Obadiah
Chapter 1
1 Obadiah’s vision. This is what God says about Edom: We’ve heard a report from God, and a messenger has been sent to the nations, saying, “Get up, and let’s fight against Edom.”
2 Look, I have made you small among the nations: you are very disliked.
3 Your proud heart has tricked you, you who live in the mountain cracks and high places, thinking to yourself, “Who can bring me down to the ground?”
4 Even if you rise high like an eagle and put your home among the stars, I will bring you down, says God.
5 If thieves came to you, if robbers at night, (you are destroyed!) wouldn’t they steal only what they needed? If grape pickers came to you, wouldn’t they leave some grapes behind?
6 People have thoroughly searched Esau’s belongings and found his hidden treasures.
7 All your allies have led you to the border; the friends who were at peace with you have tricked you and have overcome you; those who shared your bread have set a trap beneath you: there is no wisdom in him.
8 On that day, God says, won’t I remove the wise from Edom and the understanding from the mountain of Esau?
9 Your strong men, O Teman, will be scared so that everyone on Mount Esau will be killed.
10 Because you hurt your brother Jacob, shame will cover you, and you will be gone forever.
11 On the day you stood by, on the day strangers took his people away and outsiders came into his city, throwing dice for Jerusalem, you acted just like them.
12 You should not have watched when your brother was in trouble, nor should you have been happy when the people of Judah were destroyed, nor should you have boasted when they were in distress.
13 You should not have gone through my people’s gate when they were in trouble; indeed, you should not have watched their suffering on that day, nor should you have touched their belongings.
14 You should not have waited at the crossroads to kill the survivors, nor should you have handed over the remaining people in their time of trouble.
15 God’s day is coming soon for all nations; what you have done will be done to you; your actions will come back to you.
16 Just as you drank on my sacred hill, so will all the nations keep drinking; they will drink and gulp down until they are like they never existed.
17 On Mount Zion there will be rescue, and it will be a holy place; the family of Jacob will take back their belongings.
18 Jacob’s family will be like a fire, Joseph’s family like a flame, and Esau’s family like dry grass. They will burn Esau’s family and nothing will be left, because God has said so.
19 People from the south will take over the land of Esau; those from the flat lands will take over Philistine territory. They will also take the farmlands of Ephraim and Samaria, and Benjamin will take over Gilead.
20 The people of Israel who were taken away will take over the land of the Canaanites up to Zarephath, and the people from Jerusalem who were taken to Sepharad will take over the southern cities.
21 Rescuers will come to Mount Zion to rule over Esau’s hill, and the kingdom will belong to God.