Literal Commentary on Obadiah

The Interpretation of the Prophecy of Obadiah, Literally Again, the interpretation of the prophecy of Obadiah, literally. Obadiah was before those who preceded him, and he was in the time of Elijah. And just as the letters of Paul are arranged one after another, so also the twelve and the rest of the prophets, each one was arranged according to his time, with the ancients. For when all the prophets prophesied concerning the captivity of Israel by the Assyrians, and also concerning that of the house of Judah by the Babylonians, the Edomites, the sons of Esau, were more wicked than the people and were helpers to their enemies. And concerning this, as if to move the heart of the people, God stirred Obadiah to prophesy concerning the evils that the Edomites would incur at the hands of the Babylonians, and afterwards, when the people were redeemed and the temple was rebuilt, then they would be avenged with the people as is fitting. And this is the reason for the book of Obadiah. Now, the diligent reader, pray for Mar Dionysius, that he may take care of these things. End of the first chapter. Vision: He calls "vision" that which is received from God to reveal hidden things. "The saying of the Lord": the saying of the Lord concerning the punishment of the Edomites after the captivity. "I have heard": I have heard from the Lord, like my fellow prophets. "Messengers to the nations": the saying of the Lord, that God sent messengers, that is, angels, his servants, to stir up the nations and to come against the Edomites. "Arise and rise up": arise, go up against Edom for battle. "Behold, I have made you small": afterwards, he turns his speech to the Edomites: "You are contemptible and small." "You will be praised": they will choose you, but they came against you, or with these coins that at night in secret they hasten to save. When something small was saved from you.

r immediately they were being saved from the fear of you, but you did not go out into captivity. And again, when the grape-gatherers came upon you in your city, they would not finish the vintage. But now he says: These things that are yours now are not like those that were with the grape-gatherers and the grape-gatherers, but captivity and complete destruction. Where is Esau? Where is he hidden? And he was hidden and taken away with all his enemies, all his secrets, up to the border of your territory. They led captives outside the border of your land and sent them far away by means of captivity. With slaughter and with the sword, they showed the reason for their destruction. Because the slaughter and plunder that you committed against your brother Jacob will be turned back upon you in the shame of captivity, and you will perish forever. Do not rejoice! For you will not be left again to live; you will groan in afflictions and rejoice when they are delivered from foreign lands. And your mouth will be filled when you speak words that acknowledge the joy of their afflictions. And you will not stand with the sword; for you will not again stand against the Israelites as is your custom on the day of their affliction, and you will not raise up the survivor who escapes and flees in severe distress, which is like a sword—that is, like scourges, or rather, like a military ambush, to say. By means of the sword he speaks of severe distress. For he intends to say: All these evils that you have spoken from above have come upon you, because you appeared to the people in such a manner on the day of their captivity. For where you gave them to drink poison at the head of those on the mountain of my holiness, and you drank their good things, you also will drink poison placed at the head of the Amalekites among you, waiting.

The second vision: that is, that you drank from the Edomites, placing at the head from before, by David. And now, upon the faces of the calamities that befell you, to those who dwell in the mountain of holiness. Now all the peoples who participated with you in this counsel are drunk. After these, he again speaks of the sword that came upon them by a certain people after the dispersion, when that which you had sworn of the house of Jacob to those who inherited you began, until the end of the wickedness. And the captivity of Jerusalem, even in the Spain of the interior, from Rome, is a type of this. The end of the commentary on Obadiah. Again, concerning the book of Obadiah: the prophet Obadiah is a disciple of Elijah the prophet, and he is the head of the fifty who were hidden by Elijah and did not burn; and his wife is the one who came to Elisha, whose sons were being led because of a sin, and he performed with her the sign of the Messiah, and the sin ascended upon Obadiah when he was nourished in the time of famine by the prophets who were hidden by Ahab. And in the days of Isaiah, Hosea, Amos, and Joel, he prophesied. It is good that you hear that the Lord revealed what the Lord did to the prophets. An angel was sent to the peoples: Samuel, who came to call a herald to the peoples. Behold, the small one gave you in this, striking the heights of the Edomites. Again, the small slanderer who was cast down from his rank. And if he was orphaned in the air and in the house of the stars, with your sister, and I delivered you into the hand of the enemy. How was it seen that he was taken captive, and all that he had? And until the border of your enemies, they sent you.

And your diviners who were eating your bread were not able to save you, nor did they divine the truth, and your wise men perished by the blow of the Messiah, and by that little wine which you drank, and the rest, as it is written, you went astray and you erred among the children of Israel when you were drinking and you were entering, and you made the feast of the error of the brother of the deception. Behold, they drink and rejoice over you, all the peoples. The salvation of the house of Hezekiah will arise and stand, and war will be waged against it by the heart that subdues them, who waged war against Edom figuratively, by death and by sin, performing servile works, was chosen over the chief of the Edomites, and on account of the Church. The end of the commentary on Obadiah.