English · KJV

Obadiah 1:20

“Israel's Deliverance and Dominion”Obadiah 1:17–21

King James Version
And the captivity of this host of the children of Israel shall possess that of the Canaanites, even unto Zarephath; and the captivity of Jerusalem, which is in Sepharad, shall possess the cities of the south.

Bible text: King James Version (1769 Blayney text) · Public domain

KJV (with Strong's)
And the captivity H1546 of this host H2426 of the children H1121 of Israel H3478 shall possess that of the Canaanites H3669, even unto Zarephath H6886; and the captivity H1546 of Jerusalem H3389, which is in Sepharad H5614, shall possess H3423 the cities H5892 of the south H5045.

Bible text: King James Version with Strong's numbers · Public domain

Berean Standard Bible
And the exiles of this host of the Israelites will possess the land of the Canaanites as far as Zarephath; and the exiles from Jerusalem who are in Sepharad will possess the cities of the Negev.

Bible text: Berean Standard Bible · Public domain

American Standard Version
And the captives of this host of the children of Israel, that are among the Canaanites, shall possess even unto Zarephath; and the captives of Jerusalem, that are in Sepharad, shall possess the cities of the South.

Bible text: American Standard Version (1901) · Public domain

World English Bible Messianic
The captives of this army of the children of Israel, who are among the Canaanites, will possess even to Zarephath; and the captives of Jerusalem, who are in Sepharad, will possess the cities of the Negev.

Bible text: World English Bible, Messianic edition · Public domain

Geneva Bible (1599)
And the captiuitie of this host of the children of Israel, which were among the Canaanites, shall possesse vnto Zarephath, and the captiuitie of Ierusalem, which is in Sepharad, shall possesse the cities of the South.

Bible text: Geneva Bible (1599) · Public domain

Young's Literal Translation
And the removed of this force of the sons of Israel, That is with the Canaanites unto Zarephat, And the removed of Jerusalem that is with the Sepharad, Possess the cities of the south.

Bible text: Young's Literal Translation · Public domain

King James Version — Interlinear
17 Hebrew words
  1. וְגָלֻתve·ga·Lutand [the] exile[s] ofH1546Conj-w ¦ N-fscNoun Singular Feminine Constructוְandגָלֻת[the] exile[s] of
  2. הַחֵלha·chelthe fortressH2426Art ¦ N-msNoun Singular Masculine Absoluteהַtheחֵלfortress
  3. הַזֶּהHa·zeh[the] thisH2088Art ¦ PrtParticle Demonstrativeהַ[the]זֶּהthis
  4. לִבְנֵיliv·Neiof [the] people ofH1121Prep-l ¦ N-mpcNoun Plural Masculine Constructלִofבְנֵי[the] people of
  5. יִשְׂרָאֵלYis·ra·'ElIsraelH3478N-properNoun Proper Location
  6. אֲשֶׁר'a·SherwhoH834RelParticle Relative
  7. כְּנַעֲנִיםke·na·'a·Nim[will be] CanaanitesH3669N-mpNoun Gentilic Plural Masculine Absolute
  8. עַד'adtoH5704PrepPreposition
  9. צָרְפַתtza·re·FatZarephathH6886N-properNoun Proper Location
  10. וְגָלֻתve·ga·Lutand [the] exile[s] ofH1546Conj-w ¦ N-fscNoun Singular Feminine Constructוְandגָלֻת[the] exile[s] of
  11. יְרוּשָׁלִַםye·ru·sha·LimJerusalemH3389N-properNoun Proper Location
  12. אֲשֶׁר'a·SherwhoH834RelParticle Relative
  13. בִּסְפָרַדbis·fa·Rad[are] in SepharadH5614Prep-b ¦ N-properNoun Proper Locationבִּ[are] inסְפָרַדSepharad
  14. יִרְשׁוּyir·Shuthey will take possession ofH3423V-Qal-Imperf-3mpVerb Qal Imperfect 3rd Plural Masculine
  15. אֵת'et[obj.]H853DirObjMParticle Object Indicator
  16. עָרֵי'a·Rei[the] cities ofH5892N-mpcNoun Plural Masculine Construct
  17. הַנֶּגֶבha·Ne·gevthe NegevH5045Art ¦ N-properNoun Proper LocationהַtheנֶּגֶבNegev
English is a literal word-by-word gloss of the Hebrew, not the KJV's wording. Why?

This is the original text the KJV's translators worked from — each Hebrew word with its own literal English meaning in this verse, prepared by scholars at Tyndale House, Cambridge. The KJV translates whole sentences, not word by word, so its wording differs: one Hebrew word can become several English words, and the KJV may choose “the LORD” where the gloss reads “Yahweh”. Both are faithful — they answer different questions. For the KJV's own rendering, switch to the KJV text.

Words in [ ] are added by the English.

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Prophecy Against Edom
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This verse

The exiles of Israel and of Jerusalem, scattered as far as Sepharad, will come home and possess the land from Zarephath in the north to the cities of the south.

“And the captivity of this host of the children of Israel”

gâlûwth and chêyl: the whole company of exiles from the northern kingdom, scattered by Assyria. The promise is for all of them.

“shall possess that of the Canaanites, even unto Zarephath;”

The land of the old inhabitants of Canaan, as far as the Phoenician coast, becomes Israel’s.

“and the captivity of Jerusalem, which is in Sepharad,”

The exiles of Judah, far off in a place whose location is uncertain.

“shall possess the cities of the south.”

The towns of the Negeb on Edom’s border, which make the southern land secure again.

Passage studyObadiah 1:17–21

The Kingdom Shall Be the LORD’s

17But upon mount Zion shall be deliverance, and there shall be holiness; and the house of Jacob shall possess their possessions. 18And the house of Jacob shall be a fire, and the house of Joseph a flame, and the house of Esau for stubble, and they shall kindle in them, and devour them; and there shall not be any remaining of the house of Esau; for the LORD hath spoken it. 19And they of the south shall possess the mount of Esau; and they of the plain the Philistines: and they shall possess the fields of Ephraim, and the fields of Samaria: and Benjamin shall possess Gilead. 20And the captivity of this host of the children of Israel shall possess that of the Canaanites, even unto Zarephath; and the captivity of Jerusalem, which is in Sepharad, shall possess the cities of the south. 21And saviours shall come up on mount Zion to judge the mount of Esau; and the kingdom shall be the LORD’S.

Summary

Obadiah spends most of his short book on the judgment of Edom, the nation descended from Esau, for what it did to Judah on the day Jerusalem fell. In these last five verses he turns to God’s own people. On Mount Zion there will be deliverance and holiness, and the house of Jacob will take back its inheritance. Jacob and Joseph will be a fire and Esau stubble, because the LORD has said so. The restored people will spread out over the land on every side, the exiles will come home from far away, and deliverers will go up on Mount Zion to judge the mountains of Esau. The book ends on its greatest line: “and the kingdom shall be the LORD’S.”

Why Obadiah ends with Zion and Edom

Obadiah is the shortest book in the Old Testament, and nearly all of it is one prophecy against Edom. Edom was Judah’s brother nation. Its people came from Esau, and Israel came from Esau’s twin brother Jacob. Before the twins were born, God told their mother that two nations were in her womb and that the older would serve the younger (Genesis 25:23). The rivalry went on when Esau sold his birthright and Jacob took the blessing by deceit, and it carried over into the nations that came from them. When Israel came out of Egypt, Edom refused to let them pass through its land (Numbers 20:14–21).

The wrong that brings on this prophecy is set out in Obadiah 1:10–14. When foreign invaders took Jerusalem, Edom stood by and gloated, joined in the plunder, and handed over the people of Judah who were trying to escape. Lamentations also names Edom’s rejoicing over Jerusalem and the judgment coming on it for that (Lamentations 4:21–22). Believers differ on the date. It is most often placed at the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BC, and some place it at an earlier attack on Jerusalem by the Philistines and Arabians (2 Chronicles 21:16–17). On either date, a brother turned on his brother in his worst hour.

Then the day of the LORD is announced upon all the nations (Obadiah 1:15), and these five verses show what that day means for God’s people. The one who was betrayed is restored, and the betrayer is brought down.

Deliverance and holiness on Mount Zion

Verse 17 opens with “But”, and the word marks the turn from Edom’s ruin to Zion’s hope. Mount Zion is the hill of Jerusalem where God’s temple stood and David’s kings reigned, and in Scripture it stands for the place where God lives among his people. God sets his King on Zion (Psalm 2:6), the psalmist calls us to sing praises to the LORD who dwells in Zion (Psalm 9:11), and the prophets promise that God will dwell in Zion and return to it (Joel 3:17, Zechariah 8:3). The city that Edom watched being plundered becomes the place of God’s saving work.

The word for deliverance, pᵉlêyṭâh, means an escape, and so also the people who escape: a remnant, the part that is saved. God will keep a rescued people on Zion, secure from the enemies who once cut off those who fled. The second word, qôdesh, means holiness, or a sacred place or thing set apart for God. Zion will be holy because the people and the place will be made fit for his presence and his worship. So the restoration God promises reaches the heart as well as the land. In Ezekiel he promises to gather his people, bring them home and give them a new heart (Ezekiel 36:24–28), and Peter passes the same call on to the church: “Be ye holy; for I am holy” (1 Peter 1:15–16).

“The house of Jacob shall possess their possessions” doubles its words for emphasis. The verb yârash means to occupy a land by driving out those who held it, and so to take possession or to inherit. The noun beside it, môwrâsh, comes from the same root and means a possession or inheritance. Jacob will hold again, fully and surely, what is rightly his. The house of Jacob is the whole nation, and its possessions are first of all the land God promised to Abraham and his descendants (Genesis 12:7, Genesis 13:15). Exile and foreign rule had taken that land from them, and God promises to give it back along with their name and their place among the nations.

Jacob a fire, Esau stubble

Verse 18 puts the reversal into one picture. “House” stands four times in this verse, and each time it is bayith, a word for a dwelling that also means a family, a line of descent and a whole people. The prophecy is about peoples: the house of Jacob, the house of Joseph and the house of Esau.

Jacob here stands for Judah in the south, and Joseph, whose son Ephraim led the north, stands for the northern tribes. Together they are the fire and the flame, so the people of God are pictured as one again, south and north. The word for fire, ‘êsh, is the ordinary word, used both plainly and as a figure, and fire in Scripture often pictures God’s judgment. Edom is qash, stubble, from a root meaning to be dry. It is dry straw, worthless and ready to burn. The fire will “devour” it, and the verb ‘âkal is the common word to eat, used here in its figurative sense of consume. A fire in a field of dry stubble burns it all, and so “there shall not be any remaining of the house of Esau.” Edom will come to its end as a people.

The prophets often speak this way. Isaiah says that the wicked will be consumed like stubble in the fire (Isaiah 5:24), and a psalm says the wicked will perish and vanish like smoke (Psalm 37:20). John the Baptist uses the same picture of Christ, who will burn up the chaff with “unquenchable fire” (Matthew 3:12).

“For the LORD hath spoken it” closes the verse and settles the matter. This is the LORD’s decree, and what he says, he does. He declares the end from the beginning (Isaiah 46:10), and his word accomplishes what he sends it to do (Isaiah 55:11).

Why does Edom face so complete an end?

Edom is judged for its pride, its violence and its cruelty to a brother on the day of his ruin. God sees what is done to his people, and he repays it in full, even when the reckoning is a long time coming. The judgment also brings to completion the word spoken before Jacob and Esau were born, that the older would serve the younger. For those who suffered under Edom, this was a promise that their oppressors would fall. For everyone, it is a solemn warning against pride and malice toward God’s people.

The land restored on every side

Verses 19 and 20 fill in the promise that Jacob “shall possess their possessions” by naming the places. The verb yârash returns in both verses, so the same possessing word runs from verse 17 through verse 20.

Verse 19 begins with “they of the south”. The word negeb means the south, named for its dryness, and it is the Negeb, the southern district of Judah. The people there will possess “the mount of Esau”, the mountain country of Edom around Seir, southeast of Judah and south of the Dead Sea. The name Esau, ʻÊsâv, is explained as “rough”, that is, sensibly felt to the touch. The people Edom gloated over will hold Edom’s own mountains.

“They of the plain” will possess the Philistines. The plain is the Shephelah, the low country running down from the hills of Judah toward the Mediterranean coast, where the Philistines lived and long troubled Israel. Then “the fields of Ephraim, and the fields of Samaria” are the lands of the former northern kingdom, whose leading tribe was Ephraim and whose capital was Samaria. The Assyrians had carried its people away (2 Kings 17:6). Last, Benjamin will possess Gilead, east of the Jordan. South, west, north and east, the whole land comes back to God’s people, together with the lands of their old enemies.

Judah taking hold of the north speaks of the divided kingdoms becoming one people again. Ezekiel promises that Israel and Judah will be one nation under one king (Ezekiel 37:15–28), and Isaiah sees the divided people made one and prevailing over the nations around them (Isaiah 11:13–14).

Verse 20 turns to the exiles. “Captivity” is gâlûwth, from the root to go into exile, and here it means the exiles themselves, the people carried away from home. “This host” uses chêyl, often an army or a rampart, and here it means the whole company of the children of Israel in exile. These are the northern exiles taken by Assyria in 722 BC, and they will possess the land of the Canaanites as far as Zarephath. Zarephath, Tsârᵉphath, was a Phoenician town on the Mediterranean coast north of Israel, in what is now Lebanon, so the land reaches past its old northern border. The exiles of Jerusalem, taken by the Babylonians, are “in Sepharad”, Çᵉphârâd, and they will possess “the cities of the south”, the towns of the Negeb on Edom’s border.

The people who were driven out will become the ones who possess. God had sworn the land to Abraham’s descendants in his covenant (Genesis 15:18), and the prophets repeat the promise of return: God will gather the remnant of his people from the corners of the earth (Isaiah 11:11–12), bring them back from captivity to the land he gave their fathers (Jeremiah 30:3), and raise up what was fallen, restore their fortunes and rebuild their ruined cities (Amos 9:11–15).

Where was Sepharad?

Sepharad is named only here in the Old Testament, and where it lay is uncertain. Some identify it with Sardis in Lydia, in Asia Minor, and others with a region in Mesopotamia or Persia. On any of these readings it was far from Jerusalem, and that is the point of the verse. The exiles of Jerusalem were scattered a long way, and God would bring them home even from there.

Has this promise been fulfilled?

Part of it has been seen in history. After the exile, the Hasmonean rulers of Judea conquered Edomite territory. The whole picture, though, of all Israel united and holding all these lands, reaches past any one event. Believers differ on the rest of the fulfillment. Some hold that God will still bring about a full restoration of Israel in its land in a day to come, so that these verses wait for their complete fulfillment. Others hold that the promise reaches its fulfillment in the kingdom of Christ, where his people inherit every spiritual blessing and finally the new heavens and the new earth. Both readings agree that God keeps every word he has spoken to his people, and that the last verse of the book, the LORD’s kingdom, is where everything here is heading.

Saviours on Mount Zion

Verse 21 brings us back to Mount Zion, where verse 17 began. “Saviours” translates a form of yâshaʻ, a root meaning to be open, wide or free, which in its causative sense means to set free or to help. The plural form, moshi’im, means those who deliver. These are deliverers God raises up from among his restored people, leaders through whom his saving power and justice are carried out. They “come up”, rising to authority, so the people who were trampled now bring God’s justice to bear on the nation that trampled them. The verse sets two mountains face to face: Zion, God’s chosen city, and the mount of Esau. Those who trust in the LORD are like Mount Zion (Psalm 125:1), and Zion is where God’s authority is shown.

“To judge” is shâphaṭ, to judge, decide or govern, to pronounce sentence for someone or against them. Here it means sentence carried out on Edom and Judah vindicated, and it also carries the sense of ruling, since those who judge Esau’s mountain will govern it.

The kingdom shall be the LORD’s

The last words of the book reach beyond Judah and Edom. The word for kingdom, mᵉlûwkâh, means something ruled, a realm, and the KJV also renders it “royal” and “king’s”. The deliverers on Zion are servants, and the realm is the LORD’s. Earthly kingdoms rise and fall, Edom among them, and his rule is eternal and over all. Zechariah says, “the LORD shall be king over all the earth” (Zechariah 14:9), Daniel foretells a kingdom set up by the God of heaven that will last for ever (Daniel 2:44), and in Revelation loud voices in heaven announce, “The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord” (Revelation 11:15).

Christ, the Saviour on Zion

The saviours of verse 21 point forward to the one Saviour, Jesus Christ. The letter to the Hebrews tells believers that they have come to Mount Zion, the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to Jesus (Hebrews 12:22–24). The deliverance promised on Zion is his work. Through his death and resurrection he has delivered us from the power of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of God’s Son (Colossians 1:13–14). The holiness promised on Zion is his gift too, for Christ is made unto us sanctification (1 Corinthians 1:30), and his Spirit sets believers apart for God.

The inheritance of verse 17 becomes the inheritance of all who belong to Christ. In him Jew and Gentile are one, Abraham’s seed and heirs according to the promise (Galatians 3:28–29). Christ has broken down the wall between them and made the two one (Ephesians 2:14–16), and they share every spiritual blessing and an inheritance in him (Ephesians 1:3–14). The joining of Ephraim, Samaria and Benjamin with Judah is a picture of that one new people. The gathering of exiles from places as far off as Sepharad looks ahead to the great multitude from all nations standing before the throne (Revelation 7:9–10), gathered as the gospel goes out to all nations (Matthew 28:19–20). The final possession is the new heaven and new earth, where God dwells with his people (Revelation 21:1–7).

The judgment on Esau points to Christ as well. He has triumphed over principalities and powers (Colossians 2:15). He must reign until all his enemies are put under his feet (1 Corinthians 15:25), and when he returns he will judge and make war in righteousness (Revelation 19:11–21). God has highly exalted him, so that every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord (Philippians 2:9–11). In him the last line of Obadiah comes true: the kingdom is the LORD’s.

The last word belongs to the LORD

Obadiah wrote to people who had lost their city and their land and had been betrayed by their own brother. God’s answer was these five verses. He would keep a saved people on Zion, make them holy, give back their inheritance, bring the scattered home from the ends of the earth, and set his own rule over everything. The proud nation that gloated over Jerusalem would burn like stubble, and the LORD said it, so it would stand.

These verses show us a God who sees every wrong done to his people and answers it with justice, and who never lets go of a promise, however long its keeping takes. They also show where history is going. Every kingdom of this world, the cruel ones included, will give way to his. Whatever you have lost, the inheritance God gives in Christ is secure, and the kingdom you belong to is the one that “shall be the LORD’S”.

Last revised

Public-domain commentary

Matthew Henry

From his Commentary on the Whole Bible. Henry wrote on whole passages, and this entry covers Obadiah 1:17–21. He set out his notes in a three-level outline, kept here as he numbered it.

1662–1714 · 5 verses
Passage under commentObadiah 1:17–21
I. II. Main points1. 2. Sub-points(1.) (2.) Details

After the destruction of the church's enemies is threatened, which will be completely accomplished in the great day of recompence, and that judgment for which Christ came once, and will come again, into this world, here follow precious promises of the salvation of the church, with which this prophecy concludes, and those of Joel and Amos did, which, however they might be in part fulfilled in the return of the Jews out of Babylon notwithstanding the triumphs of Edom in their captivity, as if it were perpetual, are yet, doubtless, to have their full accomplishment in that great salvation wrought out by Jesus Christ, to which all the prophets bore witness. It is promised here,

I.That there shall be salvation upon Mount Zion, that holy hill where God sets his anointed King (Psalm 2:6):

Upon Mount Zion shall be deliverance, Obadiah 1:17. There shall be those that escape; so the margin. A remnant of Israel, upon the holy mountain shall be saved, Obadiah 1:16. Christ said, Salvation is of the Jews, John 4:22. God wrought deliverances for the Jews, typical of our redemption by Christ. But Mount Zion is the gospel-church, from which the New Testament law went forth, Isaiah 2:3. There salvation shall be preached and prayed for; to the gospel-church those are added who shall be saved; and for those who come in faith and hope to this Mount Zion deliverance shall be wrought from wrath and the curse, from sin, and death, and hell, while those who continue afar off shall be left to perish.

II.That, where there is salvation, there shall be sanctification in order to it:

And there shall be holiness, to prepare and qualify the children of Zion for this deliverance; for wherever God designs glory he gives grace. Temporal deliverances are indeed wrought for us in mercy when with them there is holiness, when there is wrought in us a disposition to receive them with love and gratitude to God; when we are sanctified, they are sanctified to us. Holiness is itself a great deliverance, and an earnest of that eternal salvation which we look for. There, upon Mount Zion, in the gospel-church, shall be holiness; for that is it which becomes God's house for ever, and the great design of the gospel, and its grace, is to plant and promote holiness. There shall be the Holy Spirit, the holy ordinances, the holy Jesus, and a select remnant of holy souls, in whom, and among whom, the holy God will delight to dwell. Note, Where there is holiness there shall be deliverance.

III.That this salvation and sanctification shall spread, and prevail, and get ground in the world:

The house of Jacob, even this Mount Zion, with the deliverance and their holiness there wrought, shall possess their possessions; that is, the gospel-church shall be set up among the heathen, and shall replenish the earth; the apostles of Christ by their preaching shall gain possession of the hearts of men for him whose messengers and ministers they are, and when they possess their hearts they shall possess their possessions, for those who have given up themselves to the Lord give up all they have to him. When Lydia's heart was opened to Christ her house was opened to his ministers. When the Gentile nations became nations of those that were saved, were disciplined, walked in the light of the Lord, and brought their glory and honour into the new Jerusalem (Revelation 21:24), then the house of Jacob possessed their possessions. This is the part fulfilled by the planting of the Christian religion in the world, and shall be fulfilled yet more and more by the setting up of Christ's throne where Satan's seat is, and the erecting of trophies of his victory upon the ruins of the devil's kingdom. Now here is foretold,

1.How this possession shall be gained, and the opposition given to it got over (Obadiah 1:18): The house of Jacob shall be a fire, and the house of Joseph a flame, for their God is, and will be, a consuming fire; and the house of Esau shall be for stubble, easily devoured and consumed by this fire. This is fulfilled,

(1.)In the conversion of multitudes by the grace of Christ; the gospel, preached in the house of Jacob and Joseph, and there owned and professed, shall be as a fire and a flame to melt and to soften hard hearts, to burn up the dross of sin and corruption, that they may be purified and refined with the spirit of judgment and the spirit of burning. Christ, when he comes, shall be as a refiner's fire, Malachi 3:1, Malachi 3:2.

(2.)In the confusion of all the impenitent implacable enemies of the gospel of Christ, that oppose it and do all they can to hinder the setting up of the kingdom of the Messiah by it. The gospel day is a day that burns like an oven, in which all the proud, and all that do wickedly, shall be a stubble, Malachi 4:1. Jacob and Joseph shall be as a fire and a flame; for those that meddle with them, to do them hurt, will find that they do so at their peril; they shall be to them as a torch of fire in a sheaf, Zechariah 12:6. The word of God in the mouth of his ministers is said to be like fire, and the people as wood to be devoured by it, Jeremiah 5:14. And the man of sin is to be consumed by the breath of Christ's mouth, 2 Thessalonians 2:8. Those that are not refined as gold by fire of the gospel shall be consumed as dross by it; for it will be a savour either of life or of death. When idols and idolatry were abolished, and the wealth and power of nations were brought into the service of Christ and his gospel, and the spoils of the strong man armed were divided by him that was stronger than he, then the house of Jacob and Joseph devoured the house of Esau, so that there was none of them left remaining. This the Lord spoke by his prophets, and this he did by his apostles.

2.How far this possession shall extend, Obadiah 1:19, Obadiah 1:20. This is described in Jewish language, which speaks the accession made to the land of Israel, after the return out of captivity into Babylon. The captivity of this host of Israel, that is, this host of Israel that have been so long in captivity and now they have come back are still called the children of the captivity, these shall not only recover their own land, but shall gain ground upon their neighbours adjoining to them, some of whom shall become proselytes and shall incorporate with the Jews, who, by possessing them in a holy communion, possess their land. We must reckon ourselves truly enriched by the conversion of our neighbours to the fear of God and the faith of Christ, and their coming to join with us in the worship of God. Such an accession to our Christian communion we must reckon to be more our wealth and strength than an accession to our estates. Or, The ancient inhabitants of those lands that were carried away into captivity being lost, and never returning to their estates, the children of Israel shall take possession of that which lies next them; for their numbers shall so increase that their own land shall be too strait for them, and their neighbours' estates shall escheat to them ob defectum sanguinis - through default of heirs. They shall enter upon that which is adjoining to them. The country of Esau shall be possessed by those of the south parts of Canaan, for to them it lies contiguous. Those of the plain, on the west of Canaan, which was a champaign country, shall enter upon the land of the Philistines, their neighbours. Those of Judah, which was the chief of the two returning tribes, shall possess the field of Ephraim and Samaria, which before belonged to the ten tribes; and Benjamin, the other tribe, shall possess Gilead on the other side of Jordan, which had belonged to the two tribes and a half. The kingdom of Israel shall join with that of Judah both in civil and sacred interests, and, as friends and brethren, shall mutually possess and enjoy one another; and both together shall possess the Canaanites, even to Zarephath, which belongeth to Zidon; and Jerusalem shall possess the cities of the south, even to Sepharad. Thus did the Jews enlarge their borders on all sides. The modern rabbin teach their scholars by Zarephath and Sepharad to understand France and Spain, grounding upon this a foolish groundless expectation that some time or other the Jews shall be masters of those countries; and they call and count the Christians Edomites, over whom they are to have dominion. But the promise here, no doubt, has a spiritual signification, and had its accomplishment in the setting up of the Christian church, the gospel-Israel, in the world, and shall have its accomplishment more and more in the enlargement of it and the additions made to it, till the mystical body is completed. When ministers and Christians prevail with their neighbours to come to Christ, to yield themselves to the Lord, they possess them. The converts that Abraham had are said to be the souls that he had gotten, Genesis 12:5. The possession is gained, not vi et armis - by force and arms; for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but spiritual; it is by the preaching of the gospel, and the power of divine grace going along with it, that this possession is got and kept.

IV.That the kingdom of the Redeemer shall be erected and maintained, to the comfort of his loyal subjects and the terror and shame of all his enemies (Obadiah 1:21): The kingdom shall be the Lord's, the Lord Christ's. God shall give it to him, by putting all things into his hand, all power both in heaven and in earth; men shall give it to him, by resigning themselves to him as his willing people, and appointing him their head. Now the work of kings is to protect their subjects and suppress their enemies; and this Christ will do; he will both reward and punish.

1.The mountain of Zion shall be saved; on it saviours shall come, the preachers of the gospel, who are called saviours, because their business is to save themselves and those that hear them; and in this they are workers together with Christ, but to little purpose if he by his grace did not work together with them.

2.The mountain of Esau shall be judged; and the same that come as saviours on Mount Zion shall judge the mountain of Esau; for the word of the gospel in their mouth, that saves believers, judges unbelievers, convinces and condemns them. Christ's ministers are saviours on Mount Zion when they preach that he that believes shall be saved; but they judge the mount of Esau when they preach that he that believeth not shall be damned, which they are not only commissioned, but commanded to do, Mark 16:16. And in the course of God's providence his scripture is fulfilled; when God raises up friends to the church in her distress (as he raised up judges to deliver Israel of old, Judges 2:16), then saviours come on Mount Zion, to save it from being sunk and ruined; and when the enemies of the church are brought down, and their power broken, then is the mount of Esau judged; and this shall be done in every age in such a way as God thinks best; we may depend upon it that the gates of hell shall not prevail against the church, but the church shall prevail against them; for the kingdom shall be the Lord's; the kingdoms of the world shall become his, and he has taken, and will take, to himself his great power and reign.

Historical interpretation

Historical reception

4 surviving comments on this verse. Each one is dated, so this reads as a timeline rather than a list.

4 quotes · AD 373–458
Post-Nicene
400

Select a marker to jump to its quote. Markers stagger vertically where authors wrote within a few decades of each other.

d. AD 373Ephrem the SyrianPost-NiceneSourceCOMMENTARY ON OBADIAH
Here he indicates the prisoners of both the kingdoms of Samaria and Jerusalem, and also those who had gone to very far regions. Therefore he recalls the transmigration to Spain, because this is the name of a province, which is extremely distant from Judea, in order to show that this is the great gathering, which God had promised to bring together again from the four corners of the world. Those who have been saved shall go up to Mount Zion to rule Mount Esau, in order to defeat and destroy the nation of the Edomites. And the kingdom shall be the Lord’s. All the nations will be subjugated and subjected to the people of God, that is, to the people that God shall make.
d. AD 420JeromePost-NiceneSourceCOMMENTARY ON OBADIAH
The Jewish interpreters explained this similarly that the Lord sent a Savior who would save the people from captivity and they would ascend and go to Mount Zion in order to judge and decide regarding the Mountain of Esau. And when everything is subjugated, there will be a kingdom to the Lord.
d. AD 444Cyril of AlexandriaPost-NiceneSourceCOMMENTARY ON OBADIAH
At this place in the text, the migration of Israel back to the land is mentioned, more specifically, from those Jews taken away into Babylon.… Perhaps here he is saying that everything that is to the south and to the north and to the east and to the west will be fully occupied by Israel as they will easily possess the whole region around them.
d. AD 458Theodoret of CyrusPost-NiceneSourceCOMMENTARY ON OBADIAH
Ezekiel also predicts something similar at the end of his prophecy when he describes the division of the land. He too predicts the return of the people, and after they return we learn they will receive power and obtain strength from God. O that we also would obtain this from our most generous God. And we will receive this from the Lord if we do not imitate the model of Esau and his posterity [who rejoiced in Israel’s destruction]. Rather, following the apostolic tradition, we should rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep, and we ought to think the same for others [as we would have them think of us]. For this reason we possess the gifts of the Lord of all life, which is the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be glory with the Father and the Holy Spirit now and forever, world without end. Amen.
Source: Quotations drawn from early Church Fathers and historical Christian theologians (AD 100–1500). Some quotes address the surrounding passage context rather than this verse alone.

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