Yahweh will punish the Edomites

1This is a message that Yahweh our God gave to me, Obadiah, about the Edom people-group. Yahweh our God has told me this about the people of Edom: “I, Yahweh, have sent a messenger to other nations, telling them to prepare to go and attack Edom.”

2And Yahweh says this to the people of Edom: “I will soon cause you to become the weakest and most despised nation on the earth.

3Your capital city is high in the rocky cliffs, and you are very proud; you think that you are safe from being attacked by your enemies [RHQ], but you [IDM] have deceived yourselves.

4And I tell you that even if you had wings and could fly higher than eagles fly, and if you could make your homes among the stars,
I would bring you crashing down from there.

5When thieves break into someone’s house during the night, they certainly [RHQ] steal only the things that they want. And people who pick grapes always [RHQ] leave a few grapes on the vines. But your country will be completely destroyed!

6Everything that is valuable will be taken away. Your enemies will find and take away even the valuable things that you have hidden.

7All ◄your allies/nations who promised to help you► will turn against you, and they will force you to leave your country/land. Those with whom you have peace now will trick/deceive you and defeat you. Those who eat meals with you now are planning to trap you, and then they will say to you, ‘You are not [RHQ] as clever as you thought you were!’

8I, Yahweh, declare that at the time that I destroy Edom, I will punish the men who live in those cliffs who thought that they were wise.

9The soldiers from Teman town will become terrified; all you people who are descendants of Esau will be ◄wiped out/killed►.

The reasons for Edom’s punishment

10You acted cruel in a cruel way toward your relatives who are descendants of Jacob, the twin brother of your ancestor Esau. So now you will be disgraced forever; you will be completely destroyed.

11Foreigners entered the gates of Jerusalem and ◄cast lots/threw small stones that were marked► to decide what valuable things they would take away; but you were as bad as those foreigners, because you just stood there and did not help the Israelis.

12You should not have ◄gloated/been happy► about the disaster that the Israelis were experiencing. You should not have been happy when their towns were ruined. You should not have made fun of them when they were suffering.

13They are my people, so you should not have entered their city gates when they were experiencing those disasters and you should not have laughed at them. And you should not have taken away their valuable possessions.

14You should not have stood at crossroads to catch those who were trying to escape. You should not have captured them and put them into the hands of their enemies when they were experiencing those disasters.”

God will punish all the nearby nations

15“There will soon be the time when I, Yahweh, will judge and punish all the nations. And you people of Edom will experience the same disasters that you caused others to experience. The same evil things that you have done to others will happen to you.

16My people in Jerusalem have been punished because I was very angry with them.
It is as though [MET] they drank a cup of very bitter liquid on Zion, my sacred hill. But I will punish [MET] all the other nations even more severely, and cause them to disappear completely.

17But some people in Jerusalem will escape, and Jerusalem will become a very holy/sacred place. Then the descendants of Jacob will conquer and possess again the land that truly belongs to them.

18The descendants [MTY] of Jacob and his son Joseph will be like [MET] a fire, and the people [MTY] of Edom will be like [MET] stubble that will be completely burned in that fire.
Not one person will remain alive. That will surely happen because I, Yahweh, have said it.”

19The Israeli people who live in the southern desert are the ones who will capture Edom. And those who live in the western foothills will capture the Phoenicia region and the areas of Ephraim and Samaria. And people of the tribe of Benjamin will conquer the Gilead region.

20Those who were ◄exiled in/forced to go to► Babylon will return to their land and capture the Phoenicia region as far north as Zarephath on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. People of Jerusalem who were captured and taken to Sardis, the capital city of the Lydia region, will capture the towns in the southern desert.

21The army of Jerusalem will attack Edom and conquer it, and Yahweh will be their king.