Scripture Notes: The Sins of Edom (Obadiah)

The Book of the Prophet Obadiah is the shortest book in the Bible, with just one chapter, but it contains a critical warning that continues to apply even to this day. The prophet speaks against Edom, Israel’s southern neighbor that descended from the patriarch Jacob’s twin brother, Esau. The relationship between the two nations was strained at best for centuries and often deteriorated into out and out warfare. 

The most likely circumstances behind this brief but powerful prophetic message involves the Babylonian exile of Judea in 586 BC. As the Jews were conquered by Babylon, as Jerusalem and the Temple burned, as the people fled in terror or died in the streets or were carried off into captivity, Edom laughed. 

Obadiah calls out Edom for its sins. It sat by and did nothing while its brother Jacob suffered and died. It refused to lift a finger to defend or comfort. In fact, it rejoiced at Jerusalem’s downfall and swept in to grab as much land and wealth as it could. It gloated and snickered and mocked. It even rounded up fugitive Jews and handed them over to be enslaved or killed.

In other words, Edom had no pity, no compassion, no mercy. It cared nothing for the horrors experienced by its neighbor, its brother really, for Edom and Israel were linked by ties of blood. So, the prophet warns, Edom will get back what it gave. It, too, will be destroyed without mercy. It, too, will suffer. It, too, will be mistreated and scorned. It will learn the hard way as it experiences the punishments that are simply the consequences of unrepented sin.