OBADIAH

1 THE vision of Obdias. Thus saith the Lord God to Idumea; I have heard a report from the Lord, and he has sent forth a message to the nations.

2 Arise ye, and let us rise up against her to war. 3 Behold, I have made thee small among the Gentiles: thou art greatly dishonoured. The pride of thine heart has elated thee, dwelling as thou dost in the holes of the rocks, as one that exalts his habitation, saying in his heart, Who will bring me down to the ground? 4 If thou shouldest mount up as the eagle, and if thou shouldest make thy nest among the stars, thence will I bring thee down, saith the Lord. 5 If thieves came in to thee, or robbers by night, where wouldest thou have been cast away? would they not have stolen just enough for themselves? and if grape-gatherers went in to thee, would they not leave a gleaning.

6 How has Esau been searched out, and how have his hidden things been detected? 7 They sent thee to thy coasts: all the men of thy covenant have withstood thee; thine allies have prevailed against thee, they have set snares under thee: they have no understanding.

8 In that day, saith the Lord, I will destroy the wise men out of Idumea, and understanding out of the mount of Esau. 9 And thy warriors from Thæman shall be dismayed, to the end that man may be cut off from the mount of Esau. 10 Because of the slaughter and the sin committed against thy brother Jacob, shame shall cover thee, and thou shalt be cut off for ever. 11 From the day that thou stoodest in opposition to him, in the days when foreigners were taking captive his forces, and strangers entered into his gates, and cast lots on Jerusalem, thou also wast as one of them.

12 And thou shouldest not have looked on the day of thy brother in the day of strangers; nor shouldest thou have rejoiced against the children of Juda in the day of their destruction; neither shouldest thou have boasted in the day of their affliction. 13 Neither shouldest thou have gone into the gates of the people in the day of their troubles; nor yet shouldest thou have looked upon their gathering in the day of their destruction, nor shouldest thou have attacked their host in the day of their perishing. 14 Neither shouldest thou have stood at the opening of their passages, to destroy utterly those of them that were escaping; neither shouldest thou have shut up his fugitives in the day of affliction.

15 For the day of the Lord is near upon all the Gentiles: as thou hast done, so shall it be done to thee: thy recompense shall be returned on thine own head. 16 For as thou hast drunk upon my holy mountains, so shall all the nations drink wine; they shall drink, and go down, and be as if they were not.

17 But on Mount Sion there shall be deliverance, and there shall be a sanctuary; and the house of Jacob shall take for an inheritance those that took them for an inheritance. 18 And the house of Jacob shall be fire, and the house of Joseph a flame, and the house of Esau shall be for stubble; and Israel shall flame forth against them, and shall devour them, and there shall not be a corn-field left to the house of Esau; because the Lord has spoken. 19 And they that dwell in the south shall inherit the mount of Esau, and they in the plain the Philistines: and they shall inherit the mount of Ephraim, and the plain of Samaria, and Benjamin, and the land of Galaad.

20 And this shall be the domain of the captivity of the children of Israel, the land of the Chananites as far as Sarepta; and the captives of Jerusalem shall inherit as far as Ephratha; they shall inherit the cities of the south.

21 And they that escape shall come up from mount Sion, to take vengeance on the mount of Esau; and the kingdom shall be the Lord’s.