OBADIAH.

The vision of Obadiah.

Thus saith the Lord God to Idumea, (I heard the report from the Lord. When he sent a message to the nations. Arise

2 and let us go up against it to battle.) Behold I have made thee very small among the nations : thou art dishonoured in

3 a high degree. The pride of thy heart puffed thee up, dwelling in the clefts of rocks. (Having made his habitation high he said in his heart, Who can bring me down to the ground?)

4 Though thou shouldst soar aloft like an eagle, and make thy nest among the stars ; thence I will pull thee down, saith the

5 Lord. If thieves come to thee, or robbers by night; in what place soever thou mayst be cast; would they not steal what would satisfy them ? And if grape gatherers came to thee,

6 would they leave no gleaning ? How Esau hath been search-

7 ed! are even his hidden stores left ? They have driven thee to the borders. All the men in league with thee, have risen up against thee. Thy men of peace prevailed against thee. They laid snares under thee. They have no understanding.

8 In that day, saith the Lord, I will destroy wise men out of

9 Idumea, and understanding out of the mount of Esau. And thy warriors from Thaiman shall be dismayed, that man may be

10 removed from the mountain of Esau. On account of the impious slaughter of thy brother Jacob, shame shall cover thee,

11 and thou shalt be cut off forever. From the day that thou didst become an adversary, whenever the Philistines captivated his army, or strangers entered his gates and cast lots on Je

12 rusalem, thou also wast as one of them. But thou shouldst not have looked on thy brother's day in the day of strangers ; nor rejoiced over the children of Juda, in the day of their dr-

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struction ; nor shouldst thou have vaunted in'the day of affliction; nor entered people's gates in the day of their distresses.

13 Thou especially shouldst not have beheld their congregation in the day of their destruction, nor joined to fall on their army

14 in the day of their defeat; nor beset the passes to cut off such of them as were escaping; nor shouldst thou have hemmed

15 in his fugitives, in a calamitous day. Because the day of the Lord, against all the nations is near; as thou hast done so shall it be done to thee: thy dealings shall be returned on thy head.

16 For in the same manner as thou hast drunk on my holy mountain, all the nations shall be drunk up as wine. They shall be drunk up and swallowed down, and be as if they bad never

17 been. But on mount Sion shall be safety and a sanctuary; and

18 the house of Jacob shall possess those who possessed them; and the house of Jacob shall be a fire, and the house of Joseph, a flame ; and the house of Esau shall be as stubble; and upon these they shall kindle and consume them, so that there shall not be a torch bearer to the house of Esau. For the Lord

19 hath spoken. And they in Nageb shall inherit the mountain of Esau ; and those in Sephale shall inherit the Philistines.— and they shall possess mount Ephraim and the plain of Sama-

20 ria and Benjamin and Galaaditis; and this shall be the dominion of the captivity—to the Israelites shall belong the land of the Chananites to Sarepta, and to the captives of Jerusalem, to Ephratha: they shall possess the eities of Nageb.—

21 And they who have been preserved, shall go up from mount Sion to execute vengeance on the mountain of Esau. And the kingdom shall be the Lord's.