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Hosea’s commitment to an adulterous wife demonstrated God’s unrelenting love for his people. Joel used a locust plague to teach authentic repentance: the rending of our hearts, not our garments. Amos preached on pursuing justice and righteousness, and the living out of God’s commandments to love and serve each other. Yahweh’s central message throughout all these books, so far, is, “Return to me, and I will return to you.” These prophetic voices act as God’s mouthpiece calling out, “Seek Yahweh and live.”
Obadiah has only 21 verses, the shortest book in all Hebrew scripture. The length of Obadiah is not challenging, but its content requires a history lesson that goes well beyond 21 verses. Obadiah is an oracle of judgment against Edom.
How did a short, prophetic book written about the sins and punishment of one of Israel’s neighboring nations make it into the biblical canon? Edom is not just any ancestral enemy. The biblical timeline of the Edomites stretches from the birth of Jacob and Esau to the birth of Jesus, and beyond.
Jacob and Esau
Obadiah is rooted in the brotherly feud between Jacob and Esau, the twin sons of Isaac and Rebekah. As told in Genesis 25, Rebekah understood even during her pregnancy that the two sons in her womb were at odds with each other. The Lord told her: “Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples born of you shall be divided; the one shall be stronger than the other, the elder shall serve the younger” (Gen. 25:23).
Esau was the first twin to be born. Even as a newborn he was red and hairy. Jacob was the second born and came out of the womb gripping Esau’s heel. In the tribal culture of the age, where firstborns received a double portion of the inheritance, which twin came out first was an important technicality.
Jacob, more of an indoors type, was the favorite child of Rebekah. Isaac preferred Esau, a hunter. Even though Jacob was the son whose descendants carried on the Abrahamic covenant, the Bible honestly portrays the deceptive nature of Israel’s patriarch. Jacob convinced a hungry Esau to trade his birthright for a bowl of lentil stew. For Esau’s part, he does not come out of the story looking virtuous, either. He was hasty and reactionary. After the episode when he relinquished his birthright for nothing but a bowl of lentils, we read that Esau “despised his birthright” (Gen. 25:34).
Years later, on Isaac’s deathbed, Isaac asked Esau to go out and hunt game to make him dinner before he gave Esau his blessing. As the firstborn, Esau would have been due the more significant blessing. Rebekah and Jacob conspired together to trick the half-blind Isaac to utter the firstborn’s blessing over Jacob instead of Esau. Jacob put on Esau’s clothes and put goat skin on his hands and neck so that he would be hairy, like his older brother. Rebekah made a savory dish like the one Isaac requested, but Jacob brought it to his father while Esau was still out hunting. The ruse worked, and Jacob received the blessing meant for his brother:
May God give you of the dew of heaven, and of the fatness of the earth, and plenty of grain and wine. Let people serve you, and nations bow down to you. Be Lord over your brothers and may your mother’s sons bow down to you. Cursed be everyone who curses you and blessed be everyone who blesses you (Gen. 27:28-29).
When Esau returned from the hunt and discovered his brother’s trickery, he was livid. It appears strange to our modern sensibility the permanence of a misappropriated blessing. But as Esau wept, Isaac gave him an inferior blessing:
See, away from the fatness of the earth shall your home be, and away from the dew of heaven on high. By your sword you shall live, and you shall serve your brother; but when you break loose, you shall break his yoke from your neck (Gen. 27:39-40).
At first, Esau swore he would kill Jacob for his betrayal. At his mother’s request, Jacob spent the next years in Haran where he had relatives and could live at a safe distance from Esau. In Haran, the deceitful actions of his father-in-law Laban plagued Jacob. Jacob, as part of his own growth and path to maturity, literally and figuratively wrestled with God. The passage of time healed the brotherly wounds but did not reunite them permanently. When the two brothers met again in the land of Canaan, Jacob was repentant, and Esau was forgiving. Despite the warmth of their reunion, the two again separated; Jacob headed towards Shechem and Esau to Seir.
Jacob married Rachel and Leah, as well as both of their handmaids, and his descendants comprise the 12 tribes who eventually took possession of the land promised to Abraham. The descendants of Jacob later became the kingdoms of Israel and Judah. Esau had several wives, including the daughter of Ishmael. The descendants of Esau, whose nickname was Edom, became the Edomites. The accounts of Isaac’s blessings and Jacob and Esau’s encounters in Genesis are the origin stories of Israel and Edom. They also serve as the background for Obadiah’s oracle.
Ancient historians glean most of what we know about the Edomites from the biblical accounts, Egyptian inscriptions, the Assyrian records, and the archaeological remains of their capital city Busaira, or Bozrah. Archaeologists have yet to find Edomite inscriptions that record their own version of history. The small kingdom of Edom covered the mountainous terrain southeast of Judah, “away from the fatness of the earth” as Isaac had spoken. The rocky cliffs of the desert had obvious advantages with natural defenses.
Edomites
According to the biblical account, Yahweh was responsible for the gifting of Mount Seir to Esau’s descendants (Deut. 2:5) and Yahweh aided the Edomites in defeating their enemies (Deut. 2:22).
The Torah relates two encounters between the Edomites and Israelites during the 40 years of wilderness wanderings. In Deuteronomy 2, the Israelites needed to pass through Edom on the King’s Highway to enter the promised land. Yahweh instructed them to avoid battling with the Edomites. If they required any food or water during their passage, they were to purchase what they needed and to take nothing (Deut. 2:4-6). So, they passed through without incident.
However, earlier, in Numbers 20:14-20, the encounter happened differently. The Edomites refused passage to Moses and his band of freed slaves. An armored Edomite force positioned themselves to make certain that the Israelites did not encroach on their land. The Israelites, following Yahweh’s earlier command to avoid battle with their kindred (Deut. 2:4), rerouted their march, but they never forgot Edom’s rejection.
Archaeological records confirm that during the Late Bronze Age, Edomites were a mostly nomadic people. Around the Iron Age, the Edomites settled in large numbers. Strategically positioned, the kingdom benefited from the international trade routes that passed through their territory. They also controlled the Red Sea port. By the ninth century BCE, or even earlier, the kingdom’s copper production industry thrived, which prompted more permanent settlements and led to prosperity.
Israel’s sensitivity towards Edom was not long-lasting. Kings, Chronicles, and Samuel describe their ongoing rivalry in short accounts. By the time of King Saul, the Edomite kingdom and Israel were usually at odds, although there were brief times of peace (2 Kings 3:9). Saul defeated the Edomites to secure his border east of the Jordan, but we are not told the extent of the fighting (1 Sam. 14:47).
King David defeated Edom in the Valley of Salt, killing 18,000 Edomites in battle, and making the survivors David’s servants (2 Sam. 8:13-14). David’s commander Joab remained in Edom for six months trying to kill every surviving male in Edom (1 Kings 11:15-16). Hadad, a prince from Edom’s royal household, escaped to Egypt, where he was esteemed by the Pharaoh. During this period, Edom was an Israelite vassal. After the death of David and Joab, Hadad returned to Edom to lead a rebellion against Judah, but to no avail. Edom remained under Judah’s thumb.
At one point, Edom allied with Ammon and Moab and tried to overwhelm Judah’s forces, but Yahweh intervened on behalf of the righteous King Jehoshaphat, so that the allies destroyed each other and never attacked Judah (2 Chron. 20:10-23). Edom rebelled successfully against Jehoram around 850 BCE (2 Chron. 21:8-10). The Edomites then appointed their own king and restored their independence on the highland plateau (2 Kings 8:20-22). During the reign of Judah’s ungodly King Amaziah (800-783 BCE), Judah and Edom met again for battle in the Valley of Salt. This time, Judah’s army killed 10,000 Edomites in battle; they pushed another 10,000 Edomites off a cliff (2 Chron. 25:11). In a disturbing scene that displayed how far Judah’s monarchy had strayed from Yahwism, King Amaziah looted the gods of Edom, bowed down to them, and offered sacrifices to them (2 Chron. 25:14).
When the Assyrian Empire destroyed the Kingdom of Israel and quickly dominated the entire Levant, Edom submitted to Assyria’s authority. Assyrian records list Edom as one vassal in Transjordan that paid tribute. The archaeological record shows that the Assyrian takeover allowed Edom to gain in strength, while Judah became weaker. Military fortresses in the eastern Negev that had once belonged to Judah show signs of Edomite occupation around 670 BCE.
With the ascendancy of the Babylonians, Judah’s resistance to Nebuchadnezzar’s strong-arming ensured her destruction. Edom was not one of the neighboring kingdoms to join Zedekiah’s resistance against Babylon (Jer. 27:1-3), so they stood as a kingdom for a bit longer.
This marks the probable moment that Obadiah stepped onto the stage. The prophet seems to have been an eyewitness to the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem and the ravaging of the First Temple. Obadiah rebuked Edom for her participation in the destruction of her own kin, the descendants of Jacob. The Hebrew scriptures contain several other accounts of Edom’s lack of compassion. Amos, Obadiah, Ezekiel, Lamentations, Jeremiah, Isaiah, and some of the Psalms all tell the same story. Edom’s gloating over Judah in her weakest moment was reprehensible.
Amos blamed Edom, in his oracle, for exploiting their old enmity and attacking their own kin with no mercy (Amos 1:11). Ezekiel blamed Edom for “taking vengeance” on the house of Judah (Ezek. 25:12). Because they “cherished an ancient enmity,” they “gave over the people of Israel to the power of the sword at the time of their calamity” (Ezek. 35:5). They not only pillaged Jerusalem’s smoldering ruins, but they also blocked the way for the fleeing Jewish refugees and turned them over to Babylon. The psalmist in exile held onto a haunting memory of Edom’s calls for further destruction in Jerusalem: “Remember, O Lord, against the Edomites, the day of Jerusalem’s fall, how they said, ‘Tear it down! Tear it down! Down to its foundations!’” (Ps. 137:7).
Loyalty was crucial in the tribal culture of the ancient Near East. The Bible used the language of brotherhood and kinship in every mention of Israelite and Edomite encounters. The Deuteronomist was the most explicit: “You shall not regard an Edomite with abhorrence, because he is your brother” (Deut. 23:7). How did the Bible’s brotherhood language about Edom turn into severe oracles of judgment? According to Amos, the Edomites were to blame for rejecting their “covenant of kinship” (Amos 1:9).
Predictions of Edom’s complete doom appear throughout the prophets. Amos predicted her fiery destruction (Amos 1:12); Obadiah foretold complete pillaging (vs. 5); Ezekiel elaborated on the extent of the desolation (Ezek. 35:3); Isaiah painted a picture of bloody slaughter (Isa. 34:5-8); and Jeremiah described it all as drinking the cup of Yahweh’s wrath (Lam. 4:21). Ezekiel swore that because Edom did not hate bloodshed, “bloodshed will pursue you” (Ezek. 35:6). Within a few decades of Jerusalem’s fall, in 554 BCE, these prophecies were fulfilled. The last Babylonian King, Nabonidus, captured and set aflame Edom’s fortress city Busaira (Bozrah).
By the fourth century BCE, nomadic groups pushed the Edomites out of their ancestral territory and they began migrating westward. During the Roman period, Nabateans settled in the mountainous terrain that had once been home to the Edomite kingdom. The Nabateans built the now famous city of Petra, maximizing the strategic trading position of their new settlement for their own economic ambitions. By the Hellenistic period in Israel, Edomites were no longer mountain dwellers, but they lived on as a distinct people group. They adopted the Greek form of the name Edom—Idumea—and they became known as the Idumeans.
In the story of Hanukkah, the Maccabean leader John Hyrcanus launched a religious purge after shaking off the Greek oppressors. Part of his missionizing by the sword included the forceful conversion of the Idumeans, including their forced circumcision.
King Herod I, also known as Herod the Great, is the most well-known Idumean from the Roman era. King Herod I is infamous because of his role in the nativity account in the Gospel of Matthew. After the birth of Jesus, the magi from the east paid a visit to King Herod I in their attempt to locate the “King of the Jews.” Rome had appointed King Herod I as king, but he was a descendant of Judah’s ancient enemy who had apparently converted to Judaism. The tenuousness of his reign likely had prompted his violent overreaction to the news of Christ’s birth.