1    ^noteThe vision of Obadiah: what the Lord God has said concerning Edom.

  When a herald was sent out among the nations, crying,
    ‘Rouse yourselves;
  let us rouse ourselves to battle against Edom’,
  I ^note heard this message from the Lord:


2   Look, I make you the least of all nations,
    an object of contempt.
   3   Your proud, insolent heart has led you astray;
    you who haunt the crannies among the rocks,
    making your home on the heights,
you say to yourself, ‘Who can bring me to the ground?’
     4   Though you soar as high as a vulture
  and your nest is set among the stars,
    thence I will bring you down.
    This is the very word of the Lord.


5    ^note If thieves or robbers come to you by night,
    though your loss be heavy,
  they will steal only what they want;
  if vintagers come to you,
  will they not leave gleanings?
   6   But see how Esau's treasure is ransacked,
    his secret wealth hunted out!
7   All your former allies march you to the frontier,
your confederates mislead you and bring you low,
your own kith and kin lay a snare for your feet,
    a snare that works blindly, without wisdom.
     8   And on that very day
  I will destroy all the sages of Edom
    and leave no wisdom on the mount of Esau.
    This is the very word of the Lord.
   9   Then shall your warriors, O Teman, be so enfeebled,

Edom's pride and downfall
that every man shall be cut down on the mount of Esau.
   10   For the murderous violence done to your brother Jacob
you shall be covered with shame and cut off for ever.
     11   On the day when you stood aloof,
  on the day when strangers carried off his wealth,
  when foreigners trooped in by his gates
  and parcelled out Jerusalem by lot,
  you yourselves were of one mind with them.
   12   Do not gloat over your brother on the day of his misfortune,
  nor rejoice over Judah on his day of ruin;
  do not boast on the day of distress,
   13   nor enter my people's gates on the day of his downfall.
Do not gloat over his fall on the day of his downfall
nor seize his treasure on the day of his downfall.
14   Do not wait at the cross-roads to cut off his fugitives
  nor betray the survivors on the day of distress.


15   For soon the day of the Lord will come on all the nations:
  you shall be treated as you have treated others,
  and your deeds will recoil on your own head.
16   The draught that you have drunk on my holy mountain
  all the nations shall drink continually;
    they shall drink and gulp down
  and shall be as though they had never been;
   17   but on Mount Zion there shall be those that escape,
    and it shall be holy,
  and Jacob shall dispossess those that dispossessed them.
   18   Then shall the house of Jacob be fire,
    the house of Joseph flame,
    and the house of Esau shall be chaff;
  they shall blaze through it and consume it,
  and the house of Esau shall have no survivor.
    The Lord has spoken.
   19   Then they shall possess the Negeb, the mount of Esau,
    and the Shephelah of the Philistines;
  they shall possess the country-side of Ephraim and Samaria,
    and Benjamin shall possess Gilead.
20   Exiles of Israel ^note shall possess ^note Canaan as far as Zarephath,
exiles of Jerusalem ^note shall possess the cities of the Negeb.
   21   Those who find safety on Mount Zion shall go up
    to hold sway over the mount of Esau,
    and dominion shall belong to the Lord.

Previous section

Next section