Chapter 1

               The Prophecy of Abdias, Chapter 1

1   The vision of Abdias. Thus saith the Lord God to Edom: We
    have heard a rumour from the Lord, and he hath sent an
    ambassador to the nations: Arise, and let us rise up to
    battle against him.
2   Behold I have made thee small among the nations: thou art
    exceeding contemptible.
3   The pride of thy heart hath lifted thee up, who dwellest
    in the clefts of the rocks, and settest up thy throne on
    high: who sayest in thy heart: Who shall bring me down to
    the ground ?
4   Though thou be exalted as an eagle, and though thou set
    thy nest among the stars: thence will I bring thee down,
    saith the Lord.
5   If thieves had gone in to thee, if robbers by night, how
    wouldst thou have held thy peace? would they not have
    stolen till they had enough ? if the grapegatherers had
    come in to thee, would they not have left thee at the
    least a cluster?
6   How have they searched Esau, how have they sought out his
    hidden things?
7   They have sent thee out even to the border: all the men of
    thy confederacy have deceived thee: the men of thy peace
    have prevailed against thee: they that eat with thee shall
    lay snares under thee: there is no wisdom in him.
8   Shall not I in that day, saith the Lord, destroy the wise
    out of Edom, and understanding out of the mount of Esau ?
9   And thy valiant men of the south shall be afraid, that man
    may be cut off from the mount of Esau.
10  For the slaughter, and for the iniquity against thy
    brother Jacob, confusion shall cover thee, and thou shalt
    perish for ever.
11  In the day when thou stoodest against him, when strangers
    carried away his army captive, and foreigners entered into
    his gates, and cast lots upon Jerusalem: thou also wast as
    one of them.
12  But thou shalt not look on in the day of thy brother, in
    the day of his leaving his country: and thou shalt not
    rejoice over the children of Juda, in the day of their
    destruction: and thou shalt not magnify thy mouth in the
    day of distress.
13  Neither shalt thou enter into the gate of my people in the
    day of their ruin: neither shalt thou also look on in his
    evils in the day of his calamity: and thou shalt not be
    sent out against his army in the day of his desolation.
14  Neither shalt thou stand in the crossways to kill them
    that flee: and thou shalt not shut up them that remain of
    him in the day of tribulation.
15  For the day of the Lord is at hand upon all nations: as
    thou hast done, so shall it be done to thee: he will turn
    thy reward upon thy own head.
16  For as you have drunk upon my holy mountain, so all
    nations shall drink continually: and they shall drink, and
    sup up, and they shall be as though they were not.
17  And in mount Sion shall be salvation, and it shall be
    holy, and the house of Jacob shall possess those that
    possessed them.
18  And the house of Jacob shall be a fire, and the house of
    Joseph a flame, and the house of Esau stubble: and they
    shall be kindled in them, and shall devour them: and there
    shall be no remains of the house of Esau, for the Lord
    hath spoken it.
19  And they that are toward the south, shall inherit the
    mount of Esau, and they that are in the plains, the
    Philistines: and they shall possess the country of
    Ephraim, and the country of Samaria: and Benjamin shall
    possess Galaad.
20  And the captivity of this host of the children of Israel,
    all the places of the Chanaanites even to Sarepta: and the
    captivity of Jerusalem that is in Bospho- rus, shall
    possess the cities of the south.
21  And saviours shall come up into mount Sion to judge the
    mount of Esau: and the kingdom shall be for the Lord.