The Bible

 

Obadiah 1

Study

1 The vision of Obadiah. This is what the Lord Yahweh says about Edom. We have heard news from Yahweh, and an ambassador is sent among the nations, saying, "Arise, and let's rise up against her in battle.

2 Behold, I have made you small among the nations. You are greatly despised.

3 The pride of your heart has deceived you, you who dwell in the clefts of the rock, whose habitation is high, who says in his heart, 'Who will bring me down to the ground?'

4 Though you mount on high as the eagle, and though your nest is set among the stars, I will bring you down from there," says Yahweh.

5 "If thieves came to you, if robbers by night--oh, what disaster awaits you--wouldn't they only steal until they had enough? If grape pickers came to you, wouldn't they leave some gleaning grapes?

6 How Esau will be ransacked! How his hidden treasures are sought out!

7 All the men of your alliance have brought you on your way, even to the border. The men who were at peace with you have deceived you, and prevailed against you. Friends who eat your bread lay a snare under you. There is no understanding in him."

8 "Won't I in that day," says Yahweh, "destroy the wise men out of Edom, and understanding out of the mountain of Esau?

9 Your mighty men, Teman, will be dismayed, to the end that everyone may be cut off from the mountain of Esau by slaughter.

10 For the violence done to your brother Jacob, shame will cover you, and you will be cut off forever.

11 In the day that you stood on the other side, in the day that strangers carried away his substance, and foreigners entered into his gates, and cast lots for Jerusalem, even you were like one of them.

12 But don't look down on your brother in the day of his disaster, and don't rejoice over the children of Judah in the day of their destruction. Don't speak proudly in the day of distress.

13 Don't enter into the gate of my people in the day of their calamity. Don't look down on their affliction in the day of their calamity, neither seize their wealth on the day of their calamity.

14 Don't stand in the crossroads to cut off those of his who escape. Don't deliver up those of his who remain in the day of distress.

15 For the day of Yahweh is near all the nations! As you have done, it will be done to you. Your deeds will return upon your own head.

16 For as you have drunk on my holy mountain, so will all the nations drink continually. Yes, they will drink, swallow down, and will be as though they had not been.

17 But in Mount Zion, there will be those who escape, and it will be holy. The house of Jacob will possess their possessions.

18 The house of Jacob will be a fire, the house of Joseph a flame, and the house of Esau for stubble. They will burn among them, and devour them. There will not be any remaining to the house of Esau." Indeed, Yahweh has spoken.

19 Those of the South will possess the mountain of Esau, and those of the lowland, the Philistines. They will possess the field of Ephraim, and the field of Samaria. Benjamin will possess Gilead.

20 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.

21 Saviors will go up on Mount Zion to judge the mountains of Esau, and the kingdom will be Yahweh's.

Commentary

 

Stubble

  

'To be consumed as stubble' denotes total vastation.

(References: Arcana Coelestia 8285)

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #10582

Study this Passage

  
/ 10837  
  

10582. 'That I will put you in a cleft of the rock' means obscurity and falsity of faith such as exists with those whose interest lies in external things and not in what is internal. This is clear from the meaning of 'a cleft of the rock' as obscurity and falsity of faith, for 'the rock' means faith, as just above in 10580, and 'a cleft' obscurity in it, and falsity as well, dealt with below. The words 'such as exists with those whose interest lies in external things and not in what is internal' are used because every truth of faith with them lies in obscurity, together with falsity as well. For those among them who believe the Word take every statement in it literally, and not according to its inner meaning. People with that kind of belief in it cannot have any light, because the light from heaven flows into the external by way of the internal; and also what they believe without the light from heaven looks like the truth, but is nevertheless falsity with them. For they have material and earthly ideas about what is true and not at the same time spiritual and heavenly ones; and all material and earthly ideas, if the light from heaven does not shine on them, swarm with illusions. Take James and John, for example. Because they had earthly ideas about the Lord's kingdom they asked to sit one on His right and the other on the left in His kingdom. But Jesus said,

You do not know what you ask. You know that the rulers of the gentiles lord it over them. It shall not be so among you, but whoever has the wish to become great among you must be your minister, and whoever has the wish to be first must be your servant. Matthew 20:21-22, 25-27.

[2] No one with such earthly ideas as they entertained then can know what the heavenly kingdom is. People like this do not know what the glory there is, nor what love is, nor indeed what faith is; in general they do not know what good is. For their judgements are based on bodily and earthly things. Everything that delights the body and its senses is what they call good; pre-eminence over others is what they call glory; love of the world and self-love are what they call heavenly love; and belief which is based on factual knowledge but is no more than persuasion they call faith. When they think about God they do so in a materialistic way, as a consequence of which either they deny the existence of God and replace Him with nature, or they worship idols or people who have died. From this it is evident how much obscurity of faith exists with those whose interest lies in external things alone, and that falsity as well does so.

[3] Obscurity and falsity of faith such as this exists with those who believe only the literal sense of the Word, without the aid of religious teachings drawn from it in a state of enlightenment. Those who read the Word without the aid of those teachings are like people who walk in the dark without a lamp. All who think on no more than a sensory level are like this. It is evident that the Jewish nation is like this, for they explain everything in the Word literally, because their interest lies in external things separated from what is internal. In the next life people like them do not live on rocks, but either in caves among those rocks or in clefts.

[4] The fact that 'a cleft of the rock' means obscurity and falsity of faith is also clear from other places in the Word, as in Isaiah,

On that day Jehovah will whistle for the fly that is in the farthest parts of the rivers of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land of Asshur. They will come and all of them will rest in the rivers of desolations, and in the clefts of the rocks. Isaiah 7:18-19.

This refers to the Lord's Coming and to the state of the Church at that time, when everything constituting spiritual truth and good has been desolated. For these words mean that people of the Church will by then have forsaken internal things and become altogether external, thus sensory-minded and no more than this. People become sensory-minded when they accept and believe nothing apart from what their outward senses tell them. 'The fly in the farthest parts of the rivers of Egypt' is falsity existing with a person who is altogether external, that is, who is sensory-minded and no more than this; 'the bee in the land of Asshur' is falsity that belongs to reasoning based on sensory evidence; 'the rivers of desolations' are the truths which belong to religious teachings but have been completely desolated; and 'the clefts of the rocks' are the falsities of faith that exist as a result. Who would ever guess that those words mean such things? And the things they mean would remain completely hidden if the internal sense was not used to uncover them.

[5] In the same prophet,

On that day a person will cast away the idols which they made for themselves to bow down to, to the moles and bats, to go into the splits of the rocks, and into the clefts of the crags. Isaiah 2:20-21.

'Bowing down to the moles and bats' means worshipping such things as exist in total darkness and in the shades of night, that is, external things without their inner substance. 'Going into the splits of the rocks and into the clefts of the crags' means entering into matters of faith that are full of obscurity and thick darkness, thus entering into falsities.

[6] In Jeremiah,

I will bring back the children of Israel over their land. And I am sending to many fishermen who will fish them, and to hunters who will hunt them from upon every mountain, upon every hill, and from the holes of the rocks. Jeremiah 16:15-16.

This refers to the re-establishment of the Church, meant by 'bringing back the children of Israel over their land'. 'Fishing them' means giving them instruction in the outward things of the Church, 'hunting them' doing so in the inward things. Those upon mountain and hill are those who live in love and charity, and those in the holes of the rocks are those who live in faith but are not as yet enlightened, thus those who dwell in obscurity of faith.

[7] In the same prophet,

I have made you least among the nations. The pride of your heart dwelling in the holes of the rock holds the height of the hill. Jeremiah 49:15-16.

In Obadiah,

The pride of your heart has deceived you, O you who dwell in the splits of the rock, whose seat is high 1 - he who says in his heart, Who will bring me down to earth? If you raise yourself up like the eagle, and if you place your nest among the stars, I will bring you down from there. Obad. verses 3-4.

'Dwelling in the holes of the rock' means living in falsities of faith. The subject is those who raise themselves above others, in the belief that they are better informed than everyone else, when in fact they are immersed in falsities and cannot even see truths. In the next life they dwell in the holes of rocks. Sometimes they force their way up on top of the rocks, but they are nevertheless cast down from there into their holes in the rocks or into caves beneath them. This is what is meant by 'holding the height of the hill', 'raising themselves up like the eagle, placing their nest among the stars, and nevertheless being brought down'.

From all this it now becomes clear that 'putting Moses in a cleft of the rock' means obscurity and falsity of faith such as exists with those whose interest lies in external things and not in what is internal. For here 'Moses' is used to mean the people, because here he represents the head of that nation, see 10556.

Footnotes:

1. literally, in the height of his seat

  
/ 10837  
  

Thanks to the Swedenborg Society for the permission to use this translation.