Volume III
The Book of the Prophet Obadiah
With John Brown’s marginal references, notes and reflections · Vol. III, p. 1443
Obadiah seems to have prophesied along with Jeremiah, about A.M. 3417. His short prophecy contains, (1) Threatenings against the Edomites, who may be considered as typical of Antichrist and other implacable adversaries of the true church; viz. that their pride should be humbled, ver. 1-4: their wealth plundered, ver. 5-7: their wisdom infatuated, ver. 7-9: their spiteful carriage towards God's distressed people avenged, ver. 10-16. (2) Gracious promises to Israel, that they should subdue the Edomites and others, ver. 17-20: and that Christ's kingdom should be erected by a great salvation, ver. 21.
[The prophecy of Obadiah is remarkable as the shortest book in the Old Testament. Yet, within that brief limit, it foretells and describes the final extirpation of an entire people, ver. 10—a mighty and prosperous kingdom—an event which history has fully realized. For either the Edomites were cut off in the Maccabean and subsequent wars, or completely scattered from their own country and embodied among the Jews, or absorbed by the Nabathean Arabs. C.
Nothing is known of the personal history or family of Obadiah. The place of his birth is not stated, and the period at which he wrote can only be conjectured from incidental evidence. That he wrote previous to the time of Jeremiah is evident from his language, which is purer and of an older type; it is also evident from the fact that Jeremiah must have read and made use of Obadiah's prophecy (comp. Je. 49. 7-22). From this we infer that Obadiah wrote before the captivity. It appears also from a careful comparison of ver. 10-18 with Joel 2. 32; 3. 1, seq., that the latter was acquainted with and partially quotes the former. Obadiah, therefore, must have been at least as old as Joel, and must have written before him. This places Obadiah among the earliest group of prophets.
There are statements in the book which might at first sight seem to run counter to the above conclusion. In ver. 10-16 the judgments pronounced on Edom are said to have been caused by the Edomites rejoicing that strangers had taken possession of Jerusalem, and led the Jews captives. But it is highly probable that the prophet alludes to the time when Jerusalem was plundered by the Philistines and Arabs in the reign of Jehoram, 2 Ki. 8. 20; 2 Ch. 21. 8. Then the Edomites joined the enemy and practised great cruelty upon the Jews.
Obadiah's prophecy is one continuous proclamation of the destruction of Edom. But Edom is not spoken of or denounced as an isolated nation. Its attitude towards Israel, the people of God, is the groundwork of the prophecy. This has been well brought out by Keil:—'He regards the judgment upon Edom as one feature in the universal judgment upon all nations, proclaims in the destruction of the power of Edom the overthrow of the power of all nations hostile to God, and in the final elevation and re-establishment of Israel in the Holy Land foretells the completion of the sovereignty of Jehovah, i.e. of the kingdom of God, as dominion over all nations; so that we may say with Hengstenberg, that Obadiah makes the judgment upon the Gentiles and the restoration of Israel the leading object of his prophetic painting.' P.]