1. The vision of Obadiah.This is what the Sovereign Lord says about Edom –We have heard a message from the Lord:an envoy was sent to the nations to say,‘Rise, let us go against her for battle’ –
2. ‘See, I will make you small among the nations;you will be utterly despised.
3. The pride of your heart has deceived you,you who live in the clefts of the rocksand make your home on the heights,you who say to yourself,“Who can bring me down to the ground?”
4. Though you soar like the eagleand make your nest among the stars,from there I will bring you down,’declares the Lord.
5. ‘If thieves came to you,if robbers in the night –oh, what a disaster awaits you –would they not steal only as much as they wanted?If grape pickers came to you,would they not leave a few grapes?
6. But how Esau will be ransacked,his hidden treasures pillaged!
7. All your allies will force you to the border;your friends will deceive and overpower you;those who eat your bread will set a trap for you,but you will not detect it.
8. ‘In that day,’ declares the Lord,‘will I not destroy the wise men of Edom,those of understanding in the mountains of Esau?
9. Your warriors, Teman, will be terrified,and everyone in Esau’s mountainswill be cut down in the slaughter.
10. Because of the violence against your brother Jacob,you will be covered with shame;you will be destroyed for ever.
11. On the day you stood aloofwhile strangers carried off his wealthand foreigners entered his gatesand cast lots for Jerusalem,you were like one of them.
12. You should not gloat over your brotherin the day of his misfortune,nor rejoice over the people of Judahin the day of their destruction,nor boast so muchin the day of their trouble.
13. You should not march through the gates of my peoplein the day of their disaster,nor gloat over them in their calamityin the day of their disaster,nor seize their wealthin the day of their disaster.
14. You should not wait at the crossroadsto cut down their fugitives,nor hand over their survivorsin the day of their trouble.
15. ‘The day of the Lord is nearfor all nations.As you have done, it will be done to you;your deeds will return upon your own head.
16. Just as you drank on my holy hill,so all the nations will drink continually;they will drink and drinkand be as if they had never been.
17. But on Mount Zion will be deliverance;it will be holy,and Jacob will possess his inheritance.
18. Jacob will be a fireand Joseph a flame;Esau will be stubble,and they will set him on fire and destroy him.There will be no survivorsfrom Esau.’The Lord has spoken.
19. People from the Negev will occupythe mountains of Esau,and people from the foothills will possessthe land of the Philistines.They will occupy the fields of Ephraim and Samaria,and Benjamin will possess Gilead.
20. This company of Israelite exiles who are in Canaanwill possess the land as far as Zarephath;the exiles from Jerusalem who are in Sepharadwill possess the towns of the Negev.
21. Deliverers will go up on Mount Zionto govern the mountains of Esau.And the kingdom will be the Lord’s.Footnotes for the Book of Obadiah