OBADIAH CHAPTER

THE BOOK OF OBADIAH

Brother to Jeremiah in the message told,
So prophet Obadiah, not left out in the cold,
Wreaks vengeance on the Edomites, and lays
The question of both Spain and France’s days.
The words of Joel also echo clear
The message Obadiah still holds dear,
And both, like others, clamour in the hope
The Day of YHWH will rise and be a rope
Of righteousness upon an earth once caught
In doom of wickedness as though in plot.
Beloved, I touch the morning and the light
That Obadiah brings after the night,
And choose within the son of righteousness
And not the brother that brings his duress.

1 The vision of Obadiah.
So says the Lord YHWH of the straw
Of Edom, ”We have heard in awe
A message from YHWH, and one’s sent
As representative and meant
Among the nations: ‘Get you up,
And let’s attack her like a tup.’
2 “See, I make you small among folk,
And greatly despised at a stroke.
3 “Your heart’s pride has deceived you while
You live in the rock’s clefts in style,
Your palaces on the high hills,
Saying in your heart for your thrills,
'Who’ll bring me down to the ground’s chills?’
4 “Though you make your nest high to rate
Like that of eagles for your mate,
And though you set it with the stars,
I’ll bring you down from there in bars,”
Says YHWH when He comes to relate.
5 If thieves came, robbers in the night,
How are you divided in spite,
Would they not steal all in their might?
If harvesters of grapes came in,
Would they not leave some in the bin?
6 How is Esau examined now!
In sight his hidden place’s row!
7 All the men of your federation
Have brought you to border of nation;
Those who were at peace with you stand
In your deception on the sand
To conquer you, and those who eat
Your very bread set for your feet
A snare, and you don’t see retreat.

A mountain man is always proud and free,
And looks down from the heights on the valley,
And thanks his lucky gars he came to be
A mountain man, one free and always proud.
I too remember how Point Mountain’s frown
Was green before my eyes, before the town
Of Webster Springs, of its local renown,
A kingdom set against the shoving crowd.
Beloved, if Edom is a mountain crew,
I understand their patronizing view.
The West Virginian is a proud man too,
To stand both head and shoulders above those
Who tread the mills and malls of lowland toes,
Who bask on easy beaches in their rows.

8 “Shall I not in that day,” says YHWH,
“Destroy Edom’s wise men in crew,
And sight from Esau’s mountain too?”
9 Your mighty men, O Teman, fear,
So in the end it will appear
All are cut off from the Mount Seir
Of Esau by slaughter and tear.
10 For violence you perpetrated
On your brother Jacob instated
Shame shall cover you, and you’ll be
Cut off always, eternally.
11 The day you stood apart, the day
That strangers carried him away,
And foreigners came into play
In his gates and cast lots in sway
Upon Jerusalem, then you
Participated in that crew.
12 You should not have gazed on the day
Of your brother in time of sway
Of his disaster, nor rejoiced
Over Judah’s folk come to hoist
Destruction, nor spoken proudly
In the distress and in the spree.
13 You should not have entered the gate
Of My folk on their day of fate,
You should not have stared at their rate
Of suffering made desolate,
Nor come to loot their gear and store
In the time that disaster tore.
14 Neither should you have stood beside
The road to catch those in the tide
Who tried to escape, nor should you
Have delivered up those in crew
That did remain that day of rue.

Not only Esau in the times gone past,
But recently, in European fast,
The looters came to take the wealth and cast
It in their own bank vaults while owners went
By cattle car to Auschwitz for a bent.
Not only Esau sat beside the road
To capture fleeing children with a goad,
But not so long ago Hungarian
And Frenchman joined the crew with evil plan,
And caught a Jew or two to set in span
Of labour forced in captive court and can.
Beloved, if curses fall on Esau’s head,
I know a few remaining in his stead
Who wait Your punishment, though Christian spread.

15 For near rises the day of YHWH
Upon all nations, as you do
So then it shall be done to you.
Your dealing shall return upon
Your own head and head of your spawn.
16 For as you’ve drunk upon My mount
Of holiness, so shall the fount
Of all nations drink without end,
Indeed they shall drink all they send,
And it shall be as though they’d not
Ever existed on the plot.
17 But in the fortress mountain there
Shall be those that escape the care,
And it shall be holy, while room
Of Jacob shall possess their bloom.
18 And Jacob’s house shall be a fire,
And Joseph’s room flame of desire,
And Esau’s house of straw for fuel,
And they shall kindle in their pool
And consume them, and there shall not
Be any left of Esau’s plot,
For YHWH has spoken and has taught.
19 Those from the south shall come possess
The mountain of Esau’s address,
And lowlanders, the Philistines,
Shall take the field of Ephraim’s vines,
And the field of Samaria,
And Benjamin shall hold in claw
All Gilead. 20 Captivity
Of this band of Israel’s sons free,
That are among the Canaanites,
Even to Zarephath in sights,
And prison of Jerusalem,
That is in Sepharad and stem,
Shall take the southern towns in hem.
21 Deliverers shall rise up in
The fortress hill to judge the sin
Of Esau’s mountain, and the reign
Shall be to YHWH on hill and plain.

The golden rule is do as you’d have done,
And it’s an ethic shining like the sun.
For judgement, though, it’s opposite is true:
You’ll feel in your own skin the sword you drew.
Beloved, I take advice well spent and lent,
I take it all to heart, each word You sent.
I see results of Christian sort of rate,
That crucifying Middle Eastern mate
Brings nothing but more harm upon the pate.
I turn from Roman power, Genevan fate,
And Lutheran let live the wicked skate
While calling innocent suffering deserved
For standing in the way when sinners swerved.
Let me be done by as I’ve done and meant.

AUTHOR: THOMAS G. MCELWAIN

Copyright © 2007 Adams & McElwain Publishers and Thomas McElwain First Published in two volumes, The Beloved and I 2005, and Led of the Beloved, 2006. Second Edition, 2010 Third and revised edition, 2012 All rights reserved. No part of this verse commentary on the sacred Scriptures may be reproduced, transmitted, or stored in a retrieval system, in any form or by any means, without permission in writing from publisher.

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