Obadiah 1; Psalms 82; Psalms 83

Obadiah 1

1 The vision of Obadiah. This is what the Sovereign LORD says about Edom— We have heard a message from the LORD: An envoy was sent to the nations to say, “Rise, let us go against her for battle”—

2 “See, I will make you small among the nations; you will be utterly despised.

3 The pride of your heart has deceived you, you who live in the clefts of the rocks and make your home on the heights, you who say to yourself, ‘Who can bring me down to the ground?’

4 Though you soar like the eagle and make your nest among the stars, from there I will bring you down,” declares the LORD.

5 “If thieves came to you, if robbers in the night— oh, what a disaster awaits you!— would they not steal only as much as they wanted? If grape pickers came to you, would they not leave a few grapes?

6 But how Esau will be ransacked, his hidden treasures pillaged!

7 All your allies will force you to the border; your friends will deceive and overpower you; those who eat your bread will set a trap for you,but you will not detect it.

8 “In that day,” declares the LORD, “will I not destroy the wise men of Edom, those of understanding in the mountains of Esau?

9 Your warriors, Teman, will be terrified, and everyone in Esau’s mountains will be cut down in the slaughter.

10 Because of the violence against your brother Jacob, you will be covered with shame; you will be destroyed forever.

11 On the day you stood aloof while strangers carried off his wealth and foreigners entered his gates and cast lots for Jerusalem, you were like one of them.

12 You should not gloat over your brother in the day of his misfortune, nor rejoice over the people of Judah in the day of their destruction, nor boast so much in the day of their trouble.

13 You should not march through the gates of my people in the day of their disaster, nor gloat over them in their calamity in the day of their disaster, nor seize their wealth in the day of their disaster.

14 You should not wait at the crossroads to cut down their fugitives, nor hand over their survivors in the day of their trouble.

15 “The day of the LORD is near for all nations. As you have done, it will be done to you; your deeds will return upon your own head.

16 Just as you drank on my holy hill, so all the nations will drink continually; they will drink and drink and be as if they had never been.

17 But on Mount Zion will be deliverance; it will be holy, and Jacob will possess his inheritance.

18 Jacob will be a fire and Joseph a flame; Esau will be stubble, and they will set him on fire and destroy him. There will be no survivors from Esau.” The LORD has spoken.

19 People from the Negev will occupy the mountains of Esau, and people from the foothills will possess the land of the Philistines. They will occupy the fields of Ephraim and Samaria, and Benjamin will possess Gilead.

20 This company of Israelite exiles who are in Canaan will possess the land as far as Zarephath; the exiles from Jerusalem who are in Sepharad will possess the towns of the Negev.

21 Deliverers will go up on Mount Zion to govern the mountains of Esau. And the kingdom will be the LORD’s.

Psalms 82

1 God presides in the great assembly; he renders judgment among the “gods”:

2 “How long will you defend the unjust and show partiality to the wicked?

3 Defend the weak and the fatherless; uphold the cause of the poor and the oppressed.

4 Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked.

5 “The ‘gods’ know nothing, they understand nothing. They walk about in darkness; all the foundations of the earth are shaken.

6 “I said, ‘You are “gods”; you are all sons of the Most High.’

7 But you will die like mere mortals; you will fall like every other ruler.”

8 Rise up, O God, judge the earth, for all the nations are your inheritance.

Psalms 83

1 O God, do not remain silent; do not turn a deaf ear, do not stand aloof, O God.

2 See how your enemies growl, how your foes rear their heads.

3 With cunning they conspire against your people; they plot against those you cherish.

4 “Come,” they say, “let us destroy them as a nation, so that Israel’s name is remembered no more.”

5 With one mind they plot together; they form an alliance against you—

6 the tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites, of Moab and the Hagrites,

7 Byblos, Ammon and Amalek, Philistia, with the people of Tyre.

8 Even Assyria has joined them to reinforce Lot’s descendants.

9 Do to them as you did to Midian, as you did to Sisera and Jabin at the river Kishon,

10 who perished at Endor and became like dung on the ground.

11 Make their nobles like Oreb and Zeeb, all their princes like Zebah and Zalmunna,

12 who said, “Let us take possession of the pasturelands of God.”

13 Make them like tumbleweed, my God, like chaff before the wind.

14 As fire consumes the forest or a flame sets the mountains ablaze,

15 so pursue them with your tempest and terrify them with your storm.

16 Cover their faces with shame, LORD, so that they will seek your name.

17 May they ever be ashamed and dismayed; may they perish in disgrace.

18 Let them know that you, whose name is the LORD— that you alone are the Most High over all the earth.