CHAPTER ONE
A VERSE 1. "The vision of Obadiah." That is to say, this is the revelation made by God to Obadiah. "Thus saith the Lord God to Idumea." He says: I do not speak these words using human reasoning, but the God of the universe uses my tongue as a kind of instrument, and announces to Idumea what is to come. And teaching what sort of things these are, he adds: "I have heard a report from the Lord, and he has sent a message to the nations." Symmachus translates "message" as "embassy." By these things, he shows that the Lord himself is gathering the enemies against Idumea. For he adds: "Arise, and let us rise up against it for war." For like some general of war, he gathers the expedition against them, teaching that it is He himself who permits them to suffer these things. B
VERSE 2. "Behold, I have made thee little among the nations; thou art greatly despised." And indicating the cause why this comes to pass:
VERSE 3. "The pride of thy heart," he says, "has lifted thee up." Afterwards he teaches the causes of the pride: "Thou who dwellest in the clefts of the rocks." Then he also makes plain his thoughts: "Who exaltest thy habitation, saying in thy heart: Who shall bring me down to the ground?" Idumea was fenced in on every side by the highest mountain peaks; climbing these, when they were attacked by enemies, they often escaped many ambushes in this way. C Since, therefore, he says, you are arrogant and high-minded, trusting in these things, as if you were impregnable, I shall make you conquerable and easy for your enemies to capture, and you will not escape the hands of your enemies: not even if you were lifted up on high after the manner of an eagle, and were to fly above the very clouds, and have your dwelling beside the stars themselves. And showing that it will perish utterly, he added:
VERSES 5, 6. "If thieves had come to thee, or robbers by night, where wouldst thou have been cast away? Would they not have stolen what was sufficient for them? And if grape-gatherers had come to thee, would they not have left a grape-cluster? How has Esau been searched out, and his hidden things been discovered?" Thieves, indeed, having seized what is lying ready to hand, depart, not daring to search the whole house; and those who D harvest the vineyards neglect to examine everything with too much curiosity; wherefore it happens that, once the larger clusters are gathered, they leave small bunches on many branches. But you, the enemies will so search out that not even the things you have hidden in secret places will escape their hands.
VERSE 7. "They have sent thee out to the borders, all the men of thy covenant have withstood thee: thy men of peace have prevailed against thee: they who eat with thee have laid snares under thee." Those, he says, who were recently joined to you and were your confederates and allies in benevolence will be joined to your enemies. This
they will do, and they will drive you not only from your cities but even from the borders of your land, whether they seek to do so by open warfare or by employing ambushes: the cause of these evils for you is your own lack of understanding. For He revealed this when He said: A
"There is no understanding in him." (Vers. 8, 9.) "In that day, says the Lord, I will destroy the wise men out of Idumea, and understanding from the mount of Esau. And your warriors from Teman will be terrified, that man may be cut off from the mount of Esau." All of them together, both those who boast of their strength, and those who grow insolent over their wisdom, and those who are subject to them, I will hand over to total destruction. And, revealing the justice of the sentence: B
Vers. 10. "Because of the slaughter, he says, and the impiety against thy brother Jacob, shame shall cover thee, and thou shalt be cut off forever." He also enumerates the types of injuries inflicted upon his brother.
Vers. 11. "From the day thou stoodest against him, in the day when strangers carried away his forces, and aliens entered his gates, and cast lots upon Jerusalem, and thou wast as one of them." For, although it is a terrible thing for strangers to invade, make war, and enslave, it is a lesser evil. But for you, who are of the same blood and trace your lineage from Abraham, to have dared to do these things to your own kin, no excuse for pardon remains. For you trampled upon the laws of kinship, C helping the aliens while making war against your own people. "And thou, he says, wast as one of them." These things he does not foretell as having already happened, but as things to come, in the peculiar manner of the prophets; and what follows makes this clear.
Vers. 12. "Do not look upon the day of thy brother in the day of strangers." He calls the time of punishment a "day." And "Do not look upon" he has taken from common usage; for it is the custom of some to say, "I looked upon such a one," that is, "I rejoiced as I saw him struggling with evils." This is also explained by what follows. "And do not rejoice over the sons of Judah in the day of their affliction." Seeing their misfortunes, do not exalt thyself that thou hast remained free from these calamities. D
Vers. 13. "Neither enter thou into the gates of the peoples in the day of their labors." Do not enter with the enemies who are ravaging the city of your kin. "And do not look, even thou, upon their gathering in the day of their destruction." Do not, he says, rejoice like the outsiders while they are suffering punishment. "Neither lay hands on their forces in the day of their ruin." Neither increase their punishments with your own incursions.
A Do not lie in wait for them on the roads, so that they may not be able to obtain safety even by flight, but may fall into your snares and be handed over to the hands of their enemies. Who could worthily praise, in accordance with its worth, the incredible goodness of the just Judge, who, although he knew perfectly well that they would not believe the prophetic words, applied the proposed threats so that, part by part through fear and part by part through allurement, he might soften those who were savage? For he adds:
VERS. 15. "Because the day of the Lord is near upon all the nations." For I am exacting punishments from all the nations that live impiously; I will inflict the same upon you, since you are unwilling to obey. "Just as you have done, so shall it be done to you; your retribution shall return upon your own head." You will suffer just things, being sentenced to punishment; for you will reap the fruits of those things which you have sown. Therefore,
VERS. 16. "As you have drunk upon my holy mountain, all the nations shall drink the wine," the mystical one: "they shall drink and shall swallow down, and they shall be as though they did not exist." B For just as I will exact from you the penalties for those things which you have dared to do rashly in the places dedicated to me, so also the nations which have been partakers with you in this iniquity shall be punished with just vengeance. For he calls punishment the drinking of wine; and blessed Jeremiah clearly teaches us this, having been commanded to take the cup and to give all the nations to drink. And it is easy to understand this from many other places as well. But you, O Idumeans, shall pay the penalties for the things you have committed against your brothers.
VERS. 17. "But on Mount Sion there shall be salvation, and it shall be holy." For I will bring them back from captivity, and I will rebuild the holy temple. Yet at the same time he foretells the salvation granted to all people in Sion, and the sanctification poured out from there into the whole world through the saving cross. "And the house of Jacob shall inherit those who possessed them." To them indeed, after they have returned, I will supply so much strength and power, and I will increase them into such a multitude, that they will subject to themselves both your land and that of the other neighboring nations.
VERS. 18. "And the house of Jacob shall be fire, D and the house of Joseph a flame, but the house of Esau straw; and they shall be kindled in them and shall consume them." You will be cast into such great weakness that you will be consumed by them like fire. He called them Jacob and Joseph, since he also often named the ten tribes Ephraim (and he was the son of Joseph). "And there shall be no fire-bearer for the house of Esau, because the Lord..."
A Symmachus has translated "the fire-bearer" as "the preserved" [keeper/survivor], but Aquila and Theodotion as "the left behind." By these words, he is indicating their total destruction. The Seventy, however, have not used the term "fire-bearer" without reason; but since all together have said that Jacob is a fire and Joseph a flame (and these names indicate strength and power), they wished to suggest that no power would be left to the Idumaeans.
B Ver. 19. "And they shall possess those in Nageb, the mount of Esau." And this term, the three interpreters have unanimously rendered as "the south"; for the south is so called in the Hebrew language. He says, therefore, that those who dwell to the south of Jerusalem, that is, those bordering on the Idumaeans, shall possess as a kind of inheritance and portion the land of the Idumaeans; and they who are in the Shephelah (for these are neighbors to the Philistines) will make for themselves the region which the Philistines now possess. C And all those delivered from captivity together, in common, shall possess the mount of Ephraim, and the fields adjacent to the mountain, and the inheritance of Benjamin, and the whole of Gilead; and they shall have as boundaries those that the Canaanites formerly held, so that Sarepta is the limit of the land which Israel will possess. And Jerusalem shall hold the city of Ephrata, and those still further south than this; for he indicated this by saying: "They shall inherit the cities of Nageb." Nor will they be satisfied with these alone, but they will also make the mount of Esau their own, being soldiers under God as King, and dedicating themselves to Him. D It should be noted that the end of this prophecy and the end of the prophecy of the blessed Ezekiel harmonize. For there also he previously describes the division of the land, and predicts the return of the people, and the strength and power given to them by God after the return. Would that we, too, might obtain this from the most bountiful God! We shall obtain it, if only we do not imitate Esau and his descendants, but learn, according to the apostolic ordinance, to rejoice with those who rejoice, and to weep with those who weep, and desire to be of the same mind one toward another. For by observing the Lord of all with such a way of life, we shall enjoy His gifts, by the grace of our Savior Jesus Christ, with whom to the Father is the glory, together with the Holy Spirit, now and always, and for the ages of ages. Amen.