Obadiah 1:1-4
Though you exalt yourself as the eagle
The pride of your heart has deceived you, dwelling in the clefts of the rock, saying who shall bring me down to the ground. The answer names the height and then removes it.
People of the Bible
Obadiah
Twenty-one verses, the shortest book in the Old Testament, about a brother who stood on the other side of the road.
Obadiah has no dates, no father named and no biography, and the whole book is one oracle against Edom. Edom is the nation descended from Esau, which means the quarrel is a family one and about eight hundred years old. The charge is precise: not that Edom attacked Jerusalem but that it stood on the other side on the day strangers carried away the city, looked on, rejoiced, spoke proudly in the day of distress, and stood in the crossway to cut off those who escaped.
Scroll down to the storyThe movements, in the order the text gives them.
The story of Obadiah
- 01
- 02
Obadiah 1:10-14
You stood on the other side
Eight things not to have done, each beginning with a day: the day you stood by, the day strangers carried away his forces, the day of his calamity, the day of their destruction, the day of distress.
- 03
Obadiah 1:15-16
As you have done
The day of the LORD is near upon all the nations. As you have done, it shall be done to you, and your reward shall return upon your own head.
- 04
Obadiah 1:17-21
The kingdom shall be the LORD’s
The book that opened on a brother standing aside ends with saviours coming up on mount Zion to judge the mount of Esau, and the last five words giving the kingdom away.
Why it matters
The book exists to say that watching is a position. Edom is indicted for standing by, for entering the gate after the fact, and for handing over survivors, and the sentence is framed as symmetry: as you have done, it shall be done to you. The other half is the security of the high place. Edom lives in the clefts of the rock and says who shall bring me down, and the answer is that though you exalt yourself as the eagle and set your nest among the stars, from there I will bring you down.
4 songs
The music
Every song in the catalogue whose passage falls inside these chapters.
