Obadiah 1:16

16 For as you drank on my holy mountain, So shall all the nations drink continually; Yes, they shall drink, and swallow, And they shall be as though they had never been.

Obadiah 1:16 Meaning and Commentary

Obadiah 1:16

For as ye have drunk upon my holy mountain, [so] shall all the
Heathen drink continually
Which is either spoken to the Edomites; and the sense be, according to the Targum,

``as ye have rejoiced at the blow (given unto or at the subversion and destruction) of the mountain of my holiness, all people shall drink the cup of their vengeance;''

or punishment; and to the same sense Jarchi and Japhet interpret it; and so Kimchi,

``as ye have made a feast, rejoicing at the destruction of my holy mountain, so thou and all nations shall drink of the cup of trembling;''

but Aben Ezra thinks the words are spoken to the Israelites,

``as ye have drank the cup, so shall all nations;''

the cup of vengeance began with them, and so went round the nations, according to the prophecy in ( Jeremiah 25:17 Jeremiah 25:18 ) for, if judgment begins at the house and people of God, it may be expected it will reach to others; wherefore Edom had no reason to rejoice at the destruction of the Jews, since they might be assured by that the same would be their case before long; and with this difference, that whereas the Jews only drank this cup for a while, during the seventy years' captivity, these nations, and the Edomites among the rest, should be "continually" drinking it: yea, they shall drink, and they shall swallow down;
not only drink of the cup, but drink it up; not only take it into their mouths, but swallow it down their throats; not only sip at it, but "sup [it] up" {a}, as it may be rendered. The phrase denotes the fulness of their punishment, and their utter and entire ruin and destruction, which the next clause confirms: and they shall be as though they had not been;
as now are the Philistines, Moabites, Ammonites, and so the Edomites; their names are not heard of in the world, only as they are read in the Bible; and thus it shall be with mystical Babylon or Edom, it shall be thrown down, and found no more, ( Revelation 18:21 ) .

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FOOTNOTES:

F1 (welw) "absorbebunt", V. L. Junius & Tremellius, Piscator; "deglutient", Montanus, Mercerus. Gussetius renders it "absorbebantur".

Obadiah 1:16 In-Context

14 You should not have stood at the crossroads To cut off those among them who escaped; Nor should you have delivered up those among them who remained In the day of distress.

15 "For the day of the Lord upon all the nations is near; As you have done, it shall be done to you; Your reprisal shall return upon your own head.

16 For as you drank on my holy mountain, So shall all the nations drink continually; Yes, they shall drink, and swallow, And they shall be as though they had never been.

17 "But on Mount Zion there shall be deliverance, And there shall be holiness; The house of Jacob shall possess their possessions.

18 The house of Jacob shall be a fire, And the house of Joseph a flame; But the house of Esau shall be stubble; They shall kindle them and devour them, And no survivor shall remain of the house of Esau," For the Lord has spoken.