Translated from Latin.
The Prophet Obadiah.
This prophet has been torn apart by the interpretations in many ways. The Jews say that this prophet is the one who received the hundred prophets against Jezebel, but they have nothing but the same name. But in my opinion this prophet lived around the time of the Babylonian captivity or after it, firstly because he states almost the same as Jeremiah Cap. 49, who lived at the time of the Babylonian captivity and had visions, secondly, because he prophesied against Edom, which rejoiced greatly over the captivity of the Jews: "And because you, Edom, rejoice, you also shall be disturbed because of this wickedness. Something similar is in the Psalm "By the waters of Babylon" [Ps. 137]. It agrees exactly with this [v. 7.], "Remember [the children of Edom] in the day of Jerusalem," that is, how they behaved at the time of the captivity of the Chaldeans. Therefore he was a contemporary of Jeremiah and a little after. Edom was never so powerful that it could have subdued Judah or Israel etc. as is evident from the books of Kings. This prophet was one of the last; therefore the transition from the Babylonian captivity to the future of Christ is easy for the prophet. So much of the time of this prophet. But the summa is that he preaches the vengeance of God against Edom because they rejoiced [at the misery of Israel] and stood by the Chaldeans against the Jews etc. Finally he says that it will be such a kingdom that subjugates Edom etc. To the
Time when the new kingdom will come, you will also be subjugated. The kingdom of Christ is described, which will come through the gospel etc.
V. i. This is the vision of Obadiah. Thus saith the Lord God of Edom, We have heard from the Lord that a message is sent among the heathen, saying, Come, and let us fight against them. 1)
It should be "of Edom" instead of "to Edom" [in the Vulgate]. - Rather than auditum, it should be rumor (famam). We have heard that sent among the Gentiles. - [Instead of adversus eum in the Vulgate it should read] eam, namely Idumea; he speaks of the land. He wants to frighten the rejoicing Edomites by these figurative speeches. The Lord speaks of the rumor: "A cry has come" that a messenger has been sent to the Gentiles. The image is taken from warfare, where messengers are sent to assemblies etc.: "I have already sent out my messengers." What others do by messengers, I do by my spirit. God speaks as if he were a man. - "Among the Gentiles," namely, the Chaldeans. - In proelium, that is, to war. These are words of the messenger who will procure troops of the Gentiles against the Edomites.
1) Vulgate: Visio Abdiae. Haec dicit Dominus Deus ad Edom: Auditum audivimus a Domino, et legatum ad gentes misit: Surgite, et consurgamus adversus eum in proelium.
*) We refer here again to the first note of the first interpretation of the prophet Joel, in which what wants to serve as introduction to this writing is included. The same is printed for the first time in the Erlangen edition, opp. XXV, p. 489, then in the Weimar edition, vol. XIII, p. 207. The latter edition remarks: "Especially in this prophet, the Zwickau manuscript is very torn." Our translation is made according to the Weimar edition.
V. 2. (Behold, I have made you lowly among the Gentiles etc.)
In gentibus, that is "among the Gentiles". It dampens their defiance and takes away their pride. By nature, this people was hostile to the Jews. Hatred among brothers is exceedingly terrible. The more ardent the love between husbands and wives, the (greater their bitterness) etc. "Good wine makes good vinegar." (This hatred was with Edom,) not both because the blessing has been snatched from it, but because it is forced to be 1) under the yoke of the Jews. You seem great to yourself, but you are hardly a fly against (the other Gentiles) etc. - Contemptibilis that you should be very despised.
V. 3. The pride of your heart has deceived you.
(Extulit te, that is) has deceived you. - (Exaltantem, that is) you make high. Everything is said to depress their confidence. You think you have a great name among the nations; I will make you despised. In heart thou art very presumptuous; this presumption shall deceive thee. - "The rock." You think your land is very well fortified. The land of the Edomites is mountainous. In the fifth book of Moses (Cap. 2, 3. f. 8.) Edom is called mountainous. (Arabia is threefold:) the stony, the desert and the happy Arabia. From the city of Hebrona (?) that is, a stone, a rock. Idumea is the main part of stony Arabia; it has (Arabia petraea) its epithet from petra (stone). - "Because you dwell in the clefts of the rocks." 2). You rely on the fact that your country is mountainous and difficult to conquer, as the country of the Swiss is. At the same time he alludes to the city of Petra: Thou hast a royal and very strong city, a rock (petram), in the clefts of which thou thinkest thyself safe. - And haft your seat or your dwelling made high. You think you have built well and cannot be torn out etc., "as if no one could come up".
1) Instead of eoZit, eoFitur is to be read. The Weimar edition p. 207 has indicated this as an improvement to be made, but has not carried it out in the text.
2) Instead of Hui Kaditat in our original, we have assumed ^nia daditas with the Altenburg manuscript.
And say: Who wants to push me to the ground?
And you say: "In spite of emperors" etc. who "break in". Behold, they have trusted in the strength of the flesh, not in the power of God. Not only will you not be fortified, but you will be nothing.
V. 4: If you will soar like an eagle,
That's how I would throw you off.
You say you have "high castles, rocks" like an eagle. See how the Lord hates these things in which the flesh trusts. Though thou dwellest in the stars, yet will I bring thee down to the earth through the nations. I will bring you down so that there will be nothing left of you.
V. 5. (When thieves or transgressors shall come upon thee by night.)
Investigaverunt (v. 6, "to seek"), to bring to light (protulerunt). - Insidias (v. 7. "will betray you"), a snare. 3) - Thy defiance provokes me to spoil thee from the bottom. "Thou shalt wish" that thieves and robbers had entered with thee, who would have left something behind after all; I will leave nothing behind, even that which is hidden in the rocks I will bring out etc. On rocky oers someone can hide; no one will be able to escape. Thus the prophet comforts his Jewish people against the vengeance of the Edomites etc.
(How shall you come to naught like this!)
Conticuit is transitive (to silence). This word was also used in Hosea (Cap. 4, 5). Its use extends widely: to bring something to ruin, to make it silent, to bring it to naught, to make it silent. "I will make thee still, I will make thee small; oh how small is he that before had wished to devour the world. Thieves "would like to make you quiet and small-minded" etc., "if they snatched away your arrogance" etc. (If grape pickers came upon you,) do you not think that some grapes would remain? If a few highwaymen came "and plundered," they would dampen "the arrogance" to some extent, and still leave some; but I will not
3) Luther anticipated these glosses.
but will send an army against which you will be small. They will destroy you completely etc.
V. 6. 1) [How shall they search out Esau and seek his treasures?
"A florin [ that you] had behind your ears would have to come forth" etc.
V. 7: All your own confederates you will push out to the land. 2)
[The expression usque ad terminum is also found] Isa. 5, 8.: "You who bring one field to another, until there is no more room" 3) etc. They will drive you out to the borders, so that further you will have no borders etc., until you have no space in which to dwell etc. - Prudentia ["before you will know"] is insight. - You also trust in confederates, "you have good neighbors, eat" and drink with you, but when it "comes to the meeting", the opposite is there, as it happens with the pope and the emperor [in the war] against the French. 4) It happens out of God's judgment. You are not insightful, "you do not realize, you are a fool" etc., "you want to be a wise man". This kingdom was praised for its prudence. Always Esau was a "fine man" etc. The covenanters with whom you are at peace "will deceive you" when the Chaldeans come; they "will do you harm" etc. In Ezekiel it says [Cap. 23, 22.]: Your couriers "will cut off your nose" etc. In German: "Whoever asks the devil to be his godfather cannot be rid of him." The mighty whom thou wilt have for friends, thou shalt afterwards have for masters etc. What it is to have great friends, we see etc. As a wild beast is caught with a hidden snare, so shalt thou be caught by thy confederates.
1) The verse number "6." is in the Weimar edition transitions, and "7." is set only before ?rnä6ntiu. Everything that follows up to this point is drawn to the previous one, and this is motivated by the remark made about the glosses: "The Zwickau manuscript has thus drawn together v. 5-7." However, this is not the case.
2) The words in the Weimar edition: ernittent te etc. should have been highlighted as a keyword.
3) This saying is insufficiently stated in the original: "Hui eonfnnMtis tsrminum etc.".
4) In the original: ut6t 0u6sar I'raneoruoi.
V. 8: At that time I will destroy the wise men of Edom and the prudent men of Esau.
Numquid non is as much as nun. - Instead of a meridie it should read: "to Theman".- Timebunt, that is, they will be frightened, they will flee. 5) "Theman" has also been called this land of the Edomites. See the first book of Moses, Cap. 36,6) 11. 15. 42. where Theman, the grandson of Esau, is mentioned. Princes have [sometimes] given their country [their own? names. - Prudentiam is insight. - O Theman, O Edom, now you have many wise men, but when that calamity comes, you will not know what to do; "all their wisdom is devoured," says the Psalm [Ps. 107, 27. Vulg? We know many things and are wise in the time of prosperity, but in the time of adversity "we are lost" unless God gives it [otherwise]. In adversities "they all become fools" etc. He does not speak of wisdom in teaching, but in the government of the kingdom, [of those who] assist the kings etc. He takes away all fortifications, covenants, prudence, wisdom, all that dll have relied on until now.
V. 9. 7) For your strong ones in Theman shall tremble (timebunt).
Timebunt: "frighten". You will not know "where out", as when in war a terror comes among the army etc. Now it is very well for thee etc., but I will give thee a "desponding heart," 8) by killing or by slaughtering. [I will set up] "such a slaughter," that the men of Edom (vir Edom) shall be slain, "there a man, here a man," or "there a heap of men," here etc. Vir [or] viri is distributive: "here and there; there is a city" conquered, "there a" etc. "With this, the ricey gezeug 9) will become dull."
5) The last two glosses are again anticipated; they belong to v. 9.
6) In our template: Oon. 38.
7) This verse number is skipped in the Weim. In the Weim. edition, this verse number is skipped and this section is added to the previous one.
8) Here the Weimar edition already has the verse number "10." because in the Vulgate the words: ?roxtsr Lnt6rI66t,ion6rn are drawn to the tenth verse.
9) In the original: "gezceuck". "Gezeug" otherwise means tool (1 Kings 6:7) or equipment (1 Kings 7:48), but here it means team. This meaning is missing in Dietz.
V. 10. For the sake of the sacrilege committed against your brother Jacob.
"This is wrath" because you act sacrilegiously against the people of the Jews, who are your brother. Therefore I am angry; you shall perish forever. What then is the sacrilege that he has committed against his brother?
V. 11. 1) At the time when you stood against him etc.
This is the sacrilege. Here he seems to be talking about the time of the Babylonian captivity. [Ps. 137, 7.: "Pure off, pure off" etc.
[As the strangers led away his army captive].
"His army", his fortune, his belongings. Both means the Hebrew word - "the strangers", the Chaldeans, led everything away captured, 2) what they could only. Jerusalem was not taken other than by the Chaldeans. The Edomites "had good courage" and made common cause with the Chaldeans.
V. 12. You shall no longer see your lust in your brother.
[The Hebrew says:] Thou shalt not see in the day of the brother, as if to say, "Thou shalt no more see thy pleasure in him." It is not merely: to see someone, but it is: "to see with pleasure, according to his will" etc. "In that day," "when it shall be evil to thy brother; I will make an end of it." Thou shalt not rejoice, thou shalt not speak proudly with thy mouth.
V. 13. 3) You shall not enter the gate of my people in the time of their mourning.
Ruinae, that is, of woe. - You shall not enter the city etc. "with fists" (feusten [?], with the Chaldeans. - In malis ["at their misfortune"], "when they are in evil." - [In die vastitatis, that is] the
1) This verse number is in the Weimar edition transitions and the following is connected with v. 10.
3) This verse number is missing in the Weimar edition, and the following is connected to v. 12.
Fear, affliction, sorrow etc. - Non emitteris adversus exercitum ejus in the Vulgate should read:] You will not be sent to their possessions "into the gate" for distribution or for a share in the spoils.
V. 14. You shall not stand by the wayside.
[Neque stabis in exitibus, that is:] Thou shalt not stand in the way of their deliverance. The word has the opposite meaning of the two verba: to lay waste and to tear out. The Edomites were "more fierce" than the Chaldeans. - Tribulationis, that is, "of fear." Those who fled you killed; those who could not flee you shut up in the houses and killed.
V. 15 [For the day of the Lord is near upon all the Gentiles].
"The day of the Lord" [is the day] of wrath in which he visited by the Chaldeans. "It shall be recompensed unto thee" etc.
V. 16.4) ^For as ye have drunk upon my holy mountain, so shall all the Gentiles drink dailyZ.
Jugiter, that is, all around. - I] "will boil in one another" you and all the Gentiles, you] "have consumed my goodness" in my sanctuary, "I will make it" that you shall be consumed again. "One kingdom must punish another," and whichever "punishes shall be punished again." This is how it has always happened.
This is the first part of the prophecy of the destruction of the Edomites etc. The Romans have taken all these countries.
V. 17. But on Mount Zion some shall yet be saved or escape.
The first prophecy is about the physical kingdom of the Jews; the following one about the spiritual kingdom, namely Christ. This prophet prophesied after the Babylonian captivity. Since he now prophesies about a salvation in Zion after this captivity and the disturbance of the Edomites, this cannot be assumed.
4) This verse number is missing in the Weimar edition.
The kingdom of Judah and the kingdom of Israel can be understood differently than the salvation through Christ. These two kingdoms of Judah and Israel are different. Israel has been so disturbed that nothing remains that could be restored; Judah, however, has been so changed into the kingdom of Christ. Understand the one from the spiritual kingdom, the other from the physical kingdom.
They shall be sanctuary; and the house of Jacob shall possess its owners.
The word "shall possess" is actually "to take in". This glorious word cannot fit the kingdom of Judah or the fleshly Israel. He understands it of the spiritual kingdom, in which the house of Israel are the apostles and others. What will they possess? 1) The Medes [, the Assyrians, the Edomites] 2) and the whole world etc. The salvation from the kingdom of conquered death and devil, "that will start in Zion", as it is said in Isaiah Cap. 2, 3. through the word of the gospel and the preaching etc. - "Sanctuary," which can no longer be defiled, as has hitherto been done after the manner of the Gentiles etc. - "Its possessors" ([qui] possederant) is said of the Gentiles who were scattered over the whole world. Afterward, when the gospel came, they were gathered into the obedience of faith etc.
V. 18. 3) [And the house of Jacob shall become a fire, and the house of Joseph a flame, but the house of Esau straw; which they shall kindle and consume, that nothing shall remain to the house of Esau rc.]
With this general possession of the Gentiles also the part [, the house of Esau,] in
1) Instead of xossöäeruQt we have assumed poWiüsüunt. The Hall manuscript has xossiüedit. The wrong reading is probably due to the po886äcrunt that follows immediately in the biblical text.
2) By us put instead of: etc., according to the Hall manuscript.
3) The verse number "18." is missing in Weimar's edition and the following up to v. 19. is attached to v. 17. - The beginning of the following text seems to us to be very deficient. We have corrected and supplemented it according to the concordant testimony of the Altenburg and Hall manuscripts. Instead of pv88i in the manuscript, which is resolved in the editions by possi säsdit^, we have assumed xo88iÜ6ditur.
Luther's Works. Vol. XIV.
Possession. "The house of Jacob" [that is, the rest who are saved through Christ]. "The house of Joseph" [that is] the kingdom of Israel. This never happened fleshly, so it must be understood spiritually. The house of Joseph did not return after the Assyrian 4) captivity. This will happen after Edom is consumed. [By the Holy Spirit] it has been made nothing. He therefore shows a new disturbance and fire au: the gospel will eiuverleiben with the rest of the Gentiles, even the Edomites. "That shall consume them," that is, they shall so spiritually incorporate them that they cannot be plucked out of their hands. In John [Cap. 10, 28.] it is said, "No man shall pluck them out of my hand." Once the gospel is truly accepted, it cannot easily be taken away. This kingdom of Christ will so subjugate the kingdom of Esau as the rest of the Gentiles, in such a way that nothing will remain to rule or reign over the kingdom of Christ etc. It is a prophecy of the spreading of the gospel and the word among all the Gentiles.
V. 19. And they that are toward the south shall possess the mountain of Esau etc.
"There is misery, distress" in the text. We are urged to go to the spiritual kingdom of Christ. He wants to say this with whimsical and veiled words, but with glorious words. You know that in the law the tribes are separated, and warned that no mixing should be done. Against this law cannot be prophesied. The Israelites at noon [, hi, qui ad] austrum [sunt], that is, the Christians who will be on Mount Zion, which is the noon, at the time of Christ. But those will possess Esau. Those at Zion (Zionitas), the noon, he calls the Christians. Humilia, "the grounds" ^should be called; the Latin interpreter translates: campestria, "the meadows". He calls the Christians by this name, "the
4) In the original: iöak^louicLm; for this we have assumed ^88vriacam, because "the house of Joseph" is Israel, not Judah.
are such" reasons. Towards evening 1) they will possess the Philistines. This never happened in the flesh, [but] in the spiritual kingdom of Christ. "The reasons," namely, toward noon, that is, the Christians in Zion, which is at noon. These very ones in the grounds (vallenses) will possess the field [Ephraim] etc. This is against Moses, therefore it must be understood spiritually by the Christians, by Peter, John and Philip, who came to Samaria.
And Benjamin will possess the mountains of Gilead.
This tribe is on this side of the Jordan. "Gilead" in the tribe of Gad is beyond the Jordan. - This is contrary to Moses, therefore it must be understood of the spiritual kingdom of Christ. The children of Benjamin are also at noon (australes), that is, Christians, a tribe of Judah.
V. 20. And the exiles of this army of the children of Israel etc.
"This is still much" more inconsistent [than the preceding]. This captivity, these Israelites, who are captives in the Assyrian captivity, and are never to return, and yet are to possess all the Oerter, all the Cananaean land "unto Sidon nan,"-this is an inconsistency, that the captives should rule, "therefore it must" be understood spiritually. Now [he says] of Judah taken captive by Babylon, "And the exiles of the city of Jerusa-.
1) The words 'versus oeeiäeuteru are connected in our template with the preceding. - Immediately following, there is no punctuation mark before dumilia s "the reasons'].
lem", "above" Edom "glorified, they shall come down and possess" the kingdom of Zion and the south. From the apparent inconsistency of the text one sees that it cannot be understood otherwise than spiritually. - About "Zarpath" see in the books of Kings [1 Kings 17:9]. What Lyra says is forcible. The prophet looks to the kingdom of Christ, which has its beginning and increases in this land etc. He speaks of the kingdom in its beginning, "does not come out of the land." - [In] Bosphoro, 2) where Constantinople is, where the hellespont, where the Turk is. Jerome s, who translated thus,] has been deceived by his Jew. He [the prophet] speaks of Jerusalem taken away by the Chaldeans. These taken away ones "shall now execute it". - "Sepharad," in my opinion, must be a proper name of his city] in that land, as "Zarpath" etc. above. The opinion will therefore be: the captive Jews who are now in Sepharad "shall" take noon by preaching the Gospel etc. Only no one believes that it is Spain etc. I believe that there was no Spain at that time. It seems that Jerome was deceived by the Jew by the consonance.
V. 21. and saviors will come up.
That means leader, as in the book of Judges [Cap. 3, 9]. But he understands the apostles, who are leaders in word. They are concerned about Esau, even though their apostles ruled over all the nations in faith. Edom will be a kingdom of the Lord. This was not done fleshly, but spiritually.
2) Losxliorus is in the Vulgate instead of "Sepharad".