1. THE VISION of Obadiah. Thus says the Lord God concerning Edom: We have heard tidings from the Lord, and an ambassador is sent forth among the nations [saying], Arise, and let us rise up against [Edom] for battle! [Ps. 137:7; Isa. 34:1-15; 63:1-6; Jer. 49:7-22; Ezek. 25:8-14.]
2. Behold, I will make you small among the nations [Edom]; you shall be despised exceedingly. [Ezek. 35.]
3. The pride of your heart has deceived you, you dweller in the refuges of the rock [Petra, Edom's capital], whose habitation is high, who says in his heart, Who can bring me down to the ground?
4. Though you mount on high as the eagle and though you set your nest among the stars, I will bring you down from there, says the Lord.
5. If thieves came to you, if robbers by night–how you are brought to nothing!–would they not steal only enough for themselves? If grape gatherers came to you, would they not leave some grapes for gleaning? [But this ravaging was done by God, not men.] [Jer. 49:9.]
6. How are the things of Esau [Edom] searched out! How are his hidden treasures sought out!
7. All the men of your confederacy (your allies) have brought you on your way, even to the border; the men who were at peace with you have deceived you and prevailed against you; they who eat your bread have laid a snare under you. There is no understanding [in Edom, or] of it.
8. Will not I in that day, says the Lord, destroy the wise men out of Edom and [men of] understanding out of Mount Esau [Idumea, a mountainous region]?
9. And your mighty men, O Teman, shall be dismayed, to the end that everyone from Mount Esau will be cut off by slaughter.
10. For the violence you did against your brother Jacob, shame shall cover you, and you shall be cut off forever.
11. On the day that you stood aloof [from your brother Jacob]–on the day that strangers took captive his forces and carried off his wealth, and foreigners entered into his gates and cast lots for Jerusalem–you were even as one of them. [Num. 20:18-20; Amos 1:11, 12.]
12. But you should not have gloated over your brother's day, the day when his misfortune came and he was made a stranger; you should not have rejoiced over the sons of Judah in the day of their ruin; you should not have spoken arrogantly in the day of their distress.