T11ere can be no doubt that the style of Obadiah is remarkably original. In his very diction he deviates from the beaten track, using many words and forms which occur nowhere else. Though his language is simple, it is very suggestive, full of thought, and pregnant with meaning. Pore and idiomatic, it breathes a high antiquity, unmixed with later forms, and dis- tinct from that of the greater prophets. There is a vigour, and terseness, and a rapidity, which carry the reader along, and place him by the prophet's side in fullest sympathy. Obadiah delights in interrogation and apostrophe, in vivid detail, and concise statement. He is often highly poetic, never monotonous. What force and pathos are there in the sustained description of the injuries inflicted by strangers on Jerusalem, ending in the sodden address to Edom, "Thou wast as one of them" ( ver. 11) I What power in the warning against malicious pleasure at a neighbour's disaster, with its oft-- repeated expression, "in the day" (vers. 12---14) ! What solemnity in the summing up of the prophecy, "And the kingdom shall be the Lord's"! .A. regular sequence of thought runs through the whole book. To find in this very uniform and consistent prophecy nothing but literary patchwork, aa Graf and Ewald, for instance, have done, is a groundless neologian fancy. These critics suppose that the former part of the prophecy (vers. 1-10) was an ex.tract from an older seer-the true Obadiah or an unknown writer; that the latter portion belongs to the time of the Captivity, and was added by the compiler. The sagacity that thus arbitrarily dissects the work is singularly at fault in this case. It requires only an unprejudiced eye ( even if we exclude a belief in the predictive element) to see that onr book is one whole, that its parts progress equably and uniformly, that the conclusion follows naturally on what precedes; so that if we had to find one special characteristic of the prophecy, we should say that it is distinguished by the close connection of its members without break or interruption,
§ V. LITERATURE.
Among mcdireval commentators upon Obadiah we may mention Hugo a. S. Victore, whose interpretation is wholly mystical. Ephraem Syrus has left a com- mentary on this prophet. Luther's 'Enarrationes in Abdiam' are well known. Other works are those of Bishop Pilkington, ' Exposition; ' Pfeiffer, with a Latin translation of the Commentary of Arbabanel (Vittemb., 1670); Raynoldi (1613); Leusden (Utrecht, 1657); the text, Hebrew and Cho,ldee, with the notes of Jarchi, Aben-Ezra, and Kimchi; Crocius (Bremm, 1673), with rabbinbll interpretations; Bishop Horsley, 'Critical Notes;' Hendewcrk, 'Obadire Proph. Orncuh1m' (1836); Caspari, 'Der Prophet Ol1adja' (Leipzig, 18G3); Seydol (Leipzig, 1842); T. T. I'erowne, in' Carnbrid~e Bible for Schools 11nd Collc~l'B.1 An Armenian Version was publi-hed by A. Acoluthus, in 1680, and a Syriac by Grimm, in 1799, xii INTRODUCTION TO THE BOOK OF OBADIAH.
§ VI. ABBANGEllmNT IN SEOTIONB. The book divides into two pa.rts. Part I. (Vers. 1-16.) The destruction of Edom, and the cause thereof, § 1. (Vel"B, 1-9.) The heathen nations are summoned to take vengeance on Edom. In spite of her impregnable position, they shall bring her low and strip her of her wealth, being aided and encouraged by her own allies. § 2. (Vers. 10-14.) This punishment falls upon her as the result of the malice and unfriendliness which she bas displayed towards Israel in the time of her calamity, in that she rejoiced at her sistei;'s disaster and took pa.rt with her enemies. ~- § 3. (Vers. 15, 16.) For this ea.use Edom shall be remembered in the do.y of the Lord; she shall suffer at the hands of the heathen what she inflicted on others. Part. JI. (Vers. 17-21.) The restoration oflsraeL § 1. (Vers. 17-20.) The house of Jacob shall be delivered, and shall add to its possessions, and spread far and wide. § 2. (Ver. 21.) Salvation shall come to Zion, and "the kingdom shall be the Lord's." THE BOOK OF OBADIAH.