Obadiah 1:21

And saviours shall come upon Mount Zion,.... Which according to some, is to be understood literally, either of Zerubbabel and Joshua, after the return of the Jews from the Babylonish captivity, who

And saviours shall come up on mount Zion to judge the mount of Esau; and Saviours shall come up on mount Zion to judge the mount of Esau - "saviours;" there will be in the kingdom yet to come no

And, or For, so the Gallic version, printed at Rochelle, 1616. Saviours; deliverers; literally, the governors or leaders of those captive troops, who shall come up from Babylon to their own country, such as Zerubbabel, Ezra, Nehemiah, of whom it was said he came to seek the good of the Jews, , and successively after these many others, to the times of Hyrcanus and the Maccabees; mystically, Christ and his apostles, and other preachers of the gospel. Shall come; literally, with leave and commission from the kings of Persia, such as Cyrus and Darius Hystaspes, to manage the affairs of the returned captives. Upon Mount Zion; in Judea, at Jerusalem and the temple, and whatever might concern them, with their neighbours round about. To judge; to avenge Israel upon Edom, to fight, subdue, and give laws to them, as Hyrcanus did when the Edomites were glad to be circumcised to keep their country. The Mount of Esau; the whole country, so called from thee father of that nation, who chose those mountainous countries for his habitation, as most suitable to his wild and rambling humour, which delighted in hunting. The kingdom shall be the Lord’ s; the government, called here the kingdom, shall manifestly appear to be set up, maintained, and prospered by a power, wisdom, and goodness greater than human. The God of Israel, who is Jehovah, shall be honoured, obeyed, and worshipped by them, and they shall not, as formerly, rely on idols, or foreign aids. All which most fully is accomplished by Christ the Saviour, and now known in the Christian church, who do believe he will, and pray that he would, save his Zion, and destroy Edom, i.e. antichrist and his kingdom.

Obadiah 1:21 And saviours shall come up on mount Zion to judge the mount of Esau; and the kingdom shall be the LORD’ S.Ver. 21. And saviours shall come up on mount Zion] Judas Maccabeus and Hircanus in the history: as in the mystery, the apostles and others of Christ’ s ministers, who are here and elsewhere called saviours, a very high style, because God maketh use of their ministry, as he doth likewise of the angels, for the good of them that are heirs of salvation, Hebrews 1:14, and by their help the faithful are saved. Hence those expressions, 1 Timothy 4:16, "thou shalt save thyself and those that hear thee"; James 5:20, he "shall save a soul from death"; Job 33:24, "Deliver him from going down to the pit: I have received a ransom." See also Micah 5:6 Judges 1:23 1 Corinthians 3:6-7; 1 Corinthians 3:9; 1 Corinthians 4:1; 1 Corinthians 9:22. Let ministers hence learn their dignity and their duty. Christ hath communicated to them many of his own most honourable titles, as Light of the world, Doctor, Pastor, Saviour, Redeemer, &c. True it is, he alone is the principal Saviour, and therefore it followeth in the closure of this shortest, but most difficult prophet ( Brevissimus sed difficilimus Propheta. Mercer), "the kingdom shall be the Lord’ s," he, to speak properly, is the sole both Sovereign and Saviour of his body, the Church. Sed servatores dicuntur, saith Mercer, but they are called saviours, because they preach the word of this salvation, and are instrumental to Christ in that great work; like as the apothecary is to the skilful physician, in curing his patient of a deadly disease. To judge the mount of Esau] Antichrist with his adherents; all other infidels also, and atheists, condemned here by Christ and his faithful ministers, as rebels against God, and sinners against their own souls. "Wilt thou judge them, son of man, wilt thou judge them? cause them to know their abomination," Ezekiel 20:4, and to judge themselves worthy to be destroyed; that judging themselves, they may not be judged, 1 Corinthians 11:31, but of Esauites may become true Jacobites; as Jetur, by nature an Ishmaelite, 1 Chronicles 1:31, is, for his faith and piety, called an Israelite, 2 Samuel 17:25. To thus "judge the mount of Esau," ought to be the ambition of Christ’ s ministers; for to gain them to Christ, by convincing "the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment," that is, of the mischief of sin, the necessity of justification by Christ’ s merit, and of sanctification by his Spirit, John 16:8. This is to be both judges and saviours; as those judges of old were, whereunto the prophet here seemeth to allude. This is to save people "with fear, pulling them out of the fire," Judges 1:23.

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 21. And saviours shall come up] Certain persons whom God may choose to be deliverers of his people; such as Zerubbabel, Ezra, Nehemiah, and the Maccabees. Some think these saviours, מושיעים moshiim, mean the apostles of our Lord. Several MSS. have מושעים mushaim, the preserved; those that are saved, i.e., they who were delivered from the captivity; and those of Mount Zion shall judge, that is, shall execute judgment on the Edomites. And as the Asmonean princes joined the priesthood to the state, it might be what the prophet means when he says, "the kingdom shall be the Lord's," the high priest having both the civil and ecclesiastical power in his own hands. And these actually were masters of Edom, and judged and governed the mountain of Esau. And thus this prophecy appears to have had a very literal fulfilment. But if we take the whole as referring to the times of the Gospel, which I believe is not its primary sense, it may signify the conversion and restoration of the Jews, and that under JESUS CHRIST the original theocracy shall be restored; and thus, once more, in the promised land, it may be said, - המלוכה ליהוה והיתה hammeluchah laihovah vehayethah. "And the kingdom shall belong to Jehovah"

21. saviours] i.e. deliverers. The word, enshrined already in the name of Joshua, the great deliverer, is frequently applied to the Judges: “The Lord raised up judges, which delivered (saved) them out of the hand of those that spoiled them.” Judges 2:16. “Thou gavest them saviours, who saved them out of the hand of their enemies.” Nehemiah 9:27. See also Judges 2:18; Judges 3:31; Judges 6:14-15; Judges 6:36. It is applied once in the later history to king Joash, as the deliverer of Israel from the oppression of the Syrians: “the Lord gave Israel a saviour.” 2 Kings 13:5 with 25. Here the immediate reference is to the Maccabees and such like human saviours. But as the long lines of Jewish prophets, and priests, and kings were respectively the manifold types of the one true Prophet, Priest, and King, so their saviours foreshadowed Him, of whom in the fulness of time it was said, “Unto you is born in the city of David a Saviour,” and whom, as “a Saviour,” His Church still looks for. (Philipp. 3:20; Hebrews 9:28.) to judge the mount of Esau] The vengeance on Esau, which is the predominant idea of this short prophecy, is still before the prophet’s mind. And yet perhaps we may say that that wider sense of “judging,” which the remembrance of the “judges who judged (i.e. governed) Israel” would suggest, is here prevailing. Esau subdued shall also be incorporated, and share the privileges of that righteous and beneficent rule with which Zion shall be blessed. the kingdom shall be the Lord’s] The grand climax is here certainly, however indistinctly, before the prophet’s mind. It is this that stamps the writings of the Hebrew prophets with a character which is all their own, and proves them to be inspired with an inspiration of God, other and higher far than that of the most gifted seers and poets of other lands and ages. With them the national and the human reach forth ever to the divine and the universal. The kingdom of Israel gives place to and is lost in the kingdom of God. Never in any adequate realisation even of Jewish idea and conception, could it be said of any period of the history of Israel after the return from Babylon, “The kingdom is the Lord’s.” Never of any country or any church, much less of the world at large, has so great a word been true, since in the person and the religion of Christ the kingdom of God has come among us. Still the Church prays as for a thing still future, “Thy kingdom come.” Still Obadiah’s last note of prophecy, “the kingdom shall be the Lord’s,” vibrates on, till at last it shall be taken up into the great chorus of accomplished hope and satisfied expectation, “Hallelujah! for the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth.”

And saviors shall ascend on Mount Zion - The body should not be without its head; saviours there should be, and those, successively. The title was familiar to them of old Judges 3:9, Judges 3:15.

21. With the enemies destroyed and the exiles restored, a life of permanent peace and prosperity will begin under the rule of earthly representatives of the Divine King.