1 The vision of Obadiah. The Sovereign Lord Jehovah spoke concerning Edom: »We have heard news from Jehovah. An ambassador is sent to the nations, saying, we must stand up against her Edom in battle.«

2 »Behold, I have made you small among the nations! You are greatly despised.

3 »Your proud heart has deceived you. You reside in the refuge of the rock. Your habitation is high above others and you say in your heart: ‘Who will bring me down to the ground?’«

4 »Even though you place yourself as high as the eagle, and though you nest among the stars, I will bring you down from there,« said Jehovah!

5 »If thieves and robbers came to you by night you would be destroyed. Would they steel only till they had enough? If grape-gatherers came to you, would they leave some grapes for gleaning?

6 »How is Esau searched, his hidden treasures sought?

7 »All the men allied with you have brought you to the border. The men that were at peace with you have deceived you and prevailed against you! They eat your bread and lay a snare under you. There is no understanding in him Edom.

8 »Shall I not in that day,« said Jehovah, »destroy the wise men out of Edom, and destroy understanding out of the mountain of Esau?

9 »Your mighty men, O Teman, will be dismayed, to the end that every one may be destroyed removed from the mountain of Esau by slaughter.

10 »You will be covered with shame for the violence done to your brother Jacob. You will be destroyed and disgraced for a very long time.

11 »In that day you stood on the other side! In that day strangers carried away his wealth. Foreigners entered his gates, and cast lots for Jerusalem! It was as if you were one of them!

12 Do not look on the day of your brother’s disaster. Do not rejoice over the children of Judah in the day of their destruction! Do not speak proudly in the day of distress.

13 »Do not enter the gate of my people in the day of their calamity! Do not look on their affliction in the day of their tragedy! Do not loot their wealth in the day of their disaster.

14 »Do not stand in the way of those who escape and do not hand over his survivors in the day of distress.

15 »The Day of Jehovah draws near upon all the nations. It will be done to you just as you have done. Your dealings will return upon you head!

16 »Just as you have drunk upon my holy mountain, so will all the nations drink! Continually: Yes they will drink, and swallow down, and will be as though they had never existed.

17 »There will be those who escape in Mount Zion. It will be holy, and the house of Jacob will take confiscate their possessions.

18 »The house of Jacob will be a fire! The house of Joseph will be a flame! The house of Esau will be for stubble and they will burn among them, and devour them. There will be no survivors of the house of Esau: for Jehovah has spoken!

19 »And they of the South will possess the mount of Esau! They of the lowland, the Philistines, will possess the field of Ephraim and the field of Samaria! Benjamin will possess Gilead.

20 »The captives of this host of the children of Israel among the Canaanites, will possess Zarephath. The captives of Jerusalem in Sepharad will possess the cities of the South.

21 »Saviors will come up on Mount Zion to judge the mountain of Esau; and the kingdom will be Jehovah's.«