Obdias 1

1 The vision of Obdias. Thus says the Lord God to Idumea; I have heard a report from the Lord, and he has sent forth a message to the nations.

2 Arise you, and let us rise up against her to war.

3 Behold, I have made you small amongst the Gentiles: you are greatly dishonoured. The pride of your heart has elated you, dwelling [as you do] in the holes of the rocks, [as one that] exalts his habitation, saying in his heart, Who will bring me down to the ground?

4 If you should mount up as the eagle, and if you should make your nest amongst the stars, thence will I bring you down, says the Lord.

5 If thieves came in to you, or robbers by night, where would you have been cast away? would they not have stolen [just] enough for themselves? and if grape gatherers went in to you, would they not leave a gleaning?

6 How has Esau been searched out, and [how] have his hidden things been detected?

7 They sent you to your coasts: all the men of your covenant have withstood you; your allies have prevailed against you, they have set snares under you: they have no understanding.

8 In that day, says the Lord, I will destroy the wise men out of Idumea, and understanding out of the mount of Esau.

9 And your warriors from Thaeman shall be dismayed, to the end that man may be cut off from the mount of Esau.

10 Because of the slaughter and the sin [committed against] your brother Jacob, shame shall cover you, and you shall be cut off for ever.

11 From the day that you stood in opposition [to him], in the days when foreigners were taking captive his forces, and strangers entered into his gates, and cast lots on Jerusalem, you also was as one of them.

12 And you should not have looked on the day of your brother in the day of strangers; nor should you have rejoiced against the children of Juda in the day of their destruction; neither should you have boasted in the day of [their] affliction.

13 Neither should you have gone into the gates of the people in the day of their troubles; nor yet should you have looked upon their gathering in the day of their destruction, nor should you have attacked their host in the day of their perishing.

14 Neither should you have stood at the opening of their passages, to destroy utterly those of them that were escaping; neither should you have shut up his fugitives in the day of affliction.

15 For the day of the Lord is near upon all the Gentiles: as you have done, so shall it be [done] to you: your recompense shall be returned on your [own] head.

16 For as you have drunk upon my holy mountain, [so] shall all the nations drink wine; they shall drink, and go down, and be as if they were not.

17 But on mount Sion there shall be deliverance, and there shall be a sanctuary; and the house of Jacob shall take for an inheritance those that took them for an inheritance.

18 And the house of Jacob shall be fire, and the house of Joseph a flame, and the house of Esau [shall be] for stubble; and [Israel] shall flame forth against them, and shall devour them, and there shall not be a corn-field [left] to the house of Esau; because the Lord has spoken.

19 And they [that dwell] in the south shall inherit the mount of Esau, and they in the plain the Philistines: and they shall inherit the mount of Ephraim, and the plain of Samaria, and Benjamin, and the land of Galaad.

20 And this [shall be] the domain of the captivity of the children of Israel, the land of the Chananites as far as Sarepta; and the captives of Jerusalem [shall inherit] as far as Ephratha; they shall inherit the cities of the south.

21 And they that escape shall come up from mount Sion, to take vengeance on the mount of Esau; and the kingdom shall be the Lord's.