LIBRARY OF THE THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY PRINCETON, N. J. Presented by "TheWiolovA^ of GreoY-peDiAd'^n^ ?t Division^S..^^ ^ Seciion.\}rrT...L\ ^ \ /' I COMMENTARY ON THE HOLY SCRIPTURES: CRITICAL. DOCTRINAL, AND HOMILETICAL. WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO MINISTERS AND STUDENTS BT JOHISr PETER '1,AKGE, D. D., OKDINAKT PROriBSOB OF THEOLOGY IN THE UNrVBRSITT OP BOOTI, IS CVWSBUnOK WITH A KUMBKB OF EHUnUIT KCROPKAIT DITOTa TRANSLATED, ENLARGED, AND EDITED PHILIP SOHAFF, D. D., PBOFESSOR OF THKOLOGY IN THE UNION THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY. NEW YORK, IX OOmntCTION with AMKBICAJI SOHOT^ARS of VARIOP8 BVANOKLICAL DEMOMUATIOVS. ?0».RME XIV. nv THE OLD TESTAMENT: CONTAINING THE MINOR PR0PHET8' Is'EW YUKiv: CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SUNS, 1899 Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2010 with funding from Princeton Theological Seminary Library http://www.archive.org/details/bookofobadiah145klei THK MINOE PROPHETS KXEGETICALLY, THEOLOGICALLY. AND HOMILETICALLY EXPOUJSTDED PAUL KLEINERT, OTTO SCHMOLLER, GEORGE R. BLISS, TALBOT W. CHAMBERS, CHARLES ELLIOTT, JOHN FORSYTH, J. FREDERICK McCURDY, AND JOSEPH PACKARD. EDITED BY PHILIP SCHAFF, D. D. NEW YORK: CHARLES SCRIBNER'R SONS, 1699 SMered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1874, t^ ScRiBNER, Armstrong, and Company, IB tile Office of the Librarian of Congress, at WashincUM. Trow's Printing and Bookbinding Company, 205-213 /iasi inik St., new YORK. PREFACE BY THE GENERAL EDITOR The volume on the Minor Prophets is partly in advance of the German original, which has not yet reached the three post-exilian Prophets. The commentaries on the nin« earlier Prophets by Professors Kleinert and Schmoller appeared in separate numberi some time ago ^ ; but for Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi, Dr. Lange has not, to this date, been able to secure a suitable co-laborer.^ With his cordial approval I deem it better to complete the volume by original commentaries than indefinitely to postpone the publication. They were prepared by sound and able scholars, in conformity with the plan of the whole work. The volume accordingly contains the following parts, each one being paged separately : — 1. A General Introduction to the Prophets, especially the Minor Prophets, by Rev. Charles Elliott, D. D., Professor of Biblical Exegesis in Chicago, Illinois. Th« general introductions of Kleinert and Schmoller are too brief and incomplete for our purpose, and therefore I requested Dr. Elliott to prepare an independent essay on the subject. 2. HosEA. By Rev. Dr. Otto Schmoller. Translated from the German and en- larged by James Frederick McCurdy, M. A., of Princeton, N. J. 3. Joel. By Otto Schmoller. Translated and enlarged by Rev. John Forsyth, D. D., LL. D., Chaplain and Professor of Ethics and Law in the United States Military Academy, West Point, N. Y. 4. Amos. By Otto Schmoller. Translated and enlarged by Rev. Talbot W Chambers, D. D., Pastor of the Collegiate Reformed Dutch Church, New York. 5. Obadiah. By Rev. Paul Kleinert, Professor of Old Testament Theology in the University of Berlin. Translated and enlarged by Rev. George R. Bliss, D. D., Professor in the University of Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. 6. Jonah. By Prof. Paul Kleinert, of the University of Berlin. Translated and en- larged by Rev. Charles Elliott, Professor of Biblical Exegesis in Chicago.' 7. MiCAH. By Prof. Paul Kleinert, of Berlin, and Prof. George R. Bliss, of Lewis- burg. 8. Nahum. By Prof Paul Kleinert, of Berlin, and Prof. Chablks Elliott, of Chicago. 9. Habakkuk. By Professors Kleinert and Elliott. 1 Obadjah, Jonah, Mieha, Nahum, Habakuk, Zephanja/i. Wissenshafilieh undfUr den Oebraueh der Kirch* aiugeUgt «M Paul Kleinbbt, Pfaner zu St. Gertraud und a. Professor an der Universitdt zu Berlin, Bielefeld u. Leipzig, 1868. — iK» Propketen Hosea, Joel und Amos. Theologiseh-homiletisch bearbtitet von Otto Sohmoheb, Lieent. der Theologie, Diaeonui m Uraeh. Bielef. und Leipzig, 1872. 2 Tlie eommentary of Rev. W. Psbssel on these three Propheta (Die naehtxUisehen Propheten, Gotha, 1870) WM erigUuOly prepared for Lange's Bible-work, but was rejected by Dr. Lange mainly on accoxmt of PresBel's views on th* genuineness and integrity of Zechariah. It was, however, independently pubUshed, and was made use of; like other eommentaries, by the authors of the respective sections in this volume. 8 Dr. Elliott desires to render liia acltnowledgments to the Rev. Reuben Dederiok, of Chicago, and the Bev. Jaeok liOtke, of Faribault, Minnesota, for valuable assistance in tranfllatinR some difficult paanges in Kteintrfl 0(»mnantuiM ■D Jonah, Nahum, and Habakkuk. PREFACE BY THE GENERAL EDIT(»R. 10. Zephaniah. By Professors Kleinert and Elliott. 11. Haggai. By James Fkedkrick McCurdy, M. A., Princeton, N. J. 12. ZECHARLA.H By Rev. Talbot W. Chambers, D. D., New York. (See special preface.) 13. Malachi. By Rev. Joseph Packard, D. D., Professor of Biblical Literature in the Theological Seminary at Alexandria, Virginia. The contributors to this volume were directed carefully to consult the entire ancient and modern literature on the Minor Prophets and to enrich it with the latest results of Grcrman and Anglo-American scholarship. The remaining parts of the Old Testament are all under way, and will be published af fast as the nature of the work will permit. PHILIP SCHAFF. DmoB Thsoiookuj Sbmsa-w, Nirw YoH. . i^-aorv, 1874. THE ' BOOK OF OBADIAH. EXPOUNDED y PAUL KLEINERT, Pmoa AT 3T. QKBTRAUD, AND PROFESSOR OF OLD TESTAMENT THBOLOOT IN THI UNIVERSITY OF BBRLIN TMAN8LATED FROM THE GERMAN, WITH ADDfTfOlTB, GEORGE R BLISS, D. D., MOfBSaOR IN THE UNIVBRSITr AT LKWTSBUBa. PHini NEW YORK: CHARLES SCRIBNER'kS SONS, ■tared according to Act of Congress, in the year 1874, ty ScotiBMER, Armstrong, and Compant, I tb» Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Waahingtoa. OBADIAH. INTRODUCTION. Of the luthor of the brief prophecy concerning the doom of Edom, which those who ar- ranged the Canon have inserted between Amos and Jonah, we really know, with certainty, nothing except the name. This is read by the Masorah as Obadiah [rr^7537], L e., Servant of Jehovah, a proper name frequently met with, and which was borne also by a respectable Zebulonite of the time of Saul (1 Chr. xxvii. 19), a major-domo of Aljab (1 K. xviii. 3), a Levite under Josiah (2 Chr. xxxiv. 12), and several heads of post-exilian houses. There is, therefore, no ground for holding it, with Augusti and Kiiper, as a symbolic pseudonym That, however, the pronunciation of the name offered by the Masoretes was not universal in the earliest times, is evident from the fact that the LXX. give for it, in different places, not only Obdias, but Abdias, Audias, etc.^ What Jewish traditions report concerning the man bears the stamp of conjectm-e, or of fanciful invention. The oldest of these traditions identifies him with the chief courtier of Ahab, refei-red to above, probably because he is mentioned 1 K. xviii. 3 as a very pious man, but in so doing overlooks the fact that our prophecy grows not out of the circumstances of the ten tribes, but entu'ely out of Jerusalem. The others are still more capricious. To deternune the time of the prophecy, we are left, therefore, simply to its contents, to its relations with the other prophets, and to the historical accounts of the Old Testament. The situation in which the prophet stands is shown principally in ver. 10 fF., since vers. 1-9 contain mere prophecy (" in that day," ver. 8). Jerusalem is distressed by a hostile inva- sion, strangers have entered into her gates (ver. 11 c), have plundered and ravaged, so that the population have betaken themselves to a wild flight (ver. 14 b, c), have carried otf many treasures (ver. 11 b), and divided the inhabitants among them by lot (ver. 11 d), to sell them as slaves to distant peoples (ver. 20 c). The Edomites have not only exhibited an unbrotherly and malignant delight in these transactions (vers. 12; 10 a; 13 b), but have actively taken part in them (ver. 11 e), have shared in the invasion of the city (ver. 13 a), in the plundering (ver. 13 c), and the mad revelry which followed (ver. 16 a), have lain in wait for the fugitives when they escaped from the city, and slain them in part, in part delivered them up to slavery (ver. 14). The catastrophe which the prophet threatens in vers. 1-9, is the punishment of Edom for these deeds (ver. 10), and with this is linked the restitution of Israel (vers. 17-21). From this description it is obvious that the circumstances were such as presented them- selves after the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar. That the conduct of Edom ia relation to that catastrophe was thoroughly hostile, and closely similar to what is here de- picted (ver. 11 if.), is pi'oved by the prophecies occasioned by that conduct (Ezek. xxxv. and Is. Ixiii.). We might, therefore, regard the prophet as a contemporary of this event (Aben Ezra, Luther, Calovius, Tarnovius, Ch. V. and J. D. Michaelis, De Wette, Knobel, Maurer, Winer, Hendewerk"), or as one of the later Epigoni of prophecy (Ilitzig, an Egyptian Jew, cir. 312 B. c). And undoubtedly we must prefer this reference of our prophecy to every other, if it were true, as Hitzig maintains, that in the first ten verses of his discourse, Obadiah makes use of, nay, simply paraphrases the strikingly similar language of Jeremiah (chap. xlix. 7 flF.) against Edom. It is easy, in this view, to regard precisely those peculiar features in which Obadiah excels Jeremiah (ver. 11 flf.), as called forth by the imme- diate impression of the catastrophe, which Jeremiah had not yet before his eyes : for h« 1 ['A^gia, [O/SSt'a]. A^Seia, A^oSia. — Te.] » fCowIes — Tb.1 4 OBADIAH. spoke liis prophecy in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, and therefore before the destraction of Jerusalem (of. Caspari, p. 15 ff.). Nevertheless, concerning this use of Jeremiah by Obadiah, precisely the contrary is to be believed. Against it speaks at once the circumstance, that this very series of announce- ments in Jeremiah concerning foreign lands to which the passage xlix. 7 ff. belongs, shows not merely a constant use of earlier prophecies, but that Jeremiah repeatedly applies earlier prophecies, with free reproduction and expansion, to present occasions. So the prophecy against Moab, Is. xv., xvi., in chap, xlviii, ; the prophecies in Am. i. 13 ff., viii. ff., in chap. xlix. 1 ff., 23 ff. Thus he has, in some sense out of his own itova-i'a, on the principle that prophecy is spoken for all time and therefore must be applicable also to the ever-recurring present. compiled, in this series of chapters, a canon of ancient prophecy for his own time. And if. in all these passages, it is undeniable that Jeremiah has availed himself of older prophecies should he in just the one before us be the original, and Obadiah have borrowed from him ? This presumption against Hitzig's view rises to certainty when we more carefully com- pare the two predictions. " On comparing the two common sections with each other, we find that in Obadiah partly shorter and more rapid, partly heavier and more abrupt, partly more clear and lively than in Jeremiah " (Caspari). It cannot be denied that the crucea interpretum offered by Obadiah, especially in vers. 3, 5, appear in Jeremiah smoothed down, and that the solitary difficulty which Jeremiah has beyond Obadiah in the word Tjri!jb3n (chap. xlix. 16), as against the numerous obscurities peculiar to the latter, is of no account. But it is contrary to all hermeneutical procedure to suppose that a later writer, in regard to a situation meanwhile explained, should have still darkened the clear language of the earlier one, while, on the contrary, it is a common and explainable occurrence, that the obscure prophecy of antiquity should, in the hands of the subsequent seer, who is at the same time highly skilled in discourse, become more flowing and more clear. Some, to escape this ar- gument, feign that the obscurities of Obadiah are indications of an atomistic compilation, from a point of view arbitrarily chosen, without force and without definiteness ; but the exege- sis of the book will have to show that his discourse is one which bears a single burden, is animated by one independent soul. The comparison with Jeremiah is, therefore, of no value toward the more accurate deter- mination of the age of our prophet. On the other hand, we have the positive circumstance that the inner relationship places his prophecy entirely within the circle of view of those prophets among whom the collectors of the Canon have placed it, that is, the oldest. Ot the great monarchies of the world Obadiah knows nothing. The enemies who have invaded Jerusalem are to him simply foreigners and strangers (ver. 11), and besides the Edomites he names none except the Philistines (ver. 19), and the Phoenicians (ver. 20), both of whom appear in Joel (iv. 4), as enemies of the kingdom. Aram is not so much as once men- tioned, so that his horizon is still narrower than that of Amos. The two kingdoms are hi existence standing firmly side by side. The southern one consists of the tribes of Judah (which inhabits the Negeb and the lowland) and Benjamin (ver. 19) ; the northern (Ephraiiii and Gilead) must yet be possessed, that a united kingdom may arise, one army of the chil- dren of Israel (vers. 19, 20, cf. Hos. ii. 2). The captives of Jerusalem are not carried away to the east, but are sold as slaves into the west, precisely as in Joel ; to the Javan (Ionia) of Joel corresponds the Sepharad (Sparta) of Obadiah (ver. 20). Tlie middlemen, who have made traffic of these slaves, are doubtless the same as those named in Am. i. 9 ; Jofl iv. 6, the Phoenicians, whom Obadiah also (ver. 20) expressly mentions. Of a destruction of Jerusalem, moreover, not a word is said, but only of capture and ravage. And it is to be observed that the hostile attitude of Edom is by no means a state of things first pro- duced by the Babylonian destruction, and before unheard of. In Joel also (iv. 19), and Amos (i. 11 ff. ; ix. 12), precisely as here, Edom appears as an enemy of Judah, deserving double chastisement on account of his originally fraternal relation to Israel. It would be plainly incongruous to refer all these predictions just cited, and which, for the most part, wear a very distinctly liistorical aspect, to the incidental position which Edom occupied two cen- turies later in the Chaldaean catastrophe ; the more incongruous because, from the time of Moses onward (Num. xx. 14 ff.), the attitude of this neighbor nation toward Israel was, ac- cording to the historical Books also, hostile up to the full measure of their strength (1 Sam, Kiv. 47 ; 2 Sam. viii. 14 ; 1 K. xi. 14 ff. ; 2 K. viii. 20, etc.). The same is to be said of Obadiah also. As he belongs to the first period of writtea INTRODUCTION. prophecy, not only from the correspondences above noticed, but also from the fact that th« later prophets presuppose him as having gone before (cf under the head of Theological and Ethical), nay, even expressly quote him (Joel iii. 5; ii. 32, cf Obad. 17), he cannot hav( had the Chaldaean destruction for his pcint of view, for what he says of devastation is nol prophecy, but palpable, detailed description, which is plainly distinguished from the pro- phetic verses, and therefore relates to the past. And even if we give up the hermeneutical rule that every prophetic utterance must rise from a given historical situation, be called forth by some manifestation of God's rule in the history of the kingdom ; if we concede that, irrespective of any historical occasion, and purely by the force of inspiration, Joel may have foreseen the participation of the Edomites in the destruction of Jerusalem, with all its par- ticular features ; still, it is certainly inconceivable that he should have placed this incidental circumstance so conspicuously in the foreground, while the main fact which should have nat- urally cast down him and his people to the ground, in the prospect of it, namely, the destruction itself, and the chief enemy, the Babylonians, were treated as such obviously familiar circumstances, mere scenery and a starting point for the threatening against Edom. Thus fall also the opinions which place Obadiah in the early times indeed (under Uzziah), but still will not give up the reference of his prophecy to the catastrophe of 588 B. c. (Hengstenberg, Havernick, Caspari.) The event which by its iniquity has called for the judgment announced by Obadiah is, rather, one contemporary with himself, one, therefore, accomplished in the earlier times by the Edomites against Jerusalem, which he has personally witnessed, and on which the other prophets of that age also look back in the ap- posite passages of their writings. When we inquire more specifically into the nature of this transaction, it is not that re- corded in 2 Chr. xxv, 23 f. (Vitringa, Carpzov, Kiiper), nor in 2 Chr. xxviii. 5 ff. (Jager). In both of these instances it was not foreigners who desolated Jerusalem, as Obadiah assumes to have been the case (ver. 11), but principally the Ephraimites. It is rather the capture of Jerusalem under Jorara, mentioned 2 Chi*, xxi. 16 f, cf. 2 K. viii, 20 ff. (Hoffmann, De- litzsch, Nagelsbach). Here we are told that the Philistines and Arabians (a collective name with the later historical writers, for the peoples living east and south of Judah), came up and carried away great treasures, and even took among the captives the princes of the royal fam- ily. This event, which harmonizes far better than the Chaldaean invasion with our prophecy, inasmuch as it, Hke Obadiah, intimates notliing of a destruction of Jerusalem and annihila- tion of the national existence, but only plunder and rapine, this event alone can have been in the thoughts of Joel and Amos when they reproach the Philistines (Joel, iii. [iv,] 6 ; Am. i. 6 ff.) with having delivered over the captives of Judah and sold them into a foreign land. On account of this transaction the Edomites are, in the view of these prophets also, national foes. If now, on the one hand, Obadiah coincides with them, especially with Joel, precisely in these connections, in several passages (vers. 10, 11, 15, cf Joel iii. [iv.] 19, 3, 7, 14), and that not at aU as a borrower, but as leading the way (ver. 17, cf Joel ii. 32 ; iii. 5), and, on the other, Joel is to be regarded as a contemporary of Joash (877 ff.), we may, without danger of essential mistake, ascribe our prophecy to the preceding decade (890-880), falling mostly under the reign of Joram.^ That his position in the Canon is subsequent to that of the later Joel affords no argument against this. In fact we are obliged, from the start, by Hosea's leading place in the series, to abandon the untenable hypothesis that an accu- rately observed chronological principle can be discovered in the succession of the minor prophets; and the exact adaptation of our prophet to Amos, cli. ix. 12, gave sufficient occasion (as Schnurrer had already perceived), for assigning to him just this place. From this settlement of the date a beautiftil and self-consistent structure of the prophecy offers itself. According to the peculiar custom of the prophets to begin with the threatening (or the consolation), and afterwards adduce the explanation of it, the discourse before ua falls, first, into the announcement of the judgment (vers. 1-9), and the reasons for it (vers. 10-16) ; to which then the conclusion demanded by the nature of prophecy, the announce- ment of salvation to Israel, is appended. The language is the same throughout, and the plan rounded and complete. Thus the suppositions of Ewald and Graf (Jeremiah) fall to the ground. According to them vers. 1-9 should be regarded as the old prophetic kernel which a prophet of the exile has rewrought, completed, and adapted to the destruction of Jerusalem. 1 In harmony with this conclusion, we may venture the conjecture, that our prophet is identical with that pioiu Qba'/iah whom, with others, Joram's father .lehoshaphat had sent out to revive the spirit of true worshju in the laud fcy t-Tt explanation of the law (2 Chr. xvii. 71. OBADIAH. LuTHEK : Obadiah gives no sign of the time in which he lived, but his prophecy relate? to the time of the captivity, for he comforts the people of Israel with the promise that they shall come again to Zion. Especially does his prophecy issue against Edom and Esau, who cherished a special, everlasting envy against the people of Israel and Judah, as is wont to be the case when friends fall out with each other, and especially when brothers come into hatred and hostility toward each other ; there the hostility knows no bounds. Therefore were the Edomites beyond all bounds hostile to the people of Judah, and had no greater joy than to look on the captivity of the Jews, and gloried over them, and mocked them in their grief and misery. How the prophets almost all upbraid the Edomites for such hateful malice, sea on Psalms, cxxxvii. 7. Now since such conduct is exceedingly distressing when one, in^ stead of comforting as one reasonably should, rather mocks the sorrowful and afflicted in their grief, laughs at them, scorns them, glories over them, so that their faith in God suffers a powerful assault, and is strongly tempted to doubt and unbelief, God sets up a special prophet against such vexatious mockers and assailants, and comforts the afflicted, and strengthens their faith with threatening and rebuke against such hostile Edomites, and with promises and assurance of future help and deliverance. That is truly a needed comfort and a profitable Obadiah. At the close he prophecies of Christ's kingdom, which shall be not iu Jerusalem only but everywhere. For he mingles all peoples together, as Ephraim, Benja- min, Gilead, Philistines, Canaanites, Zarpath, which cannot be understood of the earthly kingdom of Israel, since such people and tribes must be separated in the land, according to the law of Moses. But that the Jews make Zarpath mean France, and Sepharad Spain, I let pass and hold nothing of it ; yet let every one hold what he will. Literature, vide General Introduction, p. 45. Special Commentaries. Hugo a St. Victore (fll41), Adnotatt. elucidatorice in Obad- •am, in his 0pp. p. 1526. J. Leusden, Obadjah illustratus (with the Paraph. Chald., the two Masorahs, and the commentaries of R. Isaac, Abenezra, Kimchi, app. to the Joel illust. of the same author), Ultraj, 1657. A. Pfeiffer, Comment, in Obadjam (with the Comment, of Abarbanel), Viteb, 1666. J. G. Schroer, Der Prophet Obadjah aus d. bibl. u. weltl. Historic Erlaiitert, Bresl., 1766. J. K. Happach, Uebemetzung des Prnph. Obad. mit Anmerkungen, Kob., 1779. Ch. T. Schnurrer, Diss. phil. in Obadjam, Tub., 1787, 4. J. T. G. Holzapfel, Obadjah neu ubersetzt, Rint., 1798. H. Venemae, Lectiones in Obadjam, in Verschuirii Opus- cula, ed. J. A. Lbtze, Utr., 1810. C. L. Hendewerk, Obadjae Oracuium in Idumoeos, Reg- iom., 1836. C. B. Caspari, Der Prophet Obadjah, Leipz., 1842. Special Treatises. S. Ravius, Spec, in Obad., 1-8, Traj., 1757, 4. Zeddel, AnnotaU. in Obad., 1-4, Hal., 1830. Krahmer, Observatt. in Obad., Tiib., 1837. Fr. Delitzsoh, Wh«n did Chad, prophesy i in Budelbach and Guericke's Zeitschrift, 1851, p. 91 ff. OBADIAH. THE PROPHECY. 1 Vision op Obatiah : Thus saith the Lord Jehovah concerning Edom;* We have heard tidings from Jehovah, And^ an ambassador is sent torth among the natiooii Arise ye,* and let us arise against her to battle I 2 Behold, I make thee small among the nations; Despised art thou exceedingly. 3 The pride of thy heart hath deceived thee, Dweller in the refuges of the cliff, His lofty habitation ; ^ Who saith in his heart : Who will bring me down to the earth ? 4 Though high,^ like the eagle, And though among the stars thou set thy nett^ Thence will I bring thee down, Whispers JehovahJ 5 If thieves had come to thee,' If robbers by night — How art thou destroyed ! Would they not steal until they had enough? If grape gatherers had come to thee, Would they not leave gleanings? 6 How is Esau searched out ! ' His hidden things sought up ! 7 To the border have sent ^° thee forth All the men of thy covenant; They have deceived thee, prevailed against thee, The men that were at peace with thee ; Thy bread" have they placed as a snare under iheei There is no understanding in him.^^ 8 Will not I, in that day, Whispers Jehovah, Destroy the wise out of Edom, And understanding out of the mount of Esau ? 9 And thy heroes shall be dismayed, Teman, That ^' every man may be cut off from the mount of Essa By" slaughter. 10 For the violence toward thy brother Jacob, Shame shall cover thee, And thou shalt be cut off forever. 11 In the day when thou stoodest opposite, In the day when strangers took captive his anny,^ 8 OBADIAH. And foreigners entered his gates, And over Jerusalem cast lots, Thou also wast as one of them. 12 And [yet] thou shouldest not have looked on'^ the day of thy brother, on the day of his calamity ; And not have rejoiced over the sons of Judah in the day of their destruction ; And not have enlarged thy mouth in the day of distress. 13 Thou shouldest not have entered into the gate of my people, in the day oi their ruin ; Not have looked, thou also, on his misfortune, in the day of his destruction ; And not have laid hand on his army, in the day of his ruin. 14 And thou shouldest not have stood at the forks. To cut off his fugitives ; And not have delivered up his remnant, in the day of distress* 15 For near is the day of Jehovah on all the nations ; As thou hast done will they do to thee ; Thy deed will return upon thy head. 16 For as ye have drunken on the mountain of niyJioliness, All the nations shall drink continually, And drink, and swallow down, And be as though they had never been. ^^ 17 And on mount Zion shall be deliverance, and it will be holinettly And the house of Jacob will take their possessions. 18 And the house of Jacob shall be a fire, And the house of Jose^sh a flame, And the house of Esau for stubble ; And they will kindle upon them, and devour them, And there will be none remaining to the house of Esau; For Jehovah hath spoken it. 19 And the south country shall possess the mountain of Esau, And the lowlaud the Philistines ; And they shall possess the field of Ephraim, And the field of Samaria ; And Benjamin [shall possess] Gilead. 20 And the captivitj^ of this army of the sons of Israel, Who [are among the] Canaanites, as far as Zarepath,^* And the captivity of Jerusalem who are in Sepharad, ShiJ] possess tlie cities of the south. 21 And saviors shall go up on mount Zion, To judge the mountain of Esau. And the kingdom shall be Jehovah's. TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL. [1 Ver. 1. — No decisive reason appe;ir.s lor so unusual a thing as separating this familiar phrase from the foUowlng context, and making it a supplementary title. True, it is supeificially inconsistent that Jehovah ehould here be repT»- Bented as saying that the prophet and people have heard from Jehovah. But this rhetorical difiaculty is remedied by the obvious explanation that the meaning of the formula, " thus saith Jehovah," is, "moved by Jehovah, I say." So Maurer, Hitzig, and others. - Tr.] [•2 Ver. 1. — Our author takes T =: " that " or " to wit ; " Luther : doss. This may be so, cf Ges. Lex., p. 268, 6, bnt not necessarily. The 1 may Im ■= et jam. " We have heard tidings from Jehovah [that Edom is to be attaekedj, and already is an ambassador sent forth.'" By whom the messenger has been sent is left to our thought ; probably by rehovah. — Tr.] [3 Vei 1 — Strictly all tlie D^13 were heathen to the Jews, and whether the term carries uith it a special seil2soi (jlt) vnap^avTei : " as those who never were." -Tr,] ^ ■ [19 Ver. 20. — Kleinert, in this locus vexalus, makes 3 "1I1I7S, and what follows, the subject, supplying the verb " b« come," and iH/S the predicate, be translates thus: " Captives of this army of the sons of Israel shall the Phoeniciana become, as far as Sarepta ; •' lit. " what Phoenicians there are unto Sarepta." This keeps close to the Hebrew if it be per- mitted to supply the two verbs " to become " and " to be," neither of which is countenanced by the context. Neglect- ing this (which, besides, leaves us perplexed why Sarepta, in particular, should be the limit of the future conquests), we may either borrow the verb " possess " from the preceding sentences, or from that which follows, thus : " The captivity . . . [shall possess] what [belongs to the] Canaanites unto S.," in which case the absence of jlK to mark the obj., in Jiis sentence atone of tlie seven before and after, is hard to explain ; or we may, supplying, from "IIDDSI in the paral- M member, the prep. )2 with C^3^33, make this whole clause a part of the subject of the following " possess," uid k*nsl»te a« is done in the text ; so Pusey Maurer comes near it in the main sens*. 10 OBADIAH. EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL. I. The judgment upon Edom, vers. 1-9. — Ver. 1. I he title designates the chapter as a Vision of Jbadiah. ^*1Tn is not merely a single vision (Is. txix. 7), but the result of the views of the prophets !D''Tn, Mic. iii. 7 ; Is. xxix. 10), in the wiflest ?ense, embracing both species, the vision in the waking state, and the prophetic dream (Num. xii. 6) ; hence used elsewhere also in the inscriptions to prophetic records (Nah. i. 1), and even to entire collections of prophecies (Is. i. 1 ). The second title, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah concerning Edom (cf. [/"concerning"] Judg. ix. 54), which also Btands unconnected with the following, is an em- phatic epexegesis to the " vision." The propliecy itself begins with the brief state- ment of what God has decreed : A rumor have we (i. e., the people, not merely the prophet, as in Jer. xlix. 14) heard firom Jehovah, therefore through the medium of prophecy (cf. Am. iii. 7 ; 2 K. vi. 12) ; and a messenger is sent among the heathen nations (the connection by " and" as often with vv. sentiendi, Zach. vi. 1) : Rise ye, and let us rise against her to battle. Not only when God summons the heathen to the decisive contest with his people (Joel iv. 9), but also when they are obliged to perform his judgment against a people belonging even to their own circle, does this war-message which is sent forth among them proceed under his direction. They are even called in this case his sanctified ones (Is. xiii. 3), as Cyrus is named in such a mission the anointed of God (Is. xlv. 1). The reference of rjT"'.?? to Jerusalem which, from Is. vii. 1, seems the more obvious, as the feminine construction of DnS nowhere else occurs, is expressly excluded by the quotation in Jer. xlix. 14. Verses 1 and 2 stand, accordingly, not in a relation of opposition, but of climax. Not his people does Jehovah summon against Edom, but heathen nations. In this lies the mis- erableness of his fate, that he should (ver. 2) take among his associates the place of a despised and humbled enemy ; behold, I make thee small among the heathen (i^Sn with the participle, the common form of apodeictic prediction) : de- spised art thou exceedingly. While this picture of humiliation appears viv- idly present to the eyes of the prophet, he gives to it the signature : the pride of thy heart hath deceived thee. Properly the emphasis lies on the verb ; betrayed thee has, etc., but through the precedence given to the sin which has caused this the ethical element in this calamit^^ that h is in- curred by guilt, is rendered prominent. Jer. xxxvii. 9. The pride of Edom rested on the notion of apparent unassailableness : thou that dwellest (Ges. § 90, 3 a.) in the refuges (after the Arab. ; according to LXX., Vulg., Syr. : clefts) of the cliff, his lofty habitation (^5^ with the ace. CilT?, as in Is. xxxiii. 5 ; in:2ti7 C1"l^, like VVy ^^r., Is. ix. 5 ; Ew. § 287 g.). " The ter- ritory of Edom was a rocky mountain mass, full of caverns, and the Edomites dwelt, partly, in tiie natural caves there found (hence the eai-lier inhab- itants of Mount Seir were called C-'lin, t. e., ir ojf lody tes, cave-dwellers, Gen. xiv. 6; Deut. ii. 12,22), partly in abodes artificially hewn out of the rock." Caspari. Jerome (on v. 6) : " Revere omnis australis recjio IdumcBwum de Eleutheropolt, usque ad Petram et Halam in specuhus habitatiun cuius hahet." Pliny: " Peira (=V^D, the capi- tal, )_/«/< oppiduin circumdatum montibus inaccessis." Compare, on the hardly approachable position, and the peculiar impression given by the sight of the city hewn out of the rock, also Rosenmiiller, Bibl Aiterthiimskunde, iii. 76 fF. ; and specially C. Rit ter, Erdhinde, xiv. 1108 ff. [Robinson, Stevens], That sayest in thy heart : Who will bring me down to the earth ? i. e., no man can do it. And yet there is one who can. Ver. 4. Though high like the eagle, and though between the stars thou set thy nest (D"*Ci7 is an infin. dependent on rT^^Sn, and C W n^22n, " to place high," like H^b VTIll "to walk humbly," Ew. § 280 c), from thence will I bring thee down, saith Jehovah. The hyperbole of the first member of the ver5.e, and the threatening of the second, became, from this time on, standing formulas to express human pride and divine retribution (Am. ix. 2 f ; Is. xiv. 13 ff.). Since the humiliation of Edom is decreed by God, it will exceed all the experience of men, and all analogy with their proceedings. — Vers. 5, 6. VerUy, not thieves have come to thee, not robbers of the night ; — how art thou brought to nought ! They steal only so much as they need ; while thieves leave unilisturbed that which is of no value to them, Edom is utterly destroyed. Not grape-gatherers have come to thee, they leave gleanings ; but how are those of Esau searched out ! his hid treasures discovered I We follow, in the main, the view of Chr. V, Michaelis, Jager, Ewald, Caspari, who (in oppo- sition to Kimchi, Marck, Rosenmiiller, Hendewerk, De Wette, Maurer, Umbreit, Hitzig,) recognize an ascending contrast between the sentences beginning with CS, and those with "n"*^- But this cannot fully appear if we retain the conditional sense of D^?. It is to be regarded as a strengthening parti- cle of negation (Ew. § 356 a. ; [Ges. Lex. s. v. C. 1, c. Cf. Fiirst]). Our translation notices also that the rhetorical questions with SwH stand in an affirmative sense. (Literally, we should have to translate: If thieves had come to thee, would they not have taken what they need ? etc.i) The ruin of Edom is too complete to be ascribed to human causality, to the depredation of robbers, to an overthrow as if reapers had come over the har vest ; it is God's pitiless work. But truly God has, as ver. 1 already indicated, judged with divine irony ; the heathen, Edom's own allies, have become his instrument: those who were bound (Gen. xxv. 24) to render aid have for saktu the unhappy people, deceived, betrayed them Ver. 7. To the border have they escorted thee, all thy confederates, " Quos de pitendo contra hoste.m auxilio legatos mittes, socii recusa- hunt admiltere, suisque Jinibus excedere jnhehunt, met.u hostium tuormn, quos lacessere verebimtur,'' (vSchnnrrer.) " Mos antiqmis, qui ctiani nunc obtinet, u'. princlpes honoris causa deduci cnrent legatos, cum discedent ad limites ditionis slice." (Drusius.) So Edom himself lis. xvi. 1, 2) thrusts out from his capital, Sela, the Moabites who have sought refuge there, with their cattle, into the wilderness, and 1 fCf. the Textual and Gramuiatical note on ver. 6 — Ta. THE PROPHECY. n bids them seek protection in Judah. They have deceived thee, prevailed against thee, the men who were at peace with thee ; thy bread have they placed as a snare under thee ; although pledged by their alliance to hospitality, they press thee with hostile treachery (cf. on the comparison with bread, Hupfeld on Psalm Ix. 5) ; thou con- siderest it not. The "12 is to be referred, with Hitzig (similarly Luther), to the snare. Prudence is wanting, for, ver. 8, "Will not I in that day, — it is the word of Jehovah, — de- stroy the wise out of Edom, and understanding out of the moiint of Esau ? It is God's way to change the wisdom which is estranged from Him into its opposite (Is. xix. 11 ; xxix. 14; Jer. xlix. 7). — Eor the first time in prophecy we here meet with the solemn H^nn DVn, the designation of the judgment day ; here, it is true, only in a ger- minal form, so to speak, in finite relations, and without the eschatological addition, which accrues first in the later prophetical development. Ver. 9. And as the wise become fools, so the heroes dispirited; And dismayed shall be thy heroes, O Teman. Teman, according to Jerome, in the Onomast., and on Am. i. 12, was a special, and that the southern, part of Edom, which here, according to poetical usage, could the better stand for the whole land, since the association of ideas in ver. 8 would lead precisely to the Temanites celebrated for their wisdom (Jer. xlix. 7). Until (]y^7, like 'iva, in the N. T., stands not always in a purely final sense, but introduces a result which necessarily follows from the inward nature of a thing,! jjog^ yiii. 4; Am. ii. 7; Ps. li. 6 [4j), every man is [that every man may be] cut oflF from the mountain of Esau, by slaughter. 1^ of the efficient cause, as in Gen. ix. 14 [Gesen. Lex. p. 582 d.]. With the impressive phrase, " by slaughter " closes the delineation of the threatened judgment : vers. 8 and 9 complete the denuncia- tion proper, for which the opening formula, "Thus saith Jehovah " (ver. 1 ), has prepared us, and which has hung suspended through all the intervening discourse. Then follows — II. Vers. 10-16. The statement of the reasons why God will and must execute this terrible judgment. A logically argumentative discourse would have inferred from the present, in connection with the interior laws of divine providence, the tragical future of Esau ; propliecy sees the future first, and from that descends, in explanation, to the roots which this future has in the events of the present. For the violence (]^, as in Is. liii. 5,) toward thy brother Jacob (gen. obj., as in Joel iv. [iii.] 19). In spite of the old fainily feud, the consciousness of relationship between Edom and Israel had never been extinguished, and was sanctified by the law (Deut. xxiii. 7 f ). Shame shall cover thee, and tnou Shalt be cut off forever. The word H^D is designedly chosen ; it denotes the extermination demanded by God's will and law (Lev. xxii. 3). ' Vers. 9 b and 10 c are limited by 2 c to this sense, that a fewEdomites shall yet (perhaps those who have beforehand avoided the contest by flight ; for all those present at the time of the contest shall, according to 9 b and 18, fall without excep- tion) remain and constitute the extremely enfee- oled people. The n~lDn is therefore a destruction 1 Cf. Textual and Grammatical on yer. 9. of them as a people, or rather, according to ver. 2 a as a numerous, strong people ; cf. Is. vii. 8 ; Jer. xlviii. 42, 47." Caspari. Ver. 1 1 . In what did that iniquity consist 1 In the day when thou stoodest opposite, sc. against thy brother ; the suff". in 1 '■'^^ is anticipated as the object ; in the day when foreigners carried away his treasures (Is. x. 14; 2 Chr. xxi. 17), and strangers entered his gates (Joel iv. [iii.] (17), and cast lots over Jerusalem, i. e., over the population, whom they distributed among them by lot, to sell into slavery (Joeliv. [iii.] 3), thou also wast as one of them. In a series of particular charges (ver. 12 ff".), the hostile disposition of Edom is depiteted. The im- perfect stands in these complaints for that which, in the mind of the prophet, ought in the past to have been done or avoided (Ew. § 136 g; cf. Job X. 18; Gen. xx. 9). Hitzig supposes that in such connection the unabbreviated imperf. must have stood; but in the examples cited by him, the co- hortative (prohibitive) turn of the thought is want- ing, which is here so plainly manifest. By this turn also the 'S is justified, which Caspari urges against our view. In Gen. xx. 9, S 7 must stand instead of ^S, because there a transgression of a law sanctified by custom and hereditary derivation is spoken of. [There is room for doubt about the propriety of translating S^ri" vS, and the other futures pre- ceded by ^W, in this and the two following verses, as in the pluperfect subjunctive. Dr. Pusey, who strenuously maintains that the prophecy, although delivered soon after the time of Joel and Amor, contemplates directly the Chaldtean catastrophe, denies that these phrases can be so translated. " It is absolutety certain," he says, " that al. with the future forbids or deprecates a thing future. In all the passages in which al occurs in the Hebrew Bible it signifies ' do not.' We might as well say that ' do not steal ' means ' thou shouldest not have stolen,' as say that veal tereh and do not look means ' thou shouldest not have looked.' .... We must not, on any principle of interpretation, in a single instance, ascribe to a common idiom a meaning which it has not, because the meaning which it has does not suit us." Minor Prophets, ji. 228. He accordingly translates : " And look not on the day of thy brother," etc., as though the prophet were simply dehorting the Edomites, near two hundred years in advance, from cruelty to their brethren, the Jews, at the destruction of their city by Nebuchad- nezzar ! Maurer translates to the same purport : " Ne spectes," etc., but for an opposite reason. He supposes the prophet to be speaking at a time sub- sequent to the destruction of the city, to prohibit further outrages, which were likely to be continued and repeated, long after the main calamity. Zunz also renders in the same sense : " Thou shouldest not (again) feast thy eyes," etc. {Aber du sollist dich nicht (wieder) weiden, etc.). Kleinert, while justifying, in the exegetical notes, the view ex- pressed in the Eng. Vers., adopts a rendering mid- way between that and Dr. Pusey's : " Thou shouldest not " (apparently as a general depreca- tion) " feast upon the day," etc. This is probably very near the grammatical sense, yet does not seem to give the true spirit of the passage so well as the version with which we are familiar. And> grammatically, although vS, ynih he fut., every- 12 OBADIAH. where else meant deprecation of what was in pros- pect, still it can hardly be denied that, whatever was the prophet's actual relation to the outrages which he forbids, he views them in ver. lie, and in ver. 15 b, as already past; and what is the sf)irit of deprecation of anything thought of as past but a declaration that it ought not to have been done. " Thou shouldest not do (or do not) what thou hast done," is in effect, " thou shouldst not have done it." — Tb] yer. 1 2. And yet thou shouldest not feast thy eyes (HSl with 3, behold with pleasure) on the day (7. e., evil day. Job xviii. 20) of thy brother, even because the sufferer was thy brother ; on the day of his calamity LT^^^J, of his fate, strange and proceeding from the estrangement of God (Is. xxviii. 21); and shouldest not rejoice over the sons of Judah in the day of their destruction, and shouldest not make great thy mouth, to utter mockeries (Job xix. 5), in the day of distress; (ver. 13) shouldest not enter into the door of my people in the day of their destruction; shouldest not feast thy eyes, even thou, on his misfortune in the day of his destruction ; and shoiildest not reach (properly, stretch out the hand ; "f"* is omitted, as in Ps. xviii. 12 ; 2 Sam. vi. 6 ;) after his treas- ures, in the day of his destruction. — The form nDH vtt7n, a much ventilated crux interpretum, is as Ew. pp. 435, 537 f. rightly remarks, not to be regarded as a 3d fem., according to Judg. v. 26 ; Is. xxvii. 1 1 ; xxviii. 3 ; and he has also rightly given up the punctation — channah previously pro- posed By him, after the Arab, modus energicus. We find the ending, n3, as a cohortative strength- ening appended to the imperat. sing, also (Is. xxxii. 9), where the daughters of Jerusalem, as representing the whole people, are. addressed in the .-ingular. Whether the n3, as in "i^^^i 2 Kings XX. 3 (= ns — rrS), is identical with the cohort. f^5' which can also follow the verb with negative applications (Judg. xix. 23), or whether it is a He paragogicum strengthened by the nasal (in the 2d pers., also Job xi. 17), must remain unsettled. Aben Ezra (of. Drusius, Hitzig) holds an omitted "'T^^T *° ^^ ^^® snbj., and the form a 3d pers. plur. used reflexively ; both equally improbable. Not less so Caspari s recourse to the Arab, ending na, of the 2d pers. sing. fut. ; Olsh., § 226 c, cuts the knot, and reads "T"^ nbtt^n. Ver. 14. And thou shouldest not stand at the fork of the road, where, close by the gate, the ways part, which the fleeing Jews would take, to cut o£F his fugitives; and shouldest not dehver (others : " shut in," but cf. Deut. xxiii. 16) those that remained of his in the day of distress. " Hoc gravissimum est et summam mcdevo- lentiam arguit, miseros ac aerumnosos komunciones, qui fuga vitam servare quoerunt, prodere et hostibns ad necandum tradere." Ilosenm.,cf.Am. i. 9. There- fore can the retribution for the failure of fraternal duty not be withheld, and the manner of its accom- j)lishment will be according to the divine jus tal- lonia (Ps. xviii. 20 ff.). Vers. 15, 10. For near is the day of Jehovah, which always follows the day of the sinner (cf. Joel iv. with ch. i. ff.), upon aU the nations. Already now the announcement of the day of God, which in ver. 8 has entered into the prophecy, ex- tends its compass to that of a universal judgment. As thou hast done, will they do to thee ; thy deed will return upon thy head ; the deed which goes against God falls back again upon the doer, as an arrow, shot perpendicularly upward, on the head of the archer (Geier on Ps. vii. 17). Ver. 16. For as ye have drunk (taken part in the wild revelr}- of the destroyers (Joel iv. 3)) on the mountain of my holiness, which I have made my holy possession (Ps. Ixxiv. 2 ; iu 6), and the desecration of which I must accordingly avenge, so shall aU the nations — the discourse applies now, as the plural DHTlti? has already indicated an extension of the field of vision, to all the ene- mies of God, including those who have served the special purpose of chastisement to Edom (ver. I) — drink, nameh', the cup of wrath and trembling from the hand of God, which He will, in the final judgment, extend to them before the walls of Jerusalem (Zech. xii. 2 ; Is. xix. 17 ; xxix. 9 f . ; li. 17, 22; Ps. Ix. 4; Ixxv. 9). Thus also the Chald. paraphrase: As ye have rejoiced over the blow which has fallen on my holy mountain, all the peoples will drink the cup of punishment from me, continually ; yea, they shall drink and swallow down, with full draught, " and that not because they desire it, for the drink is very bitter, but because they must." Gasp. And wiU be as if they had not been ; kuX ftrovrai Kadcbs ovx virapxovTes. LXX. ; shall be completely destroyed. " Cocceiiis illud esse quasi iion fuissent, exponit per gentium conversiones, quae specialius declarantur in aliis prophetiis, imprimis in Daniele et Apocalypsi (Num. xxiv. 24). Sed clariim est, in prioribus jam memorari gentium poenani et spectare hoc quasi non fuissent ad ipsam libit ionem tanquam ejus proprium effectum, non auiem merum consequens." Marck. III. Vers. 17-21. Messianic Application: the final salvation of Israel. Where in this storm- flood of the final judgment will the ark be? ver. 17. But upon mount Zion will be dehverance ( Jer. XXV. 35 ; others : a company of rescued ones ; Is. iv. 2), and it shall be holy, God's sanctuary, fenced about by God (Zech. ii. 9), as once Sinai (Ex. xix. 12 f.), unapproachable to the strangers (Joel iv. 17) who have profaned it (ver. 16), a sure place for those who belong to God (Joel iii. 5). And the house of Jacob, the Jews, those over whom the lot had been cast by their destroyers, shall possess their possessions : tt7"nS5 C?1^ eliosen for the play upon the name Jerusalem ^ = ^W Wyy', " peaceful possession." That this has no reference to the occupation of hostile terri- tory (Jager), the suff. plur. being referable to n'^2 rather, and Moraschim the hereditary pos- sessions of Israel, especially of Jerusalem, is shown by the whole syntax of the verse, and by the con- text. Then when Israel sits unassailed in his land again, he will arise against his enemies for the divine judg- ment. Ver. 18. And the house of Jacob, t. e., Judah who stands in the most directly hostile oppo- sition to the unbrotherly Esau (cf. ver. 10 with 11), win be a fire, namely, through the burning zeal of God who is in him (Is. x. 17j ; and the house of Joseph, the now severe^ kingdom of the ten tribes (Zech. x. 6), whose head is the Josephid© 1 [On the derivation and signification of the name Jerr- salein, vide on Josh. x. 1, in this Commentary, and Smttli't Dictionary of the Bible, Art. Jerusalem. — Te.] THE PROPHECY. 13 Ephraim, and which at the time of the deliverance will have returned to the unity of the government (Hos. ii. 2), a flame; and the house of Esau stubble (Is. V. 24), which, as the vital force has forsaken it, will hlaze at the first touch of fire ; and they will kindle upon them and devour them, and there will be none left remaining to the house of Esau ; as it also did not spare even the escaped [ver. 14]. Contrast to the case of Judah, ver. 17. Whence all this"? For Jehovah hath spoken it (ver. 1). The execution of the judg- ment will restore Israel to his formur extent of territory. Ver. 19. And the south shall possess — of. LXX., oi ev Ne7ej3, the inhabitants of the Negcb, the southern portion of Judah, extending to Idu- maea (Gen. xx. 1; Josh. x. 40; xv. 26) — the mountain of Esau, and the inhabitants of the lowland, which stretches in the west of Judah toward the Philistines (Josh. x. 40 ; xr. .3;5 ; Jcr. xxyiii. 13), the Philistines; the people put for The land. Israel will thus not merely receive his moraschim, his hereditary lands (ver. 17), but also the adjacent country which belonged to him under David (cf Ps. Ix.). And they, the same to whom the south and the lowlands belong, the men of Judah, will possess the field of Ephraim, and the field of Samaria ; so that, after the union of the tribes presupposed in 18 a, the dominion re- turns to Judah [Gen. xlix. 10), and Benjamin will possess Gilead. The whole Land is brought back to the house of David by the two tribes which have remained true to it (Jer. xxxii. 44). Ver. 20. And, to crown the triumph, captives unto this army {T^ /2 and /H in the archaic style, A-Jthout vowel letters, Olsh. § 39 d.) of the sons of Israel, the twelve tribes united under the lead- ership of Judah, will become the Phoenicians which there are even to Zarephath (Sarepta) ; the Phoenicians who have taken part in the shame- ful attempt of Edom against Jerusalem, by the sale of Jewish captives into slavery (hence called by the equivocal name □'^32733, Joel iv. 6 ; Am. i. 9), will now themselves become prisoners, so that the whole district as far as Sarepta, to which point the word of prophecy was carried by Elijah (1 K. xvii. 9, 10), will be cleared of the heathen. An.d the captivity of Jerusalem, i. e., the cap- tives from Judah, who are in Sepharad, will possess the cities of the south, whose inhab- itants meanwhile have seized the mountain of Esau (ver. 19). Sepharad is a region in the west which is mentioned also in the cuneilbrm inscriptions ; by the ancients supposed to be Spain, but rather, jjcr- haps, Sardis (Lassen, Hitzig), or Sparta (Delitzsch). The last supposition is favored by the tact that Joel names the lonians, the Greeks in general, as the people to whom the Phoenicians have sold the captive Jews ; as also on the cuneiform inscrip- tions at Bisutnn, Sparad and Ionia are mentioned in immediate connection. ^ Among the transla- tions hitherto proposed of this variously interpreted verse, two principally deserve notice; (1.) "The captives of this army of the sons of Israel (namely, those who are now 'carried away') shall possess what Canaanites there are unto Sarepta." Hitzig. But then HS ought to stand before ~'t^'S. (2.) * The captives of this army who dwell among the Canaanites (or, are Canaanites) unto Sarepta, and .he captives of Jerusalem," etc. Caspari, Um- 1 [See on this name, Smith's Dictionary of the Bible, » T. — TE.] breit. But CS^^^ without a verb cannot, like "TfD^, in Ps. cxx. 6, be an accus., and to take it as a predicate results in nonsense.'^ Ver. 21. And there will come up saviors, nol divine beings, for these would descend from above, but the heroes who, through the deeds spoken of in ver. 17 if., have gained for the people their righta (cf. Micah v. 4, 5 ; Neh. ix. 27), on mount Zion, to judge the mount of Esau. D3ti^ is the usual exjn-essioii for the dispensation of justice in the uainc of Jehovah; the judges are called inter- changeably, C^t^^ptr; and C''l?"'t£''l>3 (J-idj. '"i. 9, 15; i. 16, 18). The accus. stands here not, as usually (Ps. xhii. 1 ), for that to which right is se- cured, but for that in which an example of justice is exhibited. And the kingdom shall be Jeho- vah's. Chald. : And the kingdom of Jehovah will be manifested over all the lands of the earth. Ps. xxii. 29 ; Is. xxiv. 23. DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL. The judgment of the world presupposes the sep- aration between God's congregation and the world, and is, as an objective ciisis, the final consequence and manifestation of this inner discrimination al- ready experienced (cf John iii. 18 f.). The world- power is the necessary complement to the commu- nity of the saved. It is not given by an original antithesis to the kingdom of God, but has developed itself with the latter from the same natural ground, and at the first stood in a fraternal relation with it. Now, howe\ er, it stands in an independent isolation over against it ; and, as lies in the very nature of the case, the original connection, like a sting cleav ing to the conscience, has served only to increase the alienation. The opposition has in all points amounted to polarization : the kingdom of God in prostration, the world-power in secure defiance ; the kingdom of God in humUity, this in pride ; this in possession on the earth, that without pos- sessions on earth, but having a refuge in the heavenly Jerusalem; this only an object of the divine decrees, but that possessing the knowledge of these decrees through the information of the prophets. God's decree is the completion of hif? kingdom, and so the removal of its enemies. Hence the necessity for the judgment on the world which takes place in the legal fonu of the talio, the penalty exactly adequate to the crime : the punishment of the world-power corresponds to its sins, and its conduct towards the congregation of God. If the harmony in the order of the world is to be restored, a revolution of the existing most unreasonable relation must take place ; the world- power is stripped cf its possessions, the congrega- tion acquires them, — that despised, this highly esteemed. This j idgmeut is already indicated in the nature of sin ; it executes itself so soon as God once allows i^ development to its final result, and his saviors on Zion establish what has been actually given. What is true they establish in continuance ; what is naught, because it is againsi God, they cast into annihilation. In prophecy, this plurality of saviors, compared with the one Saviour, represents the same prelimr/iary stage as is signified in the history by the previous period of the judges, compared with the monarchy. Obadiah (comp. the Introd.) occupies chronologi cally the first place among the prophetic writers 2 [See Textual and Grammatical ;