Obadiah 1:18

And the house of Jacob shall be a fire, and the house of Joseph a flame,.... The former may denote the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin, the latter the ten tribes, which after the separation in

And 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

Besides what Nebuchadnezzar shall do upon his particular quarrel against Edom, bringing them to a very desolate condition, there shall, (though it be not owned,) intermixed, be the quarrel of God for Israel’ s sake, which the Chaldeans shall avenge; or else, after the return out of captivity, and some settled state in their own land, Israel himself shall destroy the remnant of Edom, , with . The house of Jacob; either the kingdom of the two tribes, or else the whole twelve tribes, the residue of the ten tribes joined with the two in their return from Babylon. The house of Joseph; the ten tribes, particularly here mentioned to comfort them. and assure them that they should not be cast off, though they were more notoriously guilty of idolatry, and a long apostacy. The house of Esau for stubble; as unable to resist or secure themselves as stubble is to resist the flame. They shall kindle in them: this was fulfilled in part by Hyrcanus and the Maccabees, /APC ; but more fully to be accomplished in the mystical sense, when the Lord shall make his church as a fire to all its enemies, and Jerusalem a burdensome stone to all nations. Devour them; as flame eats up the stubble. There shall not be any; no considerable number or body of them, or none shall continue Edomites, but turn Jews, and be circumcised, be added to the church. For the Lord hath spoken it; however or whenever this is done, it shall be done, because the Lord hath spoken it; this assures us of the thing.

Obadiah 1:18 And 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].Ver. 18. And the house of Jacob shall be a fire, &c.] The house of Jacob are the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin; the house of Joseph are the ten tribes of Israel, whereof Ephraim was the head. The sense is this, those two tribes, together with such of the ten as joined themselves to them, either before or after the captivity, shall invade Idumea, burn it, aud subdue it, as fire doth stubble fully dry. This was done by Hircanus and Judas Maccabeus, who compelled the Edomites to be circumcised; and so wholly possessed those parts, that there were not any relics of them remaining; no, not so much as one πυροφορος (as the Septuagint render it), or, πυρφορος (as some read them), any to carry grain after the camp or fire before it, according to the custom of the Greeks and Easterlings; which torchbearer might as little be violated as an ambassador; but here, he should be cut off with the rest, and not so much as a messenger left, to relate the overthrow. The Edomites were so utterly rooted out by Hircanus, that they thenceforth ceased to be Edomites, and became Jews. Those of them that were converted by the preaching of the gospel, ceased to be either Edomites or Jews, and became Christians. The apostles, burning with the zeal of God’ s glory and love to men’ s souls, devoured and wasted the infidelity, idols, and vices of the Gentiles wherever they came preaching, Hence Chrysostom saith, Peter was a man made all of fire, walking among stubble; Paul was insatiabilis Dei cultor, an insatiable servant of Christ. And to the like purpose it was, that to one that desired to know what kind of man Basil was, it is said, that was presented in a dream, a pillar of fire, with this motto, Talis est Basilius, Such a one is Basil. And old Latimer, when he was demanded the reason why so little powerful preaching? answered, Deest ignis, the spark of the spirit is wanting. Howbeit this prophecy, as it began to be fulfilled at first by the apostles, and the apostolic persons that came after them; so it is daily, and shall be continually to the world’ s end, fulfilled by the faithful preachers of God’ s holy word, who are clothed with a spirit "of judgment and of burning," Isaiah 4:4, and out of whose mouth proceedeth fire, Revelation 11:5; to purge the gold, and to consume the stubble.

17-21.— OF THE KINGDOM OF JEHOVAH ON MOUNT ZION.(17) Deliverance.—Better, as in margin, the fugitives of Israel who have survived the recent calamity. This is clear from Isaiah 10:20, where phelκytah is in parallelism with shear=remnant, as well as Joe 2:32; Hebrews 3:5, where it is parallel to serξdξm, also remnant. (Comp. also Judges 21:17; 2 Chronicles 20:24.) While the judgment is falling upon all the heathen nations, Mount Zion will be an asylum for all the Israelites who had fled for safety, and been scattered and dispersed. Holiness.—See margin. Zion was once more to become a sanctuary, and those who inhabited it holy. (Comp. Isaiah 6:13.) Their possessions.—Whose—their own that had been lost, or those of the nations? The Vulgate, following the LXX., read “those who had possessed them,” indicating subjugation of the heathen tribes. But the parallelism is undoubtedly in favour of the other view—the remnant of Israel would be saved, and regain their old possessions. Having stated this, the prophet goes on to describe what would happen to Edom and its possessions. (18) Though, in the preceding verse, “house of Jacob” would seem to embrace all the restored Israel, without any reference to the distinction of the two kingdoms, in this verse, being opposed to “house of Joseph,” it requires to be taken as synonymous with Judah; as in Isaiah 46:3 : “Hearken unto me, O house of Jacob, and all the remnant of the house of Israel.” (Comp. Psalms 77:15; Psalms 80:1; Psalms 81:4-5.) For the expressive imagery, comp. Nahum 1:10; Isaiah 27:4; Isaiah 10:17. Any remaining.—Heb., sarξd, a fugitive. The LXX. must have had a different text, as they read here πυροϕόρος, i.e., wheat-bearer, apparently (as the various reading shows) a mistake for πυρϕόρος, fire-bearer.(19) After the destruction of the heathen the new kingdom of Zion will be restored, at least as far as the ancient territories which are at present held by the Idumζans, to the north and west of the original Edom, are concerned. Three divisions are enumerated of the house of Jacob (i.e., Judah; see Note, Obadiah 1:18), and separate mention made of Benjamin. They of the south.—Those at present occupying the south—Heb., negev—i.e., the dry parched country forming the southern portion of the tribe of Judah (Joshua 15:21), are to inhabit Mount Esau: i.e., are to extend their territory to its extreme south-eastern limit; they of the Shephelah, i.e., the western lowland on the Mediterranean, are to seize on the neighbouring Philistia, at present Idumζan; while they at present confined to the hill-country in the north and centre of Judah are to spread themselves over Ephraim and Samaria. Our present Hebrew text leaves the subject of this latter clause uncertain, as it is in the Authorised Version “they.” But the LXX., τὸὄρος indicates that hahor=the mountain, has dropped out, a conjecture which is abundantly borne out by the geographical arrangement of the localities in the passage. Benjamin, for which no room is left on the west of Jordan, is to push across it into Gilead instead.

Verse 18. The house of Jacob shall be a fire] After their return from captivity, the Jews, called here the house of Jacob and the house of Joseph, did break out as a flame upon the Idumeans; they reduced them into slavery; and obliged them to receive circumcision, and practise the rites of the Jewish religion. See 1Macc 5:3, c. 2Macc 10:15-23; and Joseph. Antiq., lib. xiii. c. 17. There shall not be any remaining] As a people and a nation they shall be totally destroyed. This is the meaning; it does not signify that every individual shall be destroyed.

18. The house of Jacob … the house of Joseph] Both are mentioned to shew that the remnant of the whole nation, not only of the two tribes, but of the ten, is included. The same names are used to describe the entire nation in Psalms 77:15 [Heb. 16]; Psalms 80:1 [Hebrews 2]; Psalms 81:4-5 [Hebrews 5, 6]. any remaining] “a survivor.” The punishment here denounced against Edom is quite distinct from that earlier punishment, of which the nations are summoned to be the instruments (Obadiah 1:1-2). It is that final destruction, which they suffered at the hands of Jews only, first of Judas Maccabæus, and then, in their total extermination, of John Hyrcanus. See Introduction, § III.

Having given, in summary, the restoration and expansion of Judah, Obadiah, in more detail, first mentions a further chastisement of Edom, quite distinct from the former.

18. The restored exiles will execute vengeance upon Edom. Several times the prophet has made it plain that Jehovah will destroy Edom; but, if the above suggested interpretation of Oba 1:1 is correct,