Mazmur 137:7

137:7 Remember, O Lord, what the Edomites did

on the day Jerusalem fell. ¹ 

They said, “Tear it down, tear it down, ² 

right to its very foundation!”

Yesaya 34:5-15

34:5 He says, ³  “Indeed, my sword has slaughtered heavenly powers. ⁴ 

Look, it now descends on Edom, ⁵ 

on the people I will annihilate in judgment.”

34:6 The Lord’s sword is dripping with blood,

it is covered ⁶  with fat;

it drips ⁷  with the blood of young rams and goats

and is covered ⁸  with the fat of rams’ kidneys.

For the Lord is holding a sacrifice ⁹  in Bozrah, ¹⁰ 

a bloody ¹¹  slaughter in the land of Edom.

34:7 Wild oxen will be slaughtered ¹²  along with them,

as well as strong bulls. ¹³ 

Their land is drenched with blood,

their soil is covered with fat.

34:8 For the Lord has planned a day of revenge, ¹⁴ 

a time when he will repay Edom for her hostility toward Zion. ¹⁵ 

34:9 Edom’s ¹⁶  streams will be turned into pitch

and her soil into brimstone;

her land will become burning pitch.

34:10 Night and day it will burn; ¹⁷ 

its smoke will ascend continually.

Generation after generation it will be a wasteland

and no one will ever pass through it again.

34:11 Owls and wild animals ¹⁸  will live there, ¹⁹ 

all kinds of wild birds ²⁰  will settle in it.

The Lord ²¹  will stretch out over her

the measuring line of ruin

and the plumb line ²²  of destruction. ²³ 

34:12 Her nobles will have nothing left to call a kingdom

and all her officials will disappear. ²⁴ 

34:13 Her fortresses will be overgrown with thorns;

thickets and weeds will grow ²⁵  in her fortified cities.

Jackals will settle there;

ostriches will live there. ²⁶ 

34:14 Wild animals and wild dogs will congregate there; ²⁷ 

wild goats will bleat to one another. ²⁸ 

Yes, nocturnal animals ²⁹  will rest there

and make for themselves a nest. ³⁰ 

34:15 Owls ³¹  will make nests and lay eggs ³²  there;

they will hatch them and protect them. ³³ 

Yes, hawks ³⁴  will gather there,

each with its mate.

Yeremia 49:7

Judgment Against Edom

49:7 The Lord who rules over all ³⁵  spoke about Edom. ³⁶ 

“Is wisdom no longer to be found in Teman? ³⁷ 

Can Edom’s counselors not give her any good advice? ³⁸ 

Has all of their wisdom turned bad? ³⁹ 

Yehezkiel 35:15

35:15 As you rejoiced over the inheritance of the house of Israel because it was desolate, so will I deal with you – you will be desolate, Mount Seir, and all of Edom – all of it! Then they will know that I am the Lord.’”

Obaja 1:1

God’s Judgment on Edom

1:1 The vision ⁴⁰  that Obadiah ⁴¹  saw. ⁴² 

The Lord God ⁴³  says this concerning ⁴⁴  Edom: ⁴⁵ 

Edom’s Approaching Destruction

We have heard a report from the Lord.

An envoy was sent among the nations, saying, ⁴⁶ 

“Arise! Let us make war against Edom!” ⁴⁷ 

[137:7]  ¹ tn Heb “remember, O Lord, against the sons of Edom, the day of Jerusalem.”

[137:7]  ² tn Heb “lay [it] bare, lay [it] bare.”

[34:5]  ³ tn The words “he says” are supplied in the translation for clarification. The Lord speaks at this point.

[34:5]  ⁴ tn Heb “indeed [or “for”] my sword is drenched in the heavens.” The Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a has תראה (“[my sword] appeared [in the heavens]”), but this is apparently an attempt to make sense out of a difficult metaphor. Cf. NIV “My sword has drunk its fill in the heavens.”

[34:5]  sn In v. 4 the “host of the heaven” refers to the heavenly luminaries (stars and planets, see, among others, Deut 4:19; 17:3; 2 Kgs 17:16; 21:3, 5; 23:4-5; 2 Chr 33:3, 5) that populate the divine/heavenly assembly in mythological and prescientific Israelite thought (see Job 38:7; Isa 14:13). As in 24:21, they are viewed here as opposing God and being defeated in battle.

[34:5]  ⁵ sn Edom is mentioned here as epitomizing the hostile nations that oppose God.

[34:6]  ⁶ tn The verb is a rare Hotpaal passive form. See GKC 150 §54.h.

[34:6]  ⁷ tn The words “it drips” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[34:6]  ⁸ tn The words “and is covered” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[34:6]  ⁹ tn Heb “for there is a sacrifice to the Lord.”

[34:6]  ¹⁰ sn The Lord’s judgment of Edom is compared to a bloody sacrificial scene.

[34:6]  ¹¹ tn Heb “great” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[34:7]  ¹² tn Heb “will go down”; NAB “shall be struck down.”

[34:7]  ¹³ tn Heb “and bulls along with strong ones.” Perhaps this refers to the leaders.

[34:8]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “for a day of vengeance [is] for the Lord.”

[34:8]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “a year of repayment for the strife of Zion.” The translation assumes that רִיב (riv) refers to Edom’s hostility toward Zion. Another option is to understand רִיב (riv) as referring to the Lord’s taking up Zion’s cause. In this case one might translate, “a time when he will repay Edom and vindicate Zion.”

[34:9]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “her”; the referent (Edom) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[34:10]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “it will not be extinguished.”

[34:11]  ¹⁸ tn קָאַת (qa’at) refers to some type of bird (cf. Lev 11:18; Deut 14:17) that was typically found near ruins (see Zeph 2:14). קִפּוֹד (qippod) may also refer to a type of bird (NAB “hoot owl”; NIV “screech owl”; TEV “ravens”), but some have suggested a rodent may be in view (cf. NCV “small animals”; ASV “porcupine”; NASB, NRSV “hedgehog”).

[34:11]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “will possess it” (so NIV).

[34:11]  ²⁰ tn The Hebrew text has יַנְשׁוֹף וְעֹרֵב (yanshof vÿ’orev). Both the יַנְשׁוֹף (“owl”; see Lev 11:17; Deut 14:16) and עֹרֵב (“raven”; Lev 11:15; Deut 14:14) were types of wild birds.

[34:11]  ²¹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the Lord) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[34:11]  ²² tn Heb “stones,” i.e., the stones used in a plumb bob.

[34:11]  ²³ sn The metaphor in v. 11b emphasizes that God has carefully planned Edom’s demise.

[34:12]  ²⁴ tn Heb “will be nothing”; NCV, TEV, NLT “will all be gone.”

[34:13]  ²⁵ tn The words “will grow” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[34:13]  ²⁶ tc Heb “and she will be a settlement for wild dogs, a dwelling place for ostriches.” The translation assumes an emendation of חָצִיר (khatsir, “grass”) to חָצֵר (khatser, “settlement”). One of the Qumran scrolls of Isaiah (1QIsa^a) supports this emendation (cf. HALOT 344 s.v. II חָצִיר)

[34:14]  ²⁷ tn Heb “will meet” (so NIV); NLT “will mingle there.”

[34:14]  ²⁸ tn Heb “and a goat will call to its neighbor.”

[34:14]  ²⁹ tn The precise meaning of לִּילִית (lilit) is unclear, though in this context the word certainly refers to some type of wild animal or bird. The word appears to be related to לַיְלָה (laylah, “night”). Some interpret it as the name of a female night demon, on the basis of an apparent Akkadian cognate used as the name of a demon. Later Jewish legends also identified Lilith as a demon. Cf. NRSV “Lilith.”

[34:14]  ³⁰ tn Heb “and will find for themselves a resting place.”

[34:15]  ³¹ tn Hebrew קִפּוֹז (qippoz) occurs only here; the precise meaning of the word is uncertain.

[34:15]  ³² tn For this proposed meaning for Hebrew מָלַט (malat), see HALOT 589 s.v. I מלט.

[34:15]  ³³ tn Heb “and brood [over them] in her shadow.”

[34:15]  ³⁴ tn The precise meaning of דַּיָּה (dayyah) is uncertain, though the term appears to refer to some type of bird of prey, perhaps a vulture.

[49:7]  ³⁵ tn Heb “Yahweh of armies.” See the study note on 2:19 for this title.

[49:7]  ³⁶ sn Edom was a kingdom to the south and east of Judah. Its borders varied over time but basically Edom lay in the hundred mile strip between the Gulf of Aqaba on the south and the Zered River on the north. It straddled the Arabah leading down from the Dead Sea to the Gulf of Aqaba, having as its northern neighbors both Judah and Moab. A long history of hostility existed between Israel and Edom, making Edom one of the favorite objects of the prophets’ oracles of judgment (cf., e.g., Isa 21:11-12; 34:5-15; 63:1-6; Amos 1:11-12; Ezek 25:12-14; 35:1-15; Obad 1-16). Not much is known about Edom at this time other than the fact that they participated in the discussions regarding rebellion against Nebuchadnezzar in 594 b.c. According to Obadiah 10-16 they not only gloated over Judah’s downfall in 586 b.c. but participated in its plunder and killed some of those who were fleeing the country.

[49:7]  ³⁷ sn Teman was the name of one of Esau’s descendants, the name of an Edomite clan and the name of the district where they lived (Gen 36:11, 15, 34). Like the name Bozrah, it is used poetically for all of Edom (Jer 49:20; Ezek 25:13).

[49:7]  ³⁸ tn Heb “Has counsel perished from men of understanding?”

[49:7]  ³⁹ tn The meaning of this last word is based on the definition given in KBL 668 s.v. II סָרַח Nif and HALOT 726 s.v. II סָרַח Nif, which give the nuance “to be [or become] corrupt” rather than that of BDB 710 s.v. סָרַח Niph who give the nuance “let loose (i.e., to be dismissed; to be gone)” from a verb that is elsewhere used of the overhanging of a curtains or a cliff.

[1:1]  ⁴⁰ sn The date of the book of Obadiah is very difficult to determine. Since there is no direct indication of chronological setting clearly suggested by the book itself, and since the historical identity of the author is uncertain as well, a possible date for the book can be arrived at only on the basis of internal evidence. When did the hostile actions of Edom against Judah that are described in this book take place? Many nineteenth-century scholars linked the events of the book to a historical note found in 2 Kgs 8:20 (cf. 2 Chr 21:16-17): “In [Jehoram’s] days Edom rebelled from under the hand of Judah and established a king over themselves.” If this is the backdrop against which Obadiah should be read, it would suggest a ninth-century b.c. date for the book, since Jehoram reigned ca. 852-841 b.c. But the evidence presented for this view is not entirely convincing, and most contemporary Old Testament scholars reject a ninth-century scenario. A more popular view, held by many biblical scholars from Luther to the present, understands the historical situation presupposed in the book to be the Babylonian invasion of Judah in the sixth century (cf. Ps 137:7; Lam 4:18-22; Ezek 25:12-14; 35:1-15). Understood in this way, Obadiah would be describing a situation in which the Edomites assisted in the Babylonian sack of Jerusalem. Although it must be admitted that a sixth-century setting for the book of Obadiah cannot be proven, the details of the book fit reasonably well into such a context. Other views on the dating of the book, such as an eighth-century date in the time of Ahaz (ca. 732-716 b.c.) or a fifth-century date in the postexilic period, are less convincing. Parallels between the book of Obadiah and Jer 49:1-22 clearly suggest some kind of literary dependence, but it is not entirely clear whether Jeremiah drew on Obadiah or whether Obadiah drew upon Jeremiah, In any case, the close relationship between Obadiah and Jer 49 might suggest the sixth-century setting.

[1:1]  ⁴¹ sn The name Obadiah in Hebrew means “servant of the Lord.” A dozen or so individuals in the OT have this name, none of whom may be safely identified with the author of this book. In reality we know very little about this prophet with regard to his exact identity or historical circumstances.

[1:1]  ⁴² tn Heb “the vision of Obadiah” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV); TEV “This is the prophecy of Obadiah.”

[1:1]  ⁴³ tn Heb “Lord Lord.” The phrase אֲדֹנָי יְהוִה (’adonay yÿhvih) is customarily rendered by Jewish tradition as “Lord God.” Cf. NIV, TEV, NLT “Sovereign Lord.”

[1:1]  ⁴⁴ tn The Hebrew preposition לְ (lÿ) is better translated here “concerning” (so KJV, ASV, NASB, NRSV, NLT) or “about” (so NIV, NCV, TEV, CEV) Edom rather than “to” Edom, although much of the book does speak directly to Edom.

[1:1]  ⁴⁵ sn The name Edom derives from a Hebrew root that means “red.” Edom was located to the south of the Dead Sea in an area with numerous rocky crags that provided ideal military advantages for protection. Much of the sandstone of this area has a reddish color. The Edomites were descendants of Esau, the brother of Jacob (Gen 25:19-26).

[1:1]  ⁴⁶ tn Although the word “saying” is not in the Hebrew text, it has been supplied in the translation because what follows seems to be the content of the envoy’s message. Cf. ASV, NASB, NCV, all of which supply “saying”; NIV, NLT “to say.”

[1:1]  ⁴⁷ tn Heb “Arise, and let us arise against her in battle!” The term “Edom” is not in the Hebrew text, but has been supplied in the translation to specify the otherwise ambiguous referent of the term “her.”