Obadiah 1:16

16 For as ye drank on mine holy hill, all heathen men shall drink busily, and they shall drink, and they shall swallow up; and they shall be as if they be not. (For as ye drank on my holy hill, all the heathen shall busily drink, and they shall drink, and they shall swallow it all down; and then they shall be as if 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 neither thou shalt stand in the going out [of the ways], that thou slay them that fled; and thou shalt not close together the residues, either left men, of him, in the day of tribulation, (nor should thou have stood in the going out of the ways, so that thou could kill those who fled; and thou should not have enclosed their remnants, or those who were left, on the day of their tribulation,)

15 for the day of the Lord is nigh on all heathen men. As thou hast done, it shall be done to thee; he shall convert thy yielding into thine head. (for the day of the Lord is near for all the heathen. As thou hast done, now it shall be done to thee; and what thou hast yielded, shall now return upon thy own head.)

16 For as ye drank on mine holy hill, all heathen men shall drink busily, and they shall drink, and they shall swallow up; and they shall be as if they be not. (For as ye drank on my holy hill, all the heathen shall busily drink, and they shall drink, and they shall swallow it all down; and then they shall be as if they had never been.)

17 And salvation shall be in the hill of Zion, and it shall be holy; and the house of Jacob shall wield them which wielded them. (And deliverance shall be upon Mount Zion/And those who escape shall be upon Mount Zion, and it shall be holy; and the house of Jacob shall rule those who once ruled them.)

18 And the house of Jacob shall be fire, and the house of Joseph shall be flame, and the house of Esau shall be stubble; and they shall be kindled in them, and they shall devour them; and remnants shall not be of the house of Esau, for the Lord spake (and no one of the house of Esau shall be left, for the Lord hath spoken).