'Ovadyah (Oba) 1

¹This is the vision of ‘Ovadyah. Here is what Adonai Elohim says about Edom. As a messenger was being sent among the nations saying, “Come on, let’s attack her,” we heard a message from Adonai :

²“I am making you the least of all nations,

you will be beneath contempt.

³Your proud heart has deceived you,

you whose homes are caves in the cliffs,

who live on the heights and say to yourselves,

‘Who can bring me down to the ground?’

⁴If you make your nest as high as an eagle’s,

even if you place it among the stars,

I will bring you down from there.” says Adonai .

⁵If thieves were to come to you,

or if robbers by night

(Oh, how destroyed you are!),

wouldn’t they stop when they’d stolen enough?

If grape-pickers came to you,

Wouldn’t they leave some grapes for gleaning?

⁶But see how ‘Esav has been looted,

their secret treasures searched out!

⁷Your allies went with you only to the border,

those at peace with you deceived and defeated you,

those who ate your food set a trap for you,

and you couldn’t discern it.

⁸“When that Day comes,” says Adonai ,

“won’t I destroy all the wise men of Edom

and leave no discernment on Mount ‘Esav?

⁹Your warriors, Teman, will be so distraught

that everyone on Mount ‘Esav will be slaughtered.

¹⁰For the violence done to your kinsman Ya‘akov,

shame will cover you;

and you will be forever cut off.

¹¹On that day you stood aside,

while strangers carried off his treasure,

and foreigners entered his gates

to cast lots for Yerushalayim —

you were no different from them.

¹²You shouldn’t have gloated over your kinsman

on their day of disaster

or rejoiced over the people of Y’hudah

on their day of destruction.

You shouldn’t have spoken arrogantly

on a day of trouble

¹³or entered the gate of my people

on their day of calamity —

no, you shouldn’t have gloated over their suffering

on their day of calamity

or laid hands on their treasure

on their day of calamity.

¹⁴You shouldn’t have stood at the crossroads

to cut down their fugitives

or handed over their survivors

on a day of trouble.”

¹⁵For 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.

¹⁶For 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.

¹⁷But on Mount Tziyon there will be

a holy remnant who will escape,

and the house of Ya‘akov will repossess

their rightful inheritance.

¹⁸The 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.

¹⁹Those 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.

²⁰Those 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.

²¹Then the victorious will ascend Mount Tziyon

to rule over Mount ‘Esav,

but the kingship will belong to Adonai .