Edom Will Be Destroyed
1The prophecy of Obadiah.
We have received tidings from the Lord,
And an envoy has been sent out among the nations:
“Up! Let us rise up against her for battle.”
Thus said my Lord God concerning Edom:
2I will make you least among nations,
You shall be most despised.
3Your arrogant heart has seduced you,
You who dwell in clefts of the rock,
In your lofty abode.
You think in your heart,
“Who can pull me down to earth?”
4Should you nest as high as the eagle,
Should your eyrie be lodged ’mong the stars,
Even from there I will pull you down
—declares the Lord. [ . . . ]
8[ . . . ] I will make the wise vanish from Edom,
Understanding from Esau’s mount.
9Your warriors shall lose heart, O Teman,
And not a man on Esau’s mount
Shall survive the slaughter.
10For the outrage to your brother Jacob,
Disgrace shall engulf you,
And you shall perish forever.
11On that day when you stood aloof,
When aliens carried off his goods,
When foreigners entered his gates
And cast lots for Jerusalem,
You were as one of them. [ . . . ]
On its day of disaster!
14How could you stand at the passes
To cut down its fugitives!
How could you betray those who fled
On that day of anguish!
15As you did, so shall it be done to you;
Your conduct shall be requited. [ . . . ]
17But on Zion’s mount a remnant shall survive,
And it shall be holy.a
The House of Jacob shall dispossess
Those who dispossessed them.
18The House of Jacob shall be fire,
And the House of Joseph flame,
And the House of Esau shall be straw;
They shall burn it and devour it,
And no survivor shall be left of the House of Esau
—for the Lord has spoken.
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Notes
I.e., inviolate.
Credits
Reprinted from Tanakh: The Holy Scriptures by permission of the University of Nebraska Press. Copyright 1985 by the Jewish Publication Society, Philadelphia.
Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 1.