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God Will Judge the Nations

15 “The day is near when I, the Lord,
    will judge all nations.
Edom, what you have done
    will be done to you.
    You will get back what you have given.
16 My people have drunk a bitter cup of punishment
    on my sacred hill.[a]
But all the surrounding nations will drink
    a still more bitter cup of punishment;
    they will drink it all and vanish away.

The Victory of Israel

17 “But on Mount Zion some will escape,
    and it will be a sacred place.
The people of Jacob will possess
    the land that is theirs by right.
18 The people of Jacob and of Joseph will be like fire;
    they will destroy the people of Esau
    as fire burns stubble.
    No descendant of Esau will survive.
I, the Lord, have spoken.

19 “People from southern Judah will occupy Edom;
    those from the western foothills will capture Philistia.
Israelites will possess the territory of Ephraim and Samaria;
    the people of Benjamin will take Gilead.
20 The army of exiles from northern Israel
    will return and conquer Phoenicia as far north as Zarephath.
The exiles from Jerusalem who are in Sardis
    will capture the towns of southern Judah.
21 The victorious men of Jerusalem
    will attack Edom and rule over it.
And the Lord himself will be king.”

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Footnotes

  1. Obadiah 1:16 Mount Zion (see Zion in Word List).

15 For the Day of Adonai is near for all nations;
as you did, it will be done to you;
your dealings will come back on your own head.
16 For just as you have drunk on my holy mountain,
so will all the nations drink in turn;
yes, they will drink and gulp it down
and be as if they had never existed.

17 But on Mount Tziyon there will be
a holy remnant who will escape,
and the house of Ya‘akov will repossess
their rightful inheritance.
18 The house of Ya‘akov will be a fire
and the house of Yosef a flame,
setting aflame and consuming
the stubble which is the house of ‘Esav.
None of the house of ‘Esav will remain,
for Adonai has spoken.
19 Those in the Negev will repossess
the mountain of ‘Esav,
and those in the Sh’felah
the land of the P’lishtim;
they will repossess the field of Efrayim
and the field of Shomron,
and Binyamin will occupy Gil‘ad.
20 Those from this army of the people of Isra’el
exiled among the Kena‘anim as far away as Tzarfat,
and the exiles from Yerushalayim in S’farad,
will repossess the cities in the Negev.
21 Then the victorious will ascend Mount Tziyon
to rule over Mount ‘Esav,
but the kingship will belong to Adonai.

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15-18 God’s Judgment Day is near
    for all the godless nations.
As you have done, it will be done to you.
    What you did will boomerang back
    and hit your own head.
Just as you partied on my holy mountain,
    all the godless nations will drink God’s wrath.
They’ll drink and drink and drink—
    they’ll drink themselves to death.
But not so on Mount Zion—there’s respite there!
    a safe and holy place!
The family of Jacob will take back their possessions
    from those who took them from them.
That’s when the family of Jacob will catch fire,
    the family of Joseph become fierce flame,
    while the family of Esau will be straw.
Esau will go up in flames,
    nothing left of Esau but a pile of ashes.”
        God said it, and it is so.

* * *

19-21 People from the south will take over the Esau mountains;
    people from the foothills will overrun the Philistines.
They’ll take the farms of Ephraim and Samaria,
    and Benjamin will take Gilead.
Earlier, Israelite exiles will come back
    and take Canaanite land to the north at Zarephath.
Jerusalem exiles from the far northwest in Sepharad
    will come back and take the cities in the south.
The remnant of the saved in Mount Zion
    will go into the mountains of Esau
And rule justly and fairly,
    a rule that honors God’s kingdom.

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