Obadiah Introduction
Introduction
Jerusalem was the capital city of Judah. The nation of Babylon destroyed Jerusalem 586 years before Jesus was born. At the same time the people of Edom came into Jerusalem. They stole things that belonged to the Israelites. They also stopped people from Judah as they were running away from the soldiers of Babylon. They gave these Israelites to the soldiers of Babylon. These soldiers either killed the Israelites or took them away as slaves.
These were terrible things for the people of Edom to do. The people of Edom were from the same family line as the people of Israel. The people of these two nations were related to each other. And they were neighbors! The people of Edom should have helped the people of Judah. Instead, they hurt them.
The prophet Obadiah was in Judah while all this happened. In his first speech Obadiah condemns the Edomites for their mean treatment of the helpless Israelites. He then tells the people of Edom that they will be destroyed. The last part of Obadiah’s speech brings hope to the Israelites. He states that God is with them. God will bring back their nation of Judah. Obadiah promises the Israelites that in the end the kingdom will belong to God.
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Obadiah Introduction: NIrV
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Holy Bible, New International Reader’s Version®, NIrV®
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Obadiah Introduction
Introduction
Obadiah is a very short book of only one chapter of 21 verses. It is a concise prophecy of judgment against the country of Edom, Judah's neighbor south of the Dead Sea. Edomites traced their ancestry to Abraham's grandson, Esau, and thus were ancestrally related to the Israelites, whose lineage was from Esau's brother, Jacob (later known as Israel). While these were anciently related peoples, there were also age-old animosities between them.
Speaking for God, the prophet Obadiah, whose name means “Servant of the Lord,” declares that God will bring severe judgment on Edom because of their prideful cruelty toward the people of Judah. When the Babylonian armies crushed Jerusalem and Judah in 586 b.c., and left it in ruins, Obadiah reports that Edom celebrated that event, took unfair advantage of Judah's helplessness to loot Judean towns, and turned refugees over to Babylonian forces. The prophecy says that for this inexcusable perfidy a day of judgment is coming for Edom, a day when they will suffer defeat and be wiped out themselves. But for Judah and Jerusalem, Obadiah declares, its people and places will be restored.
Outline
God's Judgment on Edom and the Nations (1-16)
Israelite Restoration and Expansions (17-21)
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King James Version 1611, spelling, punctuation and text formatting modernized by ABS in 1962; typesetting © 2010 American Bible Society.