Obadiah’s vision

1The vision of Obadiah.

This is what the Sovereign Lord says about Edom –

We have heard a message from the Lord:

an envoy was sent to the nations to say,

‘Rise, let us go against her for battle’ –

2‘See, I will make you small among the nations;

you will be utterly despised.

3The pride of your heart has deceived you,

you who live in the clefts of the rocks1:3 Or of Sela

and make your home on the heights,

you who say to yourself,

“Who can bring me down to the ground?”

4Though you soar like the eagle

and make your nest among the stars,

from there I will bring you down,’

declares the Lord.

5‘If thieves came to you,

if robbers in the night –

oh, what a disaster awaits you! –

would they not steal only as much as they wanted?

If grape pickers came to you,

would they not leave a few grapes?

6But how Esau will be ransacked,

his hidden treasures pillaged!

7All your allies will force you to the border;

your friends will deceive and overpower you;

those who eat your bread will set a trap for you,1:7 The meaning of the Hebrew for this clause is uncertain.

but you will not detect it.

8‘In that day,’ declares the Lord,

‘will I not destroy the wise men of Edom,

those of understanding in the mountains of Esau?

9Your warriors, Teman, will be terrified,

and everyone in Esau’s mountains

will be cut down in the slaughter.

10Because of the violence against your brother Jacob,

you will be covered with shame;

you will be destroyed for ever.

11On the day you stood aloof

while strangers carried off his wealth

and foreigners entered his gates

and cast lots for Jerusalem,

you were like one of them.

12You should not gloat over your brother

in the day of his misfortune,

nor rejoice over the people of Judah

in the day of their destruction,

nor boast so much

in the day of their trouble.

13You should not march through the gates of my people

in the day of their disaster,

nor gloat over them in their calamity

in the day of their disaster,

nor seize their wealth

in the day of their disaster.

14You should not wait at the crossroads

to cut down their fugitives,

nor hand over their survivors

in the day of their trouble.

15‘The day of the Lord is near

for all nations.

As you have done, it will be done to you;

your deeds will return upon your own head.

16Just as you drank on my holy hill,

so all the nations will drink continually;

they will drink and drink

and be as if they had never been.

17But on Mount Zion will be deliverance;

it will be holy,

and Jacob will possess his inheritance.

18Jacob will be a fire

and Joseph a flame;

Esau will be stubble,

and they will set him on fire and destroy him.

There will be no survivors

from Esau.’

The Lord has spoken.

19People from the Negev will occupy

the mountains of Esau,

and people from the foothills will possess

the land of the Philistines.

They will occupy the fields of Ephraim and Samaria,

and Benjamin will possess Gilead.

20This company of Israelite exiles who are in Canaan

will possess the land as far as Zarephath;

the exiles from Jerusalem who are in Sepharad

will possess the towns of the Negev.

21Deliverers will go up on1:21 Or from Mount Zion

to govern the mountains of Esau.

And the kingdom will be the Lord’s.