Obadiah 1

₁The 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.”

₂The LORD said to Edom:

I will make you the weakest

and most despised nation.

₃You live in a mountain fortress,

because your pride

makes you feel safe from attack,

but you are mistaken.

₄I will still bring you down,

even if you fly higher

than an eagle

or nest among the stars.

I, the LORD, have spoken!

₅If 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!

₆Everything you treasure most

will be taken from you.

₇Your allies can't be trusted.

They will force you out

of your own country.

Your best friends

will trick and trap you,

even before you know it.

₈Edom, when this happens,

I, the LORD, will destroy

all your marvellous wisdom.

₉Warriors from the city of Teman

will be terrified,

and you descendants of Esau

will be wiped out.

₁₀You were cruel to your relatives,

the descendants of Jacob.

Now you will be destroyed,

disgraced for ever.

₁₁You stood there and watched

as foreigners entered Jerusalem

and took what they wanted.

In fact, you were no better

than those foreigners.

₁₂Why did you celebrate

when such a dreadful disaster

struck your relatives?

Why were you so pleased

when everyone in Judah

was suffering?

₁₃They are my people,

and you were cruel to them.

You went through their towns,

sneering and stealing

whatever was left.

₁₄In their time of torment,

you ambushed refugees

and handed them over

to their attackers.

₁₅The day is coming

when I, the LORD,

will judge the nations.

And, Edom, you will pay in full

for what you have done.

₁₆I forced the people of Judah

to drink the wine of my anger

on my sacred mountain.

Soon the neighbouring nations

must drink their fill—

then vanish without a trace.

₁₇The LORD's people who escape

will go to Mount Zion,

and it will be holy.

Then Jacob's descendants

will capture the land of those

who took their land.

₁₈Israel will be a fire,

and Edom will be straw

going up in flames.

The LORD has spoken!

₁₉The 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.

₂₀Those 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.

₂₁Those the LORD has saved

will live on Mount Zion

and rule over Edom.

Then the kingdom will belong

to the LORD.