My people are bent on (A)backsliding from Me.
Though [a]they call [b]to the Most High,
None at all exalt Him.

“How(B) can I give you up, Ephraim?
How can I hand you over, Israel?
How can I make you like (C)Admah?
How can I set you like Zeboiim?
My heart [c]churns within Me;
My sympathy is stirred.
I will not execute the fierceness of My anger;
I will not again destroy Ephraim.
(D)For I am God, and not man,
The Holy One in your midst;
And I will not [d]come with terror.

10 “They shall walk after the Lord.
(E)He will roar like a lion.
When He roars,
Then His sons shall come trembling from the west;
11 They shall come trembling like a bird from Egypt,
(F)Like a dove from the land of Assyria.
(G)And I will let them dwell in their houses,”
Says the Lord.

God’s Charge Against Ephraim

12 “Ephraim has encircled Me with lies,
And the house of Israel with deceit;
But Judah still walks with God,
Even with the [e]Holy One who is faithful.

Ephraim’s Sins Rebuked by God

12 “Ephraim (H)feeds on the wind,
And pursues the east wind;
He daily increases lies and [f]desolation.
(I)Also they make a [g]covenant with the Assyrians,
And (J)oil is carried to Egypt.

“The(K) Lord also brings a [h]charge against Judah,
And will punish Jacob according to his ways;
According to his deeds He will recompense him.
He took his brother (L)by the heel in the womb,
And in his strength he (M)struggled with God.
Yes, he struggled with the Angel and prevailed;
He wept, and sought favor from Him.
He found Him in (N)Bethel,
And there He spoke to us—
That is, the Lord God of hosts.
The Lord is His (O)memorable name.
(P)So you, by the help of your God, return;
Observe mercy and justice,
And wait on your God continually.

“A cunning [i]Canaanite!
(Q)Deceitful scales are in his hand;
He loves to oppress.
And Ephraim said,
(R)‘Surely I have become rich,
I have found wealth for myself;
In all my labors
They shall find in me no iniquity that is sin.’

“But I am the Lord your God,
Ever since the land of Egypt;
(S)I will again make you dwell in tents,
As in the days of the appointed feast.
10 (T)I have also spoken by the prophets,
And have multiplied visions;
I have given [j]symbols [k]through the witness of the prophets.”

11 Though (U)Gilead has idols—
Surely they are [l]vanity—
Though they sacrifice bulls in (V)Gilgal,
Indeed their altars shall be heaps in the furrows of the field.

12 Jacob (W)fled to the country of Syria;
(X)Israel served for a spouse,
And for a wife he tended sheep.

Footnotes

  1. Hosea 11:7 The prophets
  2. Hosea 11:7 Or upward
  3. Hosea 11:8 Lit. turns over
  4. Hosea 11:9 Or enter a city
  5. Hosea 11:12 Or holy ones
  6. Hosea 12:1 ruin
  7. Hosea 12:1 Or treaty
  8. Hosea 12:2 A legal complaint
  9. Hosea 12:7 Or merchant
  10. Hosea 12:10 Or parables
  11. Hosea 12:10 Lit. by the hand
  12. Hosea 12:11 worthless

The Coming Judgment on Edom

The vision of Obadiah.

Thus says the Lord God (A)concerning Edom
(B)(We have heard a report from the Lord,
And a messenger has been sent among the nations, saying,
“Arise, and let us rise up against her for battle”):

“Behold, I will make you small among the nations;
You shall be greatly despised.
The (C)pride of your heart has deceived you,
You who dwell in the clefts of the rock,
Whose habitation is high;
(D)You who say in your heart, ‘Who will bring me down to the ground?’
(E)Though you ascend as high as the eagle,
And though you (F)set your nest among the stars,
From there I will bring you down,” says the Lord.

“If (G)thieves had come to you,
If robbers by night—
Oh, how you will be cut off!—
Would they not have stolen till they had enough?
If grape-gatherers had come to you,
(H)Would they not have left some gleanings?

“Oh, how Esau shall be searched out!
How his hidden treasures shall be sought after!
All the men in your confederacy
Shall force you to the border;
(I)The men at peace with you
Shall deceive you and prevail against you.
Those who eat your bread shall lay a [a]trap for you.
(J)No[b] one is aware of it.

“Will(K) I not in that day,” says the Lord,
“Even destroy the wise men from Edom,
And understanding from the mountains of Esau?
Then your (L)mighty men, O (M)Teman, shall be dismayed,
To the end that everyone from the mountains of Esau
May be cut off by slaughter.

Edom Mistreated His Brother

10 “For (N)violence against your brother Jacob,
Shame shall cover you,
And (O)you shall be cut off forever.
11 In the day that you (P)stood on the other side—
In the day that strangers carried captive his forces,
When foreigners entered his gates
And (Q)cast lots for Jerusalem—
Even you were as one of them.

12 “But you should not have (R)gazed[c] on the day of your brother
[d]In the day of his captivity;
Nor should you have (S)rejoiced over the children of Judah
In the day of their destruction;
Nor should you have spoken proudly
In the day of distress.
13 You should not have entered the gate of My people
In the day of their calamity.
Indeed, you should not have [e]gazed on their affliction
In the day of their calamity,
Nor laid hands on their substance
In the day of their calamity.
14 You should not have stood at the crossroads
To cut off those among them who escaped;
Nor should you have [f]delivered up those among them who remained
In the day of distress.

15 “For(T) the day of the Lord upon all the nations is near;
(U)As you have done, it shall be done to you;
Your [g]reprisal shall return upon your own head.
16 (V)For as you drank on My holy mountain,
So shall all the nations drink continually;
Yes, they shall drink, and swallow,
And they shall be as though they had never been.

Israel’s Final Triumph

17 “But on Mount Zion there (W)shall be [h]deliverance,
And there shall be holiness;
The house of Jacob shall possess their possessions.
18 The house of Jacob shall be a fire,
And the house of Joseph (X)a flame;
But the house of Esau shall be stubble;
They shall kindle them and devour them,
And no survivor shall remain of the house of Esau,”
For the Lord has spoken.

19 The [i]South (Y)shall possess the mountains of Esau,
(Z)And the Lowland shall possess Philistia.
They shall possess the fields of Ephraim
And the fields of Samaria.
Benjamin shall possess Gilead.
20 And the captives of this host of the children of Israel
Shall possess the land of the Canaanites
As (AA)far as Zarephath.
The captives of Jerusalem who are in Sepharad
(AB)Shall possess the cities of the [j]South.
21 Then (AC)saviors[k] shall come to Mount Zion
To judge the mountains of Esau,
And the (AD)kingdom shall be the Lord’s.

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Footnotes

  1. Obadiah 1:7 Or wound or plot
  2. Obadiah 1:7 Or There is no understanding in him
  3. Obadiah 1:12 Gloated over
  4. Obadiah 1:12 Lit. On the day he became a foreigner
  5. Obadiah 1:13 Gloated over
  6. Obadiah 1:14 Handed over to the enemy
  7. Obadiah 1:15 Or reward
  8. Obadiah 1:17 Or salvation
  9. Obadiah 1:19 Heb. Negev
  10. Obadiah 1:20 Heb. Negev
  11. Obadiah 1:21 deliverers

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