Obadiah 1:16

16 For as you have drunk on my holy mountain, all the nations around you shall drink; they shall drink and gulp down, ^[a] and 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 crossings to cut off his fugitives; you should not have handed over his survivors on the day of distress.

15 For the day of the Lord is near against all the nations. As you have done, it shall be done to you; your deeds shall return on your own head.

16 For as you have drunk on my holy mountain, all the nations around you shall drink; they shall drink and gulp down, and shall be as though they had never been.

17 But on Mount Zion there shall be those that escape, and it shall be holy; and the house of Jacob shall take possession of those who dispossessed them.

18 The house of Jacob shall be a fire, the house of Joseph a flame, and the house of Esau stubble; they shall burn them and consume them, and there shall be no survivor of the house of Esau; for the Lord has spoken.

Footnotes

• [a]. Meaning of Heb uncertain