Obadiah 1

1The vision of Obadiah. Thus says the Lord God to Edom: 'I heard a report from the Lord, and He sent out a message to the nations, saying, 'Arise, and let us rise up against her for battle.'

2Behold, I have made you least among the nations; you are greatly dishonored.

3The arrogance of your heart exalts you, dwelling as you do in the clefts of the rocks, as one overconfident in his habitation, saying in his heart, 'Who will bring me down to the ground?'

4If you should ascend as the eagle, and if you should make your nest amongst the stars, from there I shall bring you down,' says the Lord.

5'If thieves come upon you or robbers by night, then to what place will you escape? Will they not steal a considerable amount for themselves? And surely if grape-gatherers come to you, will they not leave a gleaning?

6How Esau has been searched out, and his hidden things seized!

7All your allies force you to your borders. Men at peace with you oppose you and prevail against you. They set an ambush below you; there is no understanding in them.

8'In that day,' says the Lord, 'I shall destroy the wise men from Edom and understanding from the mountain of Esau.

9And your warriors from Teman will be terrified, in order that everyone from the mountain of Esau may be cut off.

10Because of the slaughter and ungodliness against your brother Jacob, shame shall cover you, and you will be cut off forever.

11Because of that day in which you stood back and only watched the capture, his forces being led away as captives by foreigners; in the day when they entered his gates and cast lots for Jerusalem—on that day you were as one of them.

12And you should not have looked on the day of your brother, on the day of foreigners, and you should not have rejoiced against the children of Judah in the day of their destruction, nor spoken boastfully on the day of distress.

13Neither should you have gone into the gates of the people on the day of their suffering. Neither should you have looked upon their gathering in the day of their ruin, and you should not have joined in the attack on their forces in the day of their destruction.

14Nor should you have stood at their mountain passes to put to death those escaping; nor should you have taken prisoner those fleeing from them in the day of trial.

15'For the day of the Lord is near against all the nations. For as you have done, it shall be done to you in the same manner. Your recompense shall return on your own head.

16For in the same way that you drank on My holy mountain, so too shall all the nations drink wine. They will drink and will be brought down, and it will be as if they never existed.

17'But deliverance will come to Mount Zion, and it will be holy. And the house of Jacob shall obtain their inheritance as their rightful inheritance.

18And the house of Jacob shall be the fire, and the house of Joseph the flame; but the house of Esau shall be the stubble and will be devoured in flames, and no one of the house of Esau will survive,' for the Lord has spoken.

19And those who dwell in the Negev shall inherit the mountain of Esau, and those of the Sephelah the land of the Philistines. They will inherit the mountain of Ephraim, the plains of Samaria and Benjamin, and the land of Gilead.

20For the captivity of the sons of Israel shall possess the land of the Canaanite as far as Zarephath; the captivity of Jerusalem as far as Ephratha shall possess the cities of the Negev.

21And those who have been rescued shall ascend from Mount Zion to exact vengeance on the mountain of Esau, and the kingdom shall be the Lord's.