[459] 2 Chron. xx.
[460] 2 Chron. xxi. 14-17.
[461] So Delitzsch, Keil, Volck in Herzog’s _Real. Ency._ II., Orelli and Kirkpatrick. Delitzsch indeed suggests that the prophet may have been _Obadiah the prince_ appointed by Jehoshaphat _to teach in the cities of Judah_. See above, p. 163, n. 454.
[462] Driver, _Introd._
[463] Jer. xlix. 9 and 16 appear to be more original than Ob. 3 and 2b. Notice the presence in Jer. xlix. 16 of תפלצתך which Obadiah omits.
[464] 2 Kings xiv. 22; xvi. 6, Revised Version margin.
[465] _Einl._³ pp. 185 f.: “In any case Obadiah 1-9 are older than the fourth year of Jehoiakim.”
[466] “That the verses Obadiah 10 ff. refer to this event [the sack of Jerusalem] will always remain the most natural supposition, for the description which they give so completely suits that time that it is not possible to take any other explanation into consideration.”
[467] Edom paid tribute to Sennacherib in 701, and to Asarhaddon (681—669). According to 2 Kings xxiv. 2 Nebuchadrezzar sent Ammonites, Moabites and Edomites [for ארם read אדם] against Jehoiakim, who had broken his oath to Babylonia.
[468] For Edom’s alliances with Arab tribes cf. Gen. xxv. 13 with xxxvi. 3, 12, etc.
[469] Ezek. xxv. 4, 5, 10.
[470] Diod. Sic. XIX. 94. A little earlier they are described as in possession of Iturea, on the south-east slopes of Anti-Lebanon (Arrian II. 20, 4).
[471] Psalm lxxxiii. 8.
[472] i. 1-5.
[473] _E.g._ in the New Testament: Mark iii. 8.
[474] So too Nowack, 1897.
[475] Deut. ii. 5, 8, 12.
[476] Ezek. xxxv., esp. 2 and 15.
[477] iv. 21: yet _Uz_ fails in LXX., and some take ארץ to refer to the Holy Land itself. Buhl, _Gesch. der Edomiter_, 73.
[478] It can hardly be supposed that Edom’s treacherous allies were Assyrians or Babylonians, for even if the phrase “men of thy covenant” could be applied to those to whom Edom was tributary, the Assyrian or Babylonian method of dealing with conquered peoples is described by saying that they took them off into captivity, not that they _sent them to the border_.
[479] So even Cornill, _Einl._³
[480] This in answer to Wellhausen on the verse.
[481] See below, p. 175, n. 6.
[482] Calvin, while refusing in his introduction to Obadiah to fix a date (except in so far as he thinks it impossible for the book to be earlier than Isaiah), implies throughout his commentary on the book that it was addressed to Edom while the Jews were in exile. See his remarks on vv. 18-20.
[483] There is a mistranslation in ver. 18: שׂריד is rendered by πυρόφορος.
[484] This is no doubt from the later writer, who before he gives the new word of Jehovah with regard to Edom, quotes the earlier prophecy, marked above by quotation marks. In no other way can we explain the immediate following of the words “Thus hath the Lord spoken” with “_We_ have heard a report,” etc.
[485] ‘Sela,’ the name of the Edomite capital, Petra.
[486] The parenthesis is not in Jer. xlix. 9; Nowack omits it. _If spoilers_ occurs in Heb. before _by night_: delete.
[487] Antithetic to _thieves_ and _spoilers by night_, as the sending of the people to their border is antithetic to the thieves taking only what they wanted.
[488] לחמך, _thy bread_, which here follows, is not found in the LXX., and is probably an error due to a mechanical repetition of the letters of the previous word.
[489] Again perhaps a quotation from an earlier prophecy: Nowack counts it from another hand. Mark the sudden change to the future.
[490] Heb. _so that_.
[491] With LXX. transfer this expression from the end of the ninth to the beginning of the tenth verse.
[492] “When thou didst stand on the opposite side.”—Calvin.