This verse contains the title of the book, the shortest title of any Old Testament prophetical book, as well as a summary of the Lord's decree against Edom. This revelation came as a vision (Heb. hazon; cf. 1 Sam. 3:1; Isa. 1:1; Nah. 1:1) to the prophet.
"The vision is to be sharply differentiated from common sight and things seen. It is the result of inspiration and is understood as having unique significance since it is given by God himself."12
The vision came to the prophet Obadiah ("servant of Yahweh"or "worshipper of Yahweh"). As mentioned in the introduction to this exposition, nothing is known about Obadiah other than his name. We must infer where and when he lived and ministered from clues in the book.
Adonai (i.e., sovereign) Yahweh (cf. Gen. 2:4; et al.) had made a pronouncement concerning the nation of Edom. This is an unusual title for the Lord.
"Yahweh was truly Lord. This entire prophecy gives one specific example of the exercise of his lordship."13
Edom was the nation that had developed from the descendants of Esau, the twin brother of Jacob (cf. Gen. 36:1). The Edomites occupied the territory east of the Arabah between the Dead Sea and the Gulf of Aqabah south of the Zered River and north of Ezion-geber (Elath). Its eastern boundary was the Arabian Desert. Edom was also known as Seir after Mount Seir, the prominent tableland that occupied the northeastern part of Edom's territory.
Those who had heard a report (message) from the Lord were God's people. Obadiah spoke to them and used an editorial "we."God was sovereignly and supernaturally summoning other nations against Edom, probably through "natural"means (i.e., the desire to defeat her and take over her territory). The envoy sent among the nations is probably a personification of the desire God had placed in these nations to destroy Edom. That desire, from the spiritual viewpoint, was His messenger.
Verses 2-9 contain three sections, which the phrase "declares the Lord"marks off (vv. 4, 8).
v. 2 Yahweh called Obadiah's hearers to see that He would make Edom, which was already despised because of her character, small among the nations. He would humble her further.
v. 3 The outstanding mark of Edom's national character was pride. The Hebrew word for pride (zadon) comes from a verb meaning to boil up (zid). It pictures pride being like water that boils up under pressure in a cooking pot. Similarly the proud person is like a bubble that thrusts itself up but is hollow. Interestingly, the same Hebrew word occurs three times in the account of Esau, the father of the Edomites, squandering his birthright (Gen. 25:27-34).
". . . the key that unlocks the central moral lesson of the book is found in these words in the third verse: The pride of thine heart hath deceived thee."14
"It is possible for Christians also to fall into the sin of pride. One has only to dismiss God from the reckoning, one has but to slip into the habit of neglecting his Bible, one has merely to fail to be alone with God daily in prayer, and he too may fall into the sin of making decisions and living his life on a secular basis without placing God and His will foremost."15
The Edomites thought they were superior because they inhabited a lofty region, Mt. Seir. They thought they were secure because they occupied this militarily favorable location. In fact, they thought they were invincible.
"Edom's natural defenses were imposing. Its main centers of civilization were situated in a narrow ridge of mountainous land southeast of the Dead Sea . . . This ridge exceeded a height of 4,000 feet throughout its northern sector, and it rose in places to 5,700 feet in the south. Its height was rendered more inaccessible by the gorges radiating from it toward the Arabah on the west and the desert eastwards.
"In addition to these natural fortifications, Edom was strongly defended by a series of Iron Age fortresses, particularly on the eastern frontier where the land descended more gradually to the desert."16
The rock (Heb. sela') in view is the granite and sandstone that made up Mt. Seir. Thought Sela was also the name of an Edomite town (cf. 2 Kings 14:7), here the mountain home of the whole nation seems to be in view.17
v. 4 Here the figure of an eagle that was also in view in the previous verse becomes explicit. Even if the Edomites would build their nest as high as the stars (hyperbole), God would bring them down.18They might have been humanly unassailable, but they were not divinely unassailable. They had proudly boasted, "Who will bring me down to the earth?"(v. 3), but Yahweh replied, "I will bring you down"(v. 4). He would burst their bubble. He Himself declared that He would.
vv. 5-6 Thieves robbed houses and grape pickers stripped vineyards, yet both left a little behind that they did not carry off. However, Yahweh's destruction of Edom would be so complete that nothing at all would remain of her (cf. Jer. 49:9-10). There would be no remnant of Edom left (in contrast to the remnant that Yahweh promised elsewhere to leave in Israel). The form of this assurance sounds like mourning in the presence of death. Concealed treasures of all kinds, human as well as material, would not escape Yahweh's omniscient eye.19
v. 7 Edom's allies would treacherously betray their friend. Thus Edom would not only deceive herself, but her trusted allies would also deceive her. They would do what in the ancient Near East was most despicable, namely, break covenant with a covenant partner (cf. Ps. 55:20; Amos 1:9). Edom's allies would prove to be the worst of enemies. They would fail to assist her in her hour of greatest need. Three parallel descriptions of covenant disloyalty in this verse picture the treachery as certain. Moreover this disloyalty would completely surprise the Edomites.
"Edom was a weak country militarily, its small population and its limited agricultural wealth precluding powerful armed forces. Therefore its ability to attack Judah's Negeb and help plunder Jerusalem had depended on its obsequious alliance with more powerful states, especially Babylon."20
"Obadiah's discussion nicely interweaves the themes of divine intervention and human instrumentality."21
v. 8 The repetition of "declares the Lord"(cf. v. 4) reemphasizes Yahweh's initiative in this judgment. "That day"points to a specific, though undefined, day when He would surely destroy Edom.
God would destroy Edom's famous wise men (cf. 1 Kings 4:30; Job 1:1; 2:11; 4:1; Jer. 49:7; Lam. 4:21) and their understanding by allowing them to fail to detect the unfaithfulness of their allies (v. 7) and to overestimate their own security (v. 3).
"Because of its communication with Babylon and Egypt and because of the information gleaned through the caravans going to and from Europe and India, Edom had gained an enviable reputation for wisdom."22
The "mountain of Esau"is Mt. Seir, the mountain God gave Esau and his descendants to inhabit (Deut. 2:5).
v. 9 The "mighty men"of Edom may be a synonym for the wise men (v. 8) or the nation's warriors. Together with the wise men the mighty men form a merism, a figure of speech in which two parts stand for the whole, in this case all the Edomites. Rather than feeling confident, the mighty men, a chief resource of the nation, would feel dismayed when they realized that their covenant partners had proved traitorous.
Teman was both a prominent town in central Edom (possibly modern Tuwilan)23and the region around the town (cf. Gen. 36:10-11), but its name stands for the whole nation (by metonymy). The end of all this deception and destruction would be the total end of Edom.
