OBADIAH, the fourth of the "minor prophets," the other wise unknown author of the shortest book in the Old Testament, whose 21 verses, even, show evidence of the expansion or addi tion of which a manuscript, as distinct from a printed book, so easily admits. Whilst the first fourteen verses address Edom in the second person singular, with apparent reference to recent dis asters that have befallen that people, the last six address Israel in the second person plural, promising judgment on the nations, including Edom, and proclaiming the eschatological "Day of Yahweh," when the lost territories shall be recovered. (The "join" is made in verse 15, of which a belongs to the latter, and b to the former, prophecy.) The Edomites (identified with "Esau," verse 6; cf. Gen. xxxvi. I) occupied the mountainous country south of the Dead Sea, on both sides of the Arabah; hence the reference to their rock-dwellings (verse 3). The aid which they gave to the Babylonians against Jerusalem in 586 (Ps. cxxxvii. 7, etc.) was never forgiven, and its remembrance inspires the present prophecy (verses 'if.). The actual disaster that befell the Edomites was probably some invasion by the neighbouring nomads, e.g., the Nabatean Arabs (verse 7). The opening paragraph of Malachi may refer to the same event; if so, we may suppose the prophecy of Obadiah in its earlier part to belong to the first half of the fifth century B.C. The dominant thought of it is that at
last Edom has received its deserts at the hand of Yahweh. We do not know at what date this earlier portion was continued and in corporated into the more general prophecy concerning the future vindication of Judah, with which the book now closes. The orig inal prophecy has elsewhere been reproduced, as well as expanded. Its first five verses occur in almost the same form in Jer. xlix. 14-16 & 9 (cf. also Joel ii. 32), a passage probably later than Obadiah. See EDOM.