Edom's Pride and Punishment

The Lord God gave Obadiah a message about Edom, and this is what we heard: “I, the Lord, have sent a messenger with orders for the nations to attack Edom.”

The Lord said to Edom: I will make you the weakest and most despised nation.

You live in a mountain fortress, because your pride makes you feel safe from attack, but you are mistaken.

I will still bring you down, even if you fly higher than an eagle or nest among the stars. I, the Lord, have spoken!

If thieves break in at night, they steal only what they want. And people who harvest grapes always leave some unpicked. But, Edom, you are doomed!

You stood there and watched as foreigners entered Jerusalem and took what they wanted. In fact, you were no better than those foreigners.

Why did you celebrate when such a dreadful disaster struck your relatives? Why were you so pleased when everyone in Judah was suffering?

They are my people, and you were cruel to them. You went through their towns, sneering and stealing whatever was left.

I forced the people of Judah to drink the wine of my anger on my sacred mountain. Soon the neighboring nations must drink their fill— then vanish without a trace.

Israel will be a fire, and Edom will be straw going up in flames. The Lord has spoken!

The people of Israel who live in the Southern Desert will take the land of Edom. Those who live in the hills will capture Philistia, Ephraim, and Samaria. And the tribe of Benjamin will conquer Gilead.

Those who return from captivity will control Phoenicia as far as Zarephath. Captives from Jerusalem who were taken to Sepharad will capture the towns of the Southern Desert.

Those the Lord has saved will live on Mount Zion and rule over Edom. Then the kingdom will belong to the Lord.