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OBADIAH

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Originally appearing in Volume V19, Page 945 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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OBADIAH , the name prefixed to the See also:

fourth of the Old Testament " See also:minor prophets," meaning " Servant " or " worshipper " of Yahweh; of a type See also:common in Semitic proper names; cf.the Arabic `Abdallah, Taimallat, `Abd Manat, &c., the See also:Hebrew Abdiel and Obed See also:Edom, and many Phoenician forms, " The See also:vision of Obadiah " bears no date, or other See also:historical See also:note, nor can we connect Obadiah the See also:prophet with any other Obadiah of the Old Testament,) and our only See also:clue to the date and See also:composition of the See also:book lies in See also:internal See also:evidence. The prophecy is directed against Edom. Yahweh has sent a messenger forth among the nations to stir them up to See also:battle against the proud inhabitants of See also:Mount Seir, to bring them down from the rocky fastnesses which they deem impregnable. Edom shall be not only plundered but utterly undone and expelled from his See also:borders, and this he shall suffer (through his own folly) at the See also:hand of trusted See also:allies (vers. 1-9)_ The cause of this See also:judgment is his See also:cruelty to his See also:brother See also:Jacob. In the See also:day of See also:Jerusalem's overthrow the Edomites rejoiced over the calamity, grasped at a See also:share of the spoil, See also:lay in wait to cut off the fugitives (vers. 10-14). But now the day of Yahweh is near upon all nations, See also:Esau and all the See also:heathen shall drink full retribution for their banquet of carnage and See also:plunder on Yahweh's See also:holy See also:mountain. A rescued See also:Israel shall dwell in Mount See also:Zion in restored holiness; the See also:house of Jacob shall regain their old possessions; Edom shall be burned up before them as See also:chaff before the See also:flame; they shall spread over all See also:Canaan, over the mountain of Esau and the See also:south of See also:Judah, as well as over See also:Gilead and the See also:Philistine and Phoenician See also:coast. The victorious Israelites shall come up on Mount Zion to See also:rule the mountain of Esau, and the See also:kingdom shall be Yahweh's (vers. 15-21). The most obvious evidence of date lies in the cause assigned for the judgment on Edom (vers.

10-14). The calamity of Jerusalem can only be the See also:

sack of the See also:city by See also:Nebuchadrezzar (586 B.C.); the malevolence and cruelty of Edom on this occasion are characterized in similar terms by several writers of the See also:exile or subsequent periods, but by none with the same circumstance and vividness of detail as here (Ezek. See also:xxv. 8, 12 f., See also:xxxv.; Lam. iv. 21; See also:Psalm cxxxvii. 7). The prominence given to Edom, and the fact that Chaldea is not mentioned at all, make it probable that the passage was not written in Babylonia. On this evidence, taken alone, we should be justified in saying that .the prophecy was written at some See also:time after 586 B.c., at a See also:period when misfortunes incurred by Edom were interpreted as a Divine judgment on its unforgotten treachery in that See also:year of tragedy. The See also:critical problem is, however, complicated by certain phenomena of See also:literary relationship? Obad. 1-6, 8 agree so closely and in See also:part verbally with Jer. xlix. 14-16, 9, 1o, 7 that the two passages cannot be See also:independent; nor does it seem possible that Obadiah quotes from See also:Jeremiah, for Obad. 1-8 is a well-connected whole, while the parallel verses in Jeremiah appear in different See also:order, interspersed with other See also:matter, and in a much less lucid connexion.

In Jeremiah the picture is vague, and Edom's unwisdom (ver. 7) stands without See also:

proof. In Obadiah the conception is quite definite. Edom is attacked by his own allies, and his folly appears in that he exposes himself to such treachery. Again, the See also:probability that the passage in Jeremiah incorporates disjointed fragments of an older See also:oracle is greatly increased by the fact that the prophecy against See also:Moab in the preceding See also:chapter uses, in the same way, Isa. xv., xvi., and the prophecy of See also:Balaam. Scholars who assign the passage in Jeremiah to 604 B.C. (e.g. See also:Driver, L.O.T. See also:chap. vi. § 4), explain this relationship by assuming with See also:Ewald (Propheten, i. 489 f.), See also:Graf (Jeremia, p. 558 f.), See also:Robertson See also:Smith and others, that Jeremiah and our book of Obadiah alike quote from an older oracle. Others, however, who do not regard Jer. xlix. as Jeremianic, explain the relationship as one of dependence on Obadiah.

This explanation, simpler in itself, is not discredited by the fact that in some details (cf. Obad. 2 and jer. xlix. 15) the See also:

text t An See also:early Hebrew tradition recorded by See also:Jerome (See also:Comm. in Ob.) identified the prophet with the best-known Obadiah of the historical books, the See also:protector of the prophets in the reign of See also:Ahab (1 See also:Kings xviii.). 2 Between See also:Joel and Obadiah there are points of material and verbal agreement so See also:close as to imply that Joel used the earlier book (Joel iii. 19–Ob. 10, 14; Joel iii.3—Ob. 11 ; Joel ii. 32, iii. 7–0b. 17). of the dependent passage may be preferable to that of the See also:original.

On this latter, and more probable, view (taken by See also:

Wellhausen, Nowack and See also:Marti) there is no need to See also:separate Obad. 1-7 from ro-14. The immediate occasion of the prophecy 1 was doubtless the pressure of nomadic See also:Arabs (" the men of thy See also:covenant," " the men of thy See also:peace," v. 7) upon Edom, which had resulted, by 312 B.C. at latest, in the occupation by Arabs of See also:Petra, the See also:chief city of the Edomites (Wellhausen, p. 214). But the desolation of Edom has already been accomplished in the time of See also:Malachi i. 1-5, a passage belonging to the earlier See also:half of the 5th See also:century. We may, therefore, with Wellhausen, Nowack and Marti, assign Obadiah 1-14 to the same period. The See also:remainder of the book, vers. (15) 16-21, must belong to a later date. That the book of Obadiah, See also:short as it is, is a complex document might have been suspected from an apparent See also:change of view between vers. 1-7 and vers.

15 f. In the former verses Esau is destroyed by his allies, and they occupy his territory, but in the latter he perishes with the other heathen in the day of universal retribution, he disappears before the victorious advance of Israel, and the See also:

southern Judaeans occupy his See also:land.2 The ideas of this passage belong to the eschatological outlook of later centuries, but afford no data for See also:chronology. The conceptions of the " rescued ones " (R.V. " those that See also:escape," V.. 17), of the sanctity of Zion, of the kingship of Yahweh, are the common See also:property of the See also:post-exilic writers. The restoration of the old borders of Israel and the See also:conquest of Edom and the See also:Philistines are ideas as old as See also:Amos ix., Isa. xi. 14; but such passages represent this conquest as a See also:suzerainty of Israel over its neighbours, as in the days of See also:David, while in Obadiah, as in other later books, the intensified See also:antithesis—religious as well as See also:political—between Judah and the surrounding heathen finds its expression in the See also:idea of a consuming judgment on the latter —the See also:great " day of Yahweh." The chief See also:interest of the book of Obadiah lies in its references to the historical relations between Israel and Edom. From the point of view of See also:religion, we may See also:notice the emphasis on the See also:doctrine of strict retribution (vers. 10 f., 15 b) which remains applicable to other peoples, even when its inadequacy as a See also:complete theory of See also:providence has been slowly and painfully discovered in the See also:case of Israel itself.

End of Article: OBADIAH

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