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Obadiah
1
Yahweh will punish the Edomites
1 This is a message that Yahweh our God gave to me, Obadiah. about the Edom people-group.
Yahweh our God has told me this about the people of Edom:
I, Yahweh, have sent messenger to other nations,
telling them to prepare to go and attack Edom.
2 And Yahweh says this to the people of Edom:
'I will soon cause you to to become the weakest and most despised nation on the earth.
3 Your capital city is high in the rocky cliffs,
and you are very proud;
you think that you are safe because no army can attack you,
but you have deceived yourselves.
4 And I say that even if you had wings and could fly higher than an eagle,
and make your homes among the stars,
I would bring you crashing down from there.
5 When thieves break into someone's house during the night,
they steal only the things that they want.
And people who pick grapes always leave a few grapes on the vines.
But your city will be completely destroyed!
6 Everything that is valuable will be taken away.
Your enemies will find and take away even the valuable things that you have hidden.
7 All your allies will turn against you
and force you to leave your land.
Those with whom you have peace now will trick you and defeat you.
Those that eat meals with you now are planning to trap you,
and then they will say to you, 'You are not [RHQ] as clever as you thought you were!”
8 At the time that I destroy Edom,
I will punish the men who live in those cliffs who thought that they were wise.
9 The fighting men from Teman town will become terrified;
all you people who are descended from Esau will be wiped out.
The reasons for Edom's punishment
10 You acted cruelly to your relatives who are descended from Esau, Jacob's twin brother.
So now you you will be disgraced, and you will be destroyed forever.
11 When foreigners entered the gates of Jerusalem
and cast lots to decide what valuable things they would take away,
you were as bad as the invaders;
you just stood there and did not help the Israelis.
12 You should not have gloated about the disaster the Israelis were experiencing;
You should not have been happy when their towns were ruined.
You should not have made fun of them when they were suffering.
13 They are my people,
so you should not have entered their city gates when they were experiencing those disasters
and you should not have laughed at them.
And you should not have taken away their valuable possessions.
14 You should not have stood at crossroads
to catch those who were trying to escape
You should not have captured them and put them into the hands of their enemies
when they were experiencing those disasters.
God will punish all the nearby nations
15 There will soon be the time when I, Yahweh, will judge and punish all the nations.
And you people of Edom will experience the same disasters that you forced others to experience.
The evil things that you have done to others will happen to you.
16 My people in Jerusalem have been punished;
it is as though they drank a cup of very bitter liquid on Zion, my sacred hill
because I was very angry with them.
17 But some people in Jerusalem will escape,
and it will become a very holy place.
Then the descendants of Jacob will take back the land that truly belongs to them.
18 The descendants of Jacob and his son Joseph will be like a fire,
and the people of Edom will be like stubble that will be completely burned in that fire.
That will surely happen because I, Yahweh, have said it.
19 The people of Israel who live in the southern desert are the ones who will capture Edom.
And those who live in the western foothills will capture the Phoenicia region and the areas of Ephraim and Samaria.
And people of the tribe of Benjamin will conquer the Gilead region.
20 Those who return from being exiled in Babylon will return to their land and capture the Phoenicia region as far north as Zarephath on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea.
People of Jerusalem who were captured and taken to Babylon will capture the towns in the southern desert.
21 Then the leaders of Jerusalem will attack Edom with their army and conquer it,
and Yahweh himself will be their king.

- Obadiah
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Note: The Old Testament in this translation is still being worked on, and is in draft form. Updates will be posted at eBible.org/t4t/.

© 2008-2017 Ellis W. Deibler, Jr.