Obadiah 1:2

Jeremiah uses nearly the same words; but the sense of the expression is ambiguous, when he says, ‘Lo, little have I set thee.’ To me it appears probable, that the Prophet reproves the Idumeans, because they became arrogant, as it were, against the will of God, and in opposition to it, when, at the same time, they were confined to the narrow passes of mountains. It is said elsewhere, (Malachi 1:2,) ‘Jacob and Esau, were they not brethren?’ “But I have given to you the inheritance promised to your father Abraham; I have transferred the Idumeans to mount Seir.” Now it is less bearable, if any one be elated with pride, when his condition is not so honorable. I therefore think that the Idumeans are here condemned because they vaunted so much, and arrogated to themselves more than what was right, when they yet were contemptible, when their condition was mean and obscure, for they dwelt on mount Seir. But others think that the punishment, which was impending over them, is here denounced, Lo, little have I made thee among the nations, and Jeremiah says, ‘and contemptible among men’; he omits the two words, thou and exceedingly; he says only, ‘and contemptible among men’. But as to the substance, there is hardly any difference. If then we understand that that nation was proud without reason, the sense is evident, that is, that they, like the giants, carried on war against God, that they vaunted themselves, though confined to the narrow passes of mountains. Though I leave to others their own free opinion, I am yet inclined to the former view, while the latter has been adopted nearly by the consent of all; and that is, that God was resolved forcibly to constrain to order those ferocious men, who, for no reason, and even in opposition to nature, are become insolent. But if a different interpretation be more approved, we may say, that the Prophet begins with a threatening, and then subjoins a reason why God determined to diminish and even to destroy them: for though they dwelt on mountains, it was yet a fertile region; and further, they had gathered in course of long time much wealth, when they attained security, when no enemy disturbed them. This then is the reasoning, Lo, I have made thee small and contemptible in the mountain, — and why? because the pride of thy heart has deceived thee; and Jeremiah adds, terror, although some render תפלצתך taphlatastae, image; but this seems not appropriate. Jeremiah then, I doubt not, mentions terror in the first place; for it almost ever happens, that the proud strike others with fear: such then were the Idumeans.

Now if we follow the first meaning I explained, the two verses may be read as connected, Lo, I have made thee small and contemptible among the nations; but the pride of thy heart has deceived thee; some render it, has raised thee up, deriving it from נשא nusha: but they read ש shin, pointed on the left side; for if נשא nusha has the point in the branch of the shin, on the right hand, it means to deceive, but if on the left, it signifies to raise up. Then they give this translations “The pride of thine heart has raised thee up:” but we clearly learn from Jeremiah, that it ought, as almost all interpreters agree, to be rendered thus, “The pride of thine heart has deceived thee:” for he says not השיאך eshiac but השיא אותך eshia autea, that is, it was to thee the cause of error and of madness. Of the sense then of this verb there can be no doubt.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

2. I have made thee … thou art] Jehovah is now the speaker. “I have made thee small” in my purpose, which though its accomplishment is still future is as certain as though it were already executed. “Thou art,” already in inevitable destiny, “greatly despised.” There is nothing to commend the view of Calvin and others that Oba_1:2 is introduced to aggravate the pride of Edom: “Whereas I made thee small and despised, by the narrow territory which I assigned to thee, and the low place I gave thee among the nations of the earth, the pride of thine heart hath deceived thee,” &c. As a fact the Edomites had at this time acquired very considerable territory, and were a strong and formidable nation. If that had not been so, what need would there have been to summon “the nations” to chastise them?

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Oba 1:2 Behold, I have made thee small among the heathen: thou art greatly despised.

Ver. 2. Behold, I have made thee small among the heathen] That is, vile, despicable, and abject, as Psa 119:141, "I am small and despised." Nothing is more ordinary than to "despise the day of small things," Zec 4:10. And whereas God is said to be magnus in magnis, nec parvus in minimis, much in the greater neither little in the least, he had always kept down these profane Edomites, shutting them up in Mount Seir, a craggy barren country (not unlike Ascre, Hesiod’s country, Aσκρη χειμα κακη θερος αργλαεη, ουδεποτ’ ειλη, or Llandaff in Wales, which is said to be a place neither pleasant, fertile, nor safe), and not suffering them to attain to any fame or almost name among other nations. Were it not that they are mentioned in the Bible (and never there for any goodness either) it would hardly have been known that there ever had been such a people. Wherefore, then, should Edom be so intolerably insolent, as Oba 1:3? swell to such a height of pride, play such bloody, pranks, as he is here accused of? espesially since God is taking a course to make him yet lesser and lower than yet he is, by those armies of his that are coming upon him, to stain the pride of all his glory, Isa 23:9.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The Lord threatens Edom with war, because He has determined to reduce and humble the nation, which now, with its proud confidence in its lofty rocky towers, regards itself as invincible. Oba 1:2. "Behold, I have made thee small among the nations; thou art greatly despised. Oba 1:3. The pride of thy heart hath deceived thee; thou that dwellest in rocky castles, upon its lofty seat; that saith in its heart, Who will cast me down to the ground?: Oba 1:4. If thou buildest high like the eagle, and if thy nest were placed among stars, thence will I cast thee down, is the saying of Jehovah." Oba 1:2 is correctly attached in Jeremiah (Oba 1:15) by כּי, inasmuch as it contains the reason for the attack upon Edom. By hinnēh (behold), which points to the fact itself, the humiliation of Edom is vividly presented to the mind. The perfect nâthattı̄ "describes the resolution of Jehovah as one whose fulfilment is as certain as if it had already occurred" (Caspari). What Jehovah says really takes place. קטן refers to the number of the people. The participle בּזוּי is perfectly appropriate, as expressing the ideal present, i.e., the present which follows the קטן נתתּיך. When the Lord has made Edom small, it will be very much despised. It is only through an incorrect interpretation of the historical present that Hitzig would possibly be led to regard the participle as unsuitable, and to give the preference to Jeremiah's בּזוּי בּאדם.

Oba 1:3

Oba 1:3 contains a consequence which follows from Oba 1:2. Edom will be unable to avert this fate: its lofty rocky castles will not preserve it from the overthrow which has been decreed by the Lord, and which He will carry out through the medium of the nations. Edom has therefore been deceived by its proud reliance upon these rocky towers. שׁכני, which the connecting sound י attached to the construct state (see at Gen 31:39), is a vocative. הגוי סלע are rocky towers, though the primary meaning of חגוי is open to dispute. The word is derived from the root חגה, which is not used in Hebrew (like קצוי from קצה), and is found not only here and in the parallel passage of Jeremiah, but also in the Sol 2:14, where it occurs in parallelism with סתר, which points to the meaning refugium, i.e., asylum. This meaning has also been confirmed by A. Schultens (Anim-adv. ad Jes. xix. 17) and by Michaelis (Thes. s.v. Jes.), from the Arabic ḥj'a, confugit, and maḥjâ'u, refugium.

(Note: The renderings adopted on the authority of the ancient versions, such as clefts of the rock, scissurae, jagged rocks, fissures (ὀπαί, lxx), caves, which are derived either from the supposed connection between חגה and חקה, and the Arabic chjj, fidit, laceravit, or from the Arabic wajaḥ, antrum (with the letters transposed), have far less to sustain them. For the meanings assigned to these Arabic words are not the primary meanings, but derivative ones. The former signifies literally propulit, the latter confugit, iv. effecit ut ad rem confugeret; and Arabic mawjaḥun means refugium, asylum.)

In the expression מרום שׁבתּו the ב is to be considered as still retaining its force from חגוי onwards (cf. Isa 28:7; Job 15:3, etc.). The emphasis rests upon high; and hence the abstract noun mârōm, height, instead of the adjective. The Edomites inhabited the mountains of Seir, which have not yet been carefully explored in detail. They are on the eastern side of the Ghor (or Arabah), stretching from the deep rocky valley of the Ahsy, which opens into the southern extremity of the Dead Sea, and extending as far as Aela on the Red Sea, and consist of mighty rocks of granite and porphyry, covered with fresh vegetation, which terminate in the west, towards the deeply intersected sand-sea of the Ghor and Arabah, in steep and lofty walls of sandstone. The mountains are hardly accessible, therefore, on the western side; whereas on the east they are gradually lost in the broad sandy desert of Arabia, without any perceptible fall (see Burckhardt in v. Raumer's Pal. pp. 83-4, 86; and Robinson's Palestine, ii. p. 551ff.). They also abound in clefts, with both natural and artificial caves; and hence its earliest inhabitants were Horites, i.e., dwellers in caves; and even the Edomites dwelt in caves, at least to some extent.

(Note: Jerome observes on Oba 1:6 : "And indeed ... throughout the whole of the southern region of the Idumaeans, from Eleutheropolis to Petra and Hala (for this is a possession of Esau), there are small dwellings in caves; and on account of the great heat of the sun, since it is a southern province, subterranean huts are used.")

The capital, Sela (Petra), in the Wady Musa, of whose glory at one time there are proofs still to be found in innumerable remains of tombs, temples, and other buildings, was shut in both upon the east and west by rocky walls, which present an endless variety of bright lively colours, from the deepest crimson to the softest pale red, and sometimes passing into orange and yellow; whilst on the north and south it was so encircled by hills and heights, that it could only be reached by climbing through very difficult mountain passes and defiles (see Burckhardt, Syr. p. 703; Robinson, Pal. ii. p. 573; and Ritter, Erdk. xiv. p. 1103); and Pliny calls it oppidum circumdatum montibus inaccessis. Compare Strabo, xvi. 779; and for the different roads to Petra, Ritter, p. 997ff.

Oba 1:4

Oba 1:4 shows the worthlessness of this reliance of the Edomites. The object to תּגבּיהּ, viz., קנּך, does not follow till the second clause: If thou makest thy nest high like the eagle, which builds its nest upon the loftiest jagged rocks (Job 39:27-28). This thought is hyperbolically intensified in the second clause: if thy nest had been placed among stars. שׁים is not an infinitive, but a passive participle, as in the primary passage, Num 24:21, which Obadiah had before his mind, and in Sa1 9:24; Sa2 13:32; but קנּך is nevertheless to be taken as an accusative of the object, after the analogy of the construction of passives c. accus. obj. (see Ges. 143, l, a.).

Keil & Delitzsch — Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1861–1891) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API. (Old Testament only.)

1:2-4 I will cut you down: Several messages of judgment rehearse Edom’s specific sins against Israel (1:10-14; Jer 49:7-22; Ezek 25:12-14; 36:5;). Edom frequently appears among the nations that opposed Israel and the Lord (Isa 34; Ezek 35–36; Amos 9:1-15). • down to size among the nations . . . your own pride: Edom’s rocky topography mimicked Edom’s pride. The height of the mountain fortress that provided their security only emphasizes the height from which Edom would fall. Edomite princes were among the arrogant rulers of the nations (Ezek 32:29; cp. Gen 36; 1 Chr 1:43-54).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

I have made thee small--Thy reduction to insignificance is as sure as if it were already accomplished; therefore the past tense is used [MAURER]. Edom then extended from Dedan of Arabia to Bozrah in the north (, ). CALVIN explains it, "Whereas thou wast made by Me an insignificant people, why art thou so proud" ()? But if so, why should the heathen peoples be needed to subdue one so insignificant? , confirms MAURER'S view.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 2. I have made thee small among the heathen] God ever attributes to himself the rise and fall of nations. If they be great and prosperous, it is by God's providence; if they be low and depressed, it is by his justice. Compared with the Assyrians, Chaldeans, Egyptians, Syrians, Arabs, and other neighbouring nations, the Idumeans were a small people.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Behold, I have made thee small among the Heathen,.... Or "a little one", or "thing" (o); their number few, and their country not large, as Aben Ezra, especially in comparison of other nations; and therefore had no reason to be so proud, insolent, and secure, as they are afterwards said to be; or rather, "I will make thee"; the past for the future, after the prophetic manner, as Kimchi; that is weak and feeble, as the Targum; reduce their numbers, destroy their towns and cities, and bring them into a low and miserable condition: or the sense is, that he would make them look little, mean, and abject, in the sight of their enemies who would conclude, upon a view of them, that they should have no trouble in subduing them, and therefore should attack them without fear, and as sure of success:

thou art greatly despised; in the eyes of the nations round about; by their enemies, who looked upon them with contempt, because of the smallness of their number, their defenceless state and want of strength to support and defend themselves; see Jer 49:15; had so the pope of Rome is little and despicable in the eyes of the monarchs of the earth; and the antichristian Edom will be more so at the time of its general ruin.

(o) "parvium", V. L.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Behold, I have made thee small - God, having declared His future judgments upon Edom, assigns the first ground of those judgments. Pride was the root of Edom’s sin, then envy; then followed exultation at his brother’s fall, hard-heartedness and bloodshed. All this was against the disposition of God’s Providence for him. God had made him small, in numbers, in honor, in territory. Edom was a wild mountain people. It was strongly guarded in the rock-girt dwelling, which God had assigned it. Like the Swiss or the Tyrolese of old, or the inhabitants of Mount Caucasus now, it had strength for resistance through the advantages of its situation, not for aggression, unless it were that of a robber-horde. But lowness, as people use it, is the mother either of lowliness or pride. A low estate, acquiesced in by the grace of God, is the parent of lowliness; when rebelled against, it generates a greater intensity of pride than greatness, because that pride is against nature itself and God’s appointment. The pride of human greatness, sinful as it is, is allied to a natural nobility of character. Copying pervertedly the greatness of God, the soul, when it receives the Spirit of God, casts off the slough, and retains its nobility transfigured by grace. The conceit of littleness has the hideousness of those monstrous combinations, the more hideous, because unnatural, not a corruption only but a distortion of nature. Edom never attempted anything of moment by itself. “Thou art greatly despised.” Weakness, in itself, is neither despicable nor “despised.” It is despised only, when it vaunts itself to be, what it is not. God tells Edom what, amid its pride, it was in itself, “despicable;” what it would thereafter be, “despised” .

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Contemptible. The nations of Chaldea, &c., were far more potent. Yet Edom must be brought still lower.

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Behold, ye Edomites, lay it to heart, and consider it well; be not secure amidst such dangers.

I have made thee small; thou art a small people for number, thy land mountainous, rocky, and barren, and it is little that which is of it, situate very incommodiously for any trade, which makes people great and famous; a country titled for moss-troopers, or banditti; and as such outlaws and robbers, thou art proud, and promisest great things to thyself.

Among the heathen, in comparison with other nations.

Thou art greatly despised, by those that do hear of thee, who know thy situation, government, manner of life, and what thy forces are, and how usually employed. Whatever these Edomites had been, now they are despised, and ere long should be more despicable, when, as Jer 49:20, the least of Nebuchadnezzar’s army should pull them out of their caves, houses, and strong holds.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Behold, I have made thee small. Here is the effect of the summons. So in Jer_49:15, "For, lo, I will make thee small." Jehovah is the Speaker, and he regards the future as past. What he determines is as good as accomplished. At this time the Edomites were a powerful nation, and possessed an almost impregnable seat at Petra. Small; in numbers, territory, honour.

Vers. 2-5. Pride.

"Behold, I have made thee small among the heathen: thou art greatly despised. The pride of thine heart hath deceived thee," etc. These words may be taken as suggesting and illustrating one of the chief sins of all sinners, viz. pride, that which poets tell us "peoples hell and holds its prisoners there." The words suggest three facts in relation to pride.

I THAT THE MOST DESPICABLE PEOPLE ARE OFTEN THE MOST DISPOSED TO PRIDE. Edom, which is charged with the sin of pride, is here described as "small among the heathen" and "greatly despised." Not only were they a small people, small comparatively in numbers, wealth, and influence, but despised. They became contemptible in the estimation of their contemporaries. Small things and small men are not always despicable, for God made the small as well as the great. It is the moral character that creates and deserves contempt. Now, small and despicable as were these Edomites, they were nevertheless proud. It is often, if not ever, so. The smaller the men the more disposed to pride. The man small in body is often swollen out with ideas of the comeliness of his person; the man small in intellect is the same. The men who rate themselves as great thinkers, scholars, authors, preachers, are invariably small-brained men. Men of great intellect and lofty genius are characteristically humble. An old writer has observed that "where the river is the deepest the water glides the smoothest. Empty casks sound most; whereas the well fraught vessel silences its own sound. As the shadow of the sun is largest when his beams are lowest, so we are always least when we make ourselves the greatest.

II THAT PRIDE EVERMORE DISPOSES TO SELF-DECEPTION AND PRESUMPTION.

1. To self-deception. "The pride of thine heart hath deceived thee." Pride is a wonderful artist; it magnifies the small; it beautifies the ugly; it honours the ignoble; it makes the truly little, ugly, contemptible man appear large, handsome, dignified in his own eyes. It is said that Accius, the poet, who was a dwarf, would have himself painted as tall and commanding in stature. In truth, it makes the man who is a devil at heart appear to himself a saint. Witness the Pharisee in the temple.

2. To presumption. "Thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock, whose habitation is high; that saith in his heart, Who shall bring me down to the ground?" The Edomites are here taunted with the confidence that they placed in their lofty and precipitous mountain, and the insolence with which they scouted any attempt to subdue them. A proud man always presumes on strength, reputation, and resources which he has not. Whilst he stands on quicksand he fancies himself on a rock. "Thou sayest thou art rich, and increased with goods, and hast need of nothing; whereas," etc., (Rev_3:17) Ah! self-deception and presumption are the twin offspring of pride.

III THAT THE MOST STRENUOUS EFFORTS TO AVOID PUNISHMENT DUE TO PRIDE WILL PROVE FUTILE. Two things are taught here concerning its punishment.

1. Its certainty. "Though thou exalt thyself as the eagle, and though thou set thy nest among the stars, thence will I bring thee down, saith the Lord." Here these sinners are assured, by a bold hyperbole, that whatever attempts they made to avoid retribution, they would fail. If, like the eagle, they towered high into the air, far up among the clouds, nestled among the stars, and made the clouds their footstool, the fowler of retribution would bring them down. All attempts on behalf of the impenitent sinner to avoid punishment must fail when the day for justice to do its work has come.

2. Its completeness. "If thieves came to thee, if robbers by night (how art thou cut off!), would they not have stolen till they had enough? if the grape gatherers came to thee, would they not leave some grapes?" The spoliation which thou shalt suffer shall not be such as that which thieves cause, bad as that is; for these, when they have seized enough, or all they can get in a hurry, leave the rest; nor such as grape gatherers cause in a vineyard, for they, when they have gathered most of the grapes, leave gleanings behind; but it shall be utter, so as to leave thee nothing. The exclamation, "How art thou cut off!" bursting in amidst the words of the image, marks strongly excited feeling. The contrast between Edom, where no gleanings shall be left, and Israel, where at the worst a gleaning is left, is striking. (Isa_17:6 Isa_24:13) Retribution strips the sinner of everything; nothing is left but sheer existence, and that existence intolerable.

CONCLUSION. Beware of pride, then. The primal cause of all sin, all pain, and all woo to come, the great fountainhead of evil, is pride. It must load to ruin. "Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall." "He that is proud eats up himself. Pride is His own glass, his own trumpet: his own chronicle, And whatever praises itself but in The deed, devours the deed in the praise. (Shakespeare.) D.T.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Small - Thou art a small people. In comparison with other nations. Despised - What ever these Edomites had been, now they were despised.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

Behold I have made you small—In contrast with what his father called him, his big son, and his mother called him her big son, the Holy One, blessed be He, says: In My eyes, he is small (Pesikta d’Rav Kahana p. 56; Pesikta Rabbathi, ed. Meir Ish Shalom p. 79a; Pesikta Rabbathi ed. Warsaw p. 144; Gen. Rabbah 65:11). And our Sages (Avodah Zarah 10a) expounded: small for they have neither script nor language. [from Avodah Zarah 10a]

despised—That they did not crown a king the son of a king.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.