Those of the Negeb shall possess Mount Esau, and those of the Shephelah shall possess the land of the Philistines; they shall possess the land of Ephraim and the land of Samaria, and Benjamin shall possess Gilead.  The exiles of this host of the people of Israel shall possess the land of the Canaanites as far as Zarephath, and the exiles of Jerusalem who are in Sepharad shall possess the cities of the Negeb.  Saviors shall go up to Mount Zion to rule Mount Esau, and the kingdom shall be the Lord’s.

Obadiah 19-21

As we bring our study of this book to a close, we come to the final three verses where Obadiah elaborates on his foretelling of Edom’s doom.

It would be good to give an explanation to the unfamiliar terminology in this passage.  “Negeb” is a Hebrew word meaning “south,” and was the term the Hebrews of Obadiah’s day used to refer to the southernmost part of Israel (cf. Deut. 1:7; Josh. 10:40; 15:21; Judg. 1:9), making Obadiah’s use of the term here likely a reference to Judah.  Since Esau was the ancestor of the Edomites, “Mount Esau” would be another name for Edom as a whole, used here and elsewhere by Obadiah (8-9, 21) probably to contrast Edom to Jerusalem (“Mount Zion”).  “Shephelah” is Hebrew for “foothills” or “plains,” a reference to the lowland territory between Jerusalem and the Mediterranean (Josh. 9:1; 12:8), part of western and southwestern Judah.  “The land of the Philistines” was on the Mediterranean coastline in southwestern Palestine.  “The land of Ephraim and the land of Samaria” was a reference to the northern kingdom of Israel.  “Benjamin” was the tribe just north of Judah and would join her in forming the southern kingdom of Judah after Israel split into two nations (2 Chr. 11:1-4), and “Gilead” (cf. Judg. 20:1; 2 Kings 10:33; Jer. 50:19; Zech. 10:10) was a region east of the Jordan River within the northern kingdom of Israel.  “The land of the Canaanites” in this context refers to the northern parts of the northern kingdom of Israel since Obadiah says it extends “as far as Zarephath,” the village close to Sidon where the widow fed Elijah (1 Kings 17:9ff).  “Sepharad” might refer to the Assyrian territory Shaparda, a place where the Assyrians had exiled some from the northern kingdom (cf. 2 Kings 18:11).

Verses 19-20 are likely a prophecy to the Jews (probably the southern kingdom of Judah) whom Edom had been mistreating that one day they would come to live in the places where their enemies (Edom, the Philistines, the northern kingdom of Israel, the Canaanites, Assyria) had earlier inhabited but now no longer existed, likely when they returned from Babylonian captivity.  Commentator Leslie Allen writes, “What looks to the modern reader…like a dull catalog must have been music to the ears of a people crammed into a small area and overshadowed by powerful neighbors occupying land they had once called their own.”  In his commentary on Obadiah, Michael Whitworth sums up verses 19-21 by saying, “Instead of Edom being a scourge to Israel, Jacob’s children would displace Esau’s, as well as Israel’s other traditional territorial enemies (e.g. Philistines, 2 Chr. 28:18).  Such a promise was meant to give hope to the rag-tag Judean remnant who found none among the ruins of Jerusalem.  If the best revenge is living well, Israel indeed had many reasons to anticipate a bright future.”

This is especially true when one reads verse 21’s promise of “saviors…go(ing) up to Mount Zion” and that “the kingdom shall be the Lord’s” and remembers how verses 17-18 ultimately point to spiritual Israel, the church of the New Testament (cf. Heb. 12:22-23; Lk. 1:33).  Obadiah’s prophecy would therefore be that Edom would come to ruin, never to be seen again, whereas Israel would ultimately return – first when they would come back during the days of Ezra and Nehemiah after Babylonian captivity, and ultimately in the form of Christ’s church – and abide forever.

Christians, we are spiritual Israel today (Rom. 2:28-29; Gal. 6:16) and thus are part of the ultimate fulfillment of this promise made long ago in the shortest book of the Old Testament.  It is my hope that this study of Obadiah has been as fulfilling for you as it has been for me.

— Jon