Commentary on the Twelve Prophets

Commentary on the Prophet Obadiah

COMMENTARY ON THE PROPHET OBADIAH dumeans were hostile to the Israelites from olden times, giving high priority to their destruction and taking satisfaction in the disasters befalling them, to the extent that they even conspired [305] in every scheme with those attacking them at times when by divine permission they were reduced to experiencing troubles. Israelites were descended from Jacob, you see, and Idumeans from Esau, and these men were brothers, sons of Isaac: when by divine decision the privileges of the firstborn passed to Jacob, Esau felt hatred for his brother and intended to do away with him when opportunity offered, so his mother had Jacob go off to Haran in order that in his absence Esau’s rage might abate; vouchsafed divine providence, Jacob altogether escaped injury from his brother.1 Still, the enmity passed down to their descendants: the Idumeans, taking their descent from Esau, continued to be hostile to the descendants of Jacob, as I have already remarked. Accordingly, in giving evidence in various ways to their hostility against them, they betrayed much the same attitude also at the same time as Assyrians happened to be attacking Israelites and Babylonians were later attacking Jerusalem and those of the tribe of Judah so as to assist the Babylonians to the greatest degree possible in the destruction of the Jews.2 Hence blessed David in his inspired composition says against Babylon, on the one hand, “By the rivers of Babylon there we sat and wept” and so on, in which he brought out the troubles that had befallen them in that captivity; but since, on the other 1. Gn 27–28. 2. Of the history of Edomite hostility and treachery Theodore rightly selects the assistance given to the Babylonians to raze Jerusalem in 586, as also highlighted by Ezek 25.12–14 and in the even more celebrated Ps 137, which he begins to cite. Edom briefly surfaces again in a list of enemies in Comm Mi 7. 174 hand, he meant to advert also to their change in fortunes, he went on, “Remember, O Lord, the sons of Edom, who on the day of Jerusalem said, Ruin it, ruin it, down to its foundations.” By sons of Edom, of course, it is clear he means the Idumeans, who were called by both these names, as you can discover in many places in the divine Scripture, and especially in the records of the Kings, where it says in the fourth record that Amaziah made a strike on Edom in war, then sent to the king of Israel inviting him, but he arrogantly replied to him, saying in addition to other things, “You really made a strike on Idumea, and you are carried away with your violent disposition,”3 the author here calling Idumeans the ones he referred to before as Edom. His meaning therefore is, Remember all that the Idumeans did against us, who made the time of our difficulties an occasion of their own malice so as to cooperate with those attacking us in the hope of bringing down the whole city, and not leaving any relic of it still standing. He goes on, “Wretched daughter of Babylon, blessed is the one who gives you your recompense for what you did to us,”4 bringing out that God will inflict punishment also on the Idumeans for that attitude at the time when he brings down the power of the Babylonians, handing over their royal city along with its king and all its inhabitants to the Persians for them in turn to suffer at their hands what they had already done to Jerusalem, whereas he freed Israelites from the captivity oppressing them and led them back finally to their own country. [308] God had often mentioned through the prophets, then, the troubles that would befall the Israelites, first from Assyrians and after that from Babylonians, namely, that the whole of Israel would be taken off into captivity in this fashion. The Idumeans lent their willing cooperation on those occasions, as I remarked , thinking they had found a suitable occasion for the total ruin of those of Israelite descent. In this they were clearly at odds with God, who it was that had accorded Jacob the blessing COMMENTARY ON OBADIAH 175 3. The reply to Amaziah by King Jehoash of Israel in 2 Kgs 14.10. 4. Ps 137.8. of the firstborn and...