fate.

5–7: Edom at the hand of the nations. These verses imply that Edom's former allies have begun its devastation, as in Jer 49.9–10. 5: A difficult verse, suggesting that Edom's loss is beyond that caused by simple thieves. Leave gleanings, see Deut 24.21. 6: Esau is described as Jacob's brother and the ancestor of the Edomites in Gen 25. 7: Edom's former allies and confederates are not named. The Hebrew of this verse is difficult.

8–9: Edom at the hand of God. God will complete Edom's devastation on that day, a common prophetic term for “the day of the Lord” (see v. 15), when God defeats Israel's enemies. Phrases are shared with Jer 49.7, 22. Only Obadiah uses the phrase Mount Esau; Deut 2.2 speaks instead of “Mount Seir,” the mountainous region on the boundary between Edom and Judah. 9: Teman refers either to the northern region of Edom (as in Am 1.12) or to Edom as a whole.

10–14: Edom as treacherous brother. Edom's actions are especially treacherous because Esau/Edom was the brother of Jacob/Judah (Gen 25.7). On the day appears nine times in this unit, apparently referring to the traumatic day of Jerusalem's fall. The accusations against Edom build—that Edom stood aside, gloated, boasted, looted, and finally committed physical acts against fleeing Judeans. Although the NRSV translates 12–14 as you should not have, the forms are Heb jussives; see textual note a, on the next page. While Ps 137.7 also blames Edomites, claiming they rejoiced in Jerusalem's destruction, 2 Kings 24.2 blames bands of Arameans, Moabites, and Ammonites for coming up against Jerusalem, with no mention of Edomites. Jeremiah 40.11 indicates that Judeans fleeing the Babylonians had escaped to Moab, Ammon, Edom and elsewhere. 11: Cast lots, see Joel 3.3.

15–18: The day of the Lord. Edom's fate will be shared by all hostile nations, as they suffer a reversal of fates on the day that God acts to (re)establish justice. 16: As in other prophetic books, retribution is depicted as drinking a cup of wrath (Isa 51.17,22; Jer 25.17; Hab 2.16; Zech 12.2). 17–18: The reversal of fates will benefit Judah, whose devastation will turn to preeminence. 17: Mount Zion, a synonym for Jerusalem, is contrasted with Mount Esau in v. 8. The house of Jacob, here southern Israel (i.e., Judah). 18: The house of Joseph is Israel, the Northern Kingdom destroyed in 722 bce. As in Mal 4.1, the day of the Lord will burn the unrighteous like stubble.

19–21: Reclamation and expansion of territory. 19: Judeans in the Negeb will expand eastward to take Edom. Those in the Shephelah, the western foothills of Judah, will seize territory from the neighboring Philistines and then advance northward, first into the tribal territory of Ephraim and then farther northward to Samaria. The southern Judean tribe of Benjamin will expand eastward across the Jordan River to take the land of Gilead. 20: Survivors of both the Assyrian destruction of the Northern Kingdom in the eighth century bce and the Babylonian destruction of the Southern Kingdom in the sixth century bce will return to aid in Judah's territorial expansion. Those exiled to the Assyrian territory of Halah (2 Kings 17.6) will take Zarephath in Phoenicia, territory never previously possessed by Israel. Those exiled by the Babylonians will return from Sepharad, location unknown, and possess the Negeb, mentioned at the beginning of the unit. 21: The concluding verse justifies Mount Zion's control of Mount Esau (see 17n.), under the auspices of Judah's God.

^a Or clefts of Sela

^b Cn: Heb lacks those who ate

^a Heb But do not gloat (and similarly through verse 14)

^b Heb on the day of

^c Heb his

^d Meaning of Heb uncertain

^e Cn: Heb in this army

^a Cn: Meaning of Heb uncertain

^b Or Saviors