Obad. THE ARGUMENT This short prophecy will not need any long prefatory argument. He concealeth his nation, family, and place of his birth and abode, which he would not have done had it much concerned us to know, or would it have added any thing material to the authority and efficacy of his word.

The vision, which the prophet received immediately from the Lord; so prophets are called seers, 1 Sam. 9:9, Amos 7:12; and their prophecy is vision, Isa. 1:1, Joel 2:28. Of Obadiah: who this was appears not on any certainty, or when he prophesied.

Behold, ye Edomites, lay it to heart, and consider it well; be not secure amidst such dangers. I have made thee small; thou art a small people for number, thy land mountainous, rocky, and barren, and it is little that which is of it, situate very incommodiously for any trade, which makes people…

The pride of thy heart: the Edomites were, as most mountaineers are, a rough, hardy, and daring people; necessitated sometimes to extraordinary adventures, and many times succeeded in attempts which others would not venture upon; hence they did swell in pride and confidence, and their hearts were…

Though thou exalt thyself as the eagle: Edom boasted of his strength from the height of the rocks he dwelt on, Obad. 3, but here he is answered, if he could build his nest as the eagles, which build and fly much higher than any other bird, neither the height of the nest should save the young ones,…

In this verse the prophet doth in an abrupt manner of speech, mixed of wonder and doubt, express the strange havoc and desolation made in Edom, as if lie had said, Who have been here? or in what posture wast thou found, O Edom! that such strange desolution is found in thee? If thieves by day had…

Esau; the father of this people, and here put for his posterity. All that the Edomites had laid up in the most secret places, in unsearchable caves, and deep abysses of hollow rocks, how are all his treasures found out, seized, and brought forth a prey to greedy soldiers! How durst they adventure…

All the men of thy confederacy; they who by league had bound themselves to assist with men and arms, who had made an offensive and defensive league. Have brought thee even to the border; either have conducted in honourable manner through their country the ambassadors thou didst send, concluded…

Shall I not? this interrogation is a strong assertion, I certainly will. In that day, of war and desolation of Edom, when Nebuchadnezzar with his armies shall invade Idumea.

Mighty men; valiant commanders and soldiers, who were never blemished with cowardice, who formerly durst adventure on greatest dangers and encounter most formidable enemies, and were never daunted with a slow-approaching enemy, how much soever over number to them, nor with any sudden surprising…

For thy violence: though Idumeans were guilty of many other and great sins, they are here charged with this as the great crying sin, inhuman cruelty and perfidiousness; they did mercilessly spoil and basely betray the Jews, which will be particularly mentioned in the following verses.

In the day; during the war which the Babylonians made upon Judea, or in the day of battle when Jews fought with Chaldeans. That thou stoodest on the other side; tookest up thy stand over-right them, observing with delight how they were worsted, slaughtered.

Thou shouldest not have looked with secret joy and satisfaction to thy eyes and mind; if thou wouldst have looked, it should have been with tears and grief, not with joy and gladness at the sight: so the word, Psalms 37:0; Psalms 44:7; Prov. 29:16.

Thou shouldest not have entered, as an enemy, a conqueror, into the gate; by synecdoche, city is meant by gate. The Edomites warring among the Babylonians, did with them enter the gates of conquered Jerusalem, appeared a proud, insulting enemy of Judah.

In the cross-way; or in the breaches, viz. of the walls, by which, when the city was taken, some might have made their escape from the enemy; thou didst, though thou shouldst not, spitefully and cruelly watch at such breaches, and preventedst their flight; or else thou didst post thyself at the…

For the day of the Lord, of just revenge from the Lord upon this cruelty of Edom, the time which the Lord hath appointed for the punishing of this and other nations, is near upon all the heathen; which God had given to Nebuchadnezzar, and which by this man’s arms God would punish, as Jer.

This, with some, is a confirmation of what is threatened against Edom, yet others make this verse the beginning of the consolatory sermon to Judah, and either suits well with the context. As ye, O Edomites, or ye, O Jews.

But. or And, Heb. Upon Mount Zion; historically, and in the letter, this refers to the people of the Jews, to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and those who worshipped God in the temple. In the mystical sense or typical, it refers.

Besides what Nebuchadnezzar shall do upon his particular quarrel against Edom, bringing them to a very desolate condition, there shall, (though it be not owned,) intermixed, be the quarrel of God for Israel’s sake, which the Chaldeans shall avenge; or else, after the return out of captivity, and…

They of the south; the Jews who lived in the south parts of Canaan, which was next to Idumea, shall, after their return and victories over Edom, possess his country, called here the Mount of Esau.

The captivity of this host of the children of Israel, those of the ten tribes that were carried away captive by Shalmaneser, one hundred and thirty years before Jerusalem was taken by Nebuchadnezzar, shall possess that of the Canaanites; all the country they anciently possessed, with this addition…

And, or For, so the Gallic version, printed at Rochelle, 1616. Saviours; deliverers; literally, the governors or leaders of those captive troops, who shall come up from Babylon to their own country, such as Zerubbabel, Ezra, Nehemiah, of whom it was said he came to seek the good of the Jews, Neh.