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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).

15-18 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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