Obadiah 1

1 The vision of Obadiah. This is what the Lord GOD says about Edom. We have heard news from the LORD, and an ambassador is sent among the nations, saying, “Arise, and let’s rise up against her in battle.

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

3 The pride of your heart has deceived you, you who dwell in the clefts of the rock, whose habitation is high, who says in his heart, ‘Who will bring me down to the ground?’

4 Though you mount on high as the eagle, and though your nest is set among the stars, I will bring you down from there,” says the LORD.

5 “If thieves came to you, if robbers by night—oh, what disaster awaits you—wouldn’t they only steal until they had enough? If grape pickers came to you, wouldn’t they leave some gleaning grapes?

6 How Esau will be ransacked! How his hidden treasures are sought out!

7 All the men of your alliance have brought you on your way, even to the border. The men who were at peace with you have deceived you, and prevailed against you. Friends who eat your bread lay a snare under you. There is no understanding in him.”

8 “Won’t I in that day”, says the LORD, “destroy the wise men out of Edom, and understanding out of the mountain of Esau?

9 Your mighty men, Teman, will be dismayed, to the end that everyone may be cut off from the mountain of Esau by slaughter.

10 For the violence done to your brother Jacob, shame will cover you, and you will be cut off forever.

11 In the day that you stood on the other side, in the day that strangers carried away his substance and foreigners entered into his gates and cast lots for Jerusalem, even you were like one of them.

12 But don’t look down on your brother in the day of his disaster, and don’t rejoice over the children of Judah in the day of their destruction. Don’t speak proudly in the day of distress.

13 Don’t enter into the gate of my people in the day of their calamity. Don’t look down on their affliction in the day of their calamity, neither seize their wealth on the day of their calamity.

14 Don’t stand in the crossroads to cut off those of his who escape. Don’t deliver up those of his who remain in the day of distress.

15 For the day of the LORD is near all the nations! As you have done, it will be done to you. Your deeds will return upon your own head.

16 For as you have drunk on my holy mountain, so all the nations will drink continually. Yes, they will drink, swallow down, and will be as though they had not been.

17 But in Mount Zion, there will be those who escape, and it will be holy. The house of Jacob will possess their possessions.

18 The house of Jacob will be a fire, the house of Joseph a flame, and the house of Esau for stubble. They will burn among them and devour them. There will not be any remaining to the house of Esau.” Indeed, the LORD has spoken.

19 Those of the South will possess the mountain of Esau, and those of the lowland, the Philistines. They will possess the field of Ephraim, and the field of Samaria. Benjamin will possess Gilead.

20 The captives of this army of the children of Israel, who are among the Canaanites, will possess even to Zarephath; and the captives of Jerusalem, who are in Sepharad, will possess the cities of the Negev.

21 Saviors will go up on Mount Zion to judge the mountains of Esau, and the kingdom will be the LORD’s.

Around Obadiah 1

Context

Context for this book is being written. A note appears here only once it names its sources.

AI explanation

About Obadiah as a whole · Written by an AI model · Not reviewed by a theological reader

This explanation was written by an AI model to help you get started. It names no sources and can contain mistakes. Scripture comes first, and context with sources is shown separately on this page.

What this book is about

A city is breaking. Foreign armies are through its gates, and strangers cast lots for Jerusalem. And off to the side, watching, stands a brother.

“In the day that you stood on the other side,” Obadiah tells Edom, the nation descended from Esau, “even you were like one of them.” Edom lives high in the clefts of the rock and asks who could ever bring it down. The LORD answers that he will bring it down from the height of its nest, and that its allies and friends will turn on it.

Then comes a list of the things Edom should not have done in that day: look down on its brother, enter his gate, seize his wealth, wait at the crossroads to cut off those who escape, hand over those who remain. Above all: “don’t rejoice over the children of Judah in the day of their destruction.”

The last verses widen the view. The day of the LORD is near for all the nations, and the book closes with the words that “the kingdom will be the LORD’s.”

Background

Obadiah is the shortest book of the Old Testament, a single chapter, and the moment behind it is most likely the fall of Jerusalem to Babylon in 586 or 587 before Christ. Edom lay south-east of the Dead Sea. The long rivalry between Edom and Israel is traced back in Genesis to the brothers Esau and Jacob, which is why the book keeps saying brother (see Genesis 25 and 36).

How Christians read it

Readers have long taken Obadiah as a warning against pride, and against taking pleasure in another’s disaster, most of all a brother’s. Many take its ending as its center. Beyond the fall of any one nation, what remains is God’s rule. A book that begins with one sharp charge against one people ends on a line that is much wider than Edom.

About this explanation

Written by Claude Sonnet 5.5, an AI model, on 21 October 2026. It draws on the WEB text and general knowledge and was not checked against sources by a person. Every quotation from Scripture is checked automatically against the WEB text.

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World English Bible. Public-domain source and edition notes