Who was Obadiah, and when did he write? Study Obadiah 1 with context, apologetic analysis, and cross-references.
Dr. Lucas D. Shallua Commentary · OBADIAH 1 — THE DAY OF THE LORD AGAINST EDOM AND THE KINGDOM THAT BELONGS TO THE LORD
The book gives no biographical detail beyond his name, and there is no sure way to identify him with any other Obadiah in the Old Testament. The best fit for the events of verses 10–14 is the fall of Jerusalem in 586 BC. The alternative is the ninth century, in the time of Jehoram. The theology is the same either way.
The sins named are pride, betrayal of a brother, gloating over disaster, taking part in plunder, and the cruelty of handing over refugees. Edom's guilt lay not only in what it did but in what it should have done as a relative. Judgment is also tied to the principle that nations are accountable to God for how they treat others, especially His covenant people. It is fair to note that Obadiah does not say that Edom was the only one at fault in the Babylonian conquest, and the nations that actually destroyed Jerusalem were also judged by the prophets.
Obadiah does not celebrate suffering for its own sake; he announces justice. The prophet's own warning against gloating (verse 12) applies to the people of God as well. The book shows a God who takes up the cause of the wronged. Believers are called to leave vengeance to God (Romans 12:19) and to show mercy, and this is consistent with Obadiah's emphasis on God's justice.
Yes, in stages. Edom was pressured by Arab tribes, especially the Nabateans, from about the fifth century BC, and its people were pushed out of their original land into southern Judah, later called Idumea. By the Maccabean period, Idumea was under Judean rule, and John Hyrcanus forced the Idumeans to accept Judaism around 125 BC. After the Roman destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70, the Edomites no longer appear as a distinct people. Edom's fall is thus part of the historical record, though some also take the broader promises of verses 15–21 as awaiting future fulfillment.
No. The book addresses a nation that acted in a specific way at a specific time. In Scripture, the nation of Edom is distinguished from the individual Edomite. Individuals of any nation can turn to the LORD, as the Old Testament shows by including figures from the nations in the history of salvation, and the prophets promise that some of Edom will be included in the people of God (Amos 9:12).
This commentary understands the promise as a statement of God's covenant faithfulness to Israel, in agreement with the conviction that Israel retains its covenant significance, and expects its fulfillment in the age to come, under the reign of the Messiah. The details, such as the place called Sepharad, are not always clear, and these should be held with humility. The passage should not be used as a basis for hostility toward any modern people.
Nothing is known about Obadiah beyond his name, which means "servant of the LORD" or "worshiper of the LORD," and the opening line identifies the message as a vision he received. Several other men in the Old Testament bear the same name, but none can be certainly identified with the prophet. The book does not give a date, so the setting must be inferred from its contents. The key passage is verses 10–14, which describes a day when foreigners entered Jerusalem's gates, carried off its wealth, and cast lots for the city, while Edom stood aloof and then joined in the plunder. This matches best the Babylonian conquest of Jerusalem in 586 BC, which other prophets and poets connect directly with Edom's betrayal (Psalm 137:7; Lamentations 4:21–22; Ezekiel 25:12–14; 35:1–15). On this view, Obadiah prophesied shortly after 586 BC. Another view dates the book to the reign of Jehoram of Judah in the ninth century BC, when Philistines and Arabs raided Jerusalem (2 Kings 8:20–22; 2 Chronicles 21:16–17), and some interpreters place it there, but the language of exile and the fall of the city fits the later date more naturally. This commentary favors the sixth-century setting and notes that the message stands whichever date is chosen. A large part of verses 1–9 closely parallels Jeremiah 49:7–22. The two prophets may have drawn on a common source, or one may have used the other, and the similarity shows that Edom's judgment was a message the prophets repeated. Edom lay southeast of the Dead Sea, in a rugged region of sandstone mountains and deep canyons, a land of high plateaus cut by narrow gorges, with cities such as Bozrah and Teman, and the great rock fortress of Sela. The region was an easy place to defend and a profitable place to hold, since the King's Highway and caravan routes ran through it. The people of Edom were Israel's closest relatives. Their ancestor, Esau, was Jacob's twin, and the Torah calls Edom Israel's brother (Genesis 25:19–34; 36:1–43; Deuteronomy 23:7). The relationship was marked by conflict almost from the beginning. Edom refused Israel passage in the wilderness (Numbers 20:14–21), fought with Saul and David, was subdued by David, and later revolted in the days of Jehoram. The book's burden is that betrayal by a brother is a particular kind of sin, and that God is not indifferent to how nations treat His people.
Obadiah's prediction that Edom would be humbled despite its apparent security is one of the more striking examples of the Old Testament's confidence in God's control of history. Edom's heartland was as secure a place as any in the ancient Near East. Excavations at sites such as Buseirah, identified with Bozrah, and Umm el-Biyara near Petra, a fortified mountaintop settlement, show that Edom had strongholds in high, defensible places, and a number of Edomite inscriptions and seals mention a deity named Qos. Assyrian records from the eighth and seventh centuries BC list Edom as a vassal state, which shows that its independence was frequently limited. Babylonian records confirm the capture of Jerusalem in 586 BC, and the Old Testament itself connects Edom's behavior to that time in Psalm 137, Lamentations, and Ezekiel, which independently support the setting of the book. The Nabateans, an Arab people with their capital at Petra, took over the old Edomite heartland in the period after the Babylonian conquest, and the Edomites moved into the Negeb and the hill country south of Hebron, an area later called Idumea. This is consistent with what the book predicts. The later history of the region also contains a notable connection: Herod the Great, who ruled Judea at the time of Jesus' birth, was an Idumean, a descendant of the Edomites who were forced to convert to Judaism. The enmity between Esau and Jacob that Obadiah describes thus reappears in the first chapters of Matthew's Gospel, when Herod seeks to kill the infant Messiah.
This study preserves the hard questions, explanations, context, apologetic note, and references from Dr. Shallua's Commentary.