1 The vision of Obadiah. This is what the Lord Yahweh says about Edom. We have heard news from Yahweh, and an ambassador is sent among the nations, saying, "Arise, and let's rise up against her in battle.
Thus says Yahweh: "For three transgressions of Edom, yes, for four, I will not turn away its punishment; Because he pursued his brother with the sword, And cast off all pity, And his anger raged continually, And he kept his wrath forever; But I will send a fire on Teman, And it will devour the palaces of Bozrah."
Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Because Edom has dealt against the house of Judah by taking vengeance, and has greatly offended, and revenged himself on them; therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh, I will stretch out my hand on Edom, and will cut off man and animal from it; and I will make it desolate from Teman; even to Dedan shall they fall by the sword. I will lay my vengeance on Edom by the hand of my people Israel; and they shall do in Edom according to my anger and according to my wrath; and they shall know my vengeance, says the Lord Yahweh.
Who is this who comes from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah? this who is glorious in his clothing, marching in the greatness of his strength? I who speak in righteousness, mighty to save. Why are you red in your clothing, and your garments like him who treads in the wine vat? I have trodden the winepress alone; and of the peoples there was no man with me: yes, I trod them in my anger, and trampled them in my wrath; and their lifeblood is sprinkled on my garments, and I have stained all my clothing. For the day of vengeance was in my heart, and the year of my redeemed is come. I looked, and there was none to help; and I wondered that there was none to uphold: therefore my own arm brought salvation to me; and my wrath, it upheld me. I trod down the peoples in my anger, and made them drunk in my wrath, and I poured out their lifeblood on the earth.
but Esau I hated, and made his mountains a desolation, and gave his heritage to the jackals of the wilderness." Whereas Edom says, "We are beaten down, but we will return and build the waste places;" thus says Yahweh of Hosts, "They shall build, but I will throw down; and men will call them 'The Wicked Land,' even the people against whom Yahweh shows wrath forever."
Egypt will be a desolation, And Edom will be a desolate wilderness, For the violence done to the children of Judah, Because they have shed innocent blood in their land.
and tell it, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Behold, I am against you, Mount Seir, and I will stretch out my hand against you, and I will make you a desolation and an astonishment. I will lay your cities waste, and you shall be desolate; and you shall know that I am Yahweh. Because you have had a perpetual enmity, and have given over the children of Israel to the power of the sword in the time of their calamity, in the time of the iniquity of the end; therefore, as I live, says the Lord Yahweh, I will prepare you to blood, and blood shall pursue you: since you have not hated blood, therefore blood shall pursue you. Thus will I make Mount Seir an astonishment and a desolation; and I will cut off from it him who passes through and him who returns. I will fill its mountains with its slain: in your hills and in your valleys and in all your watercourses shall they fall who are slain with the sword. I will make you a perpetual desolation, and your cities shall not be inhabited; and you shall know that I am Yahweh. Because you have said, These two nations and these two countries shall be mine, and we will possess it; whereas Yahweh was there: therefore, as I live, says the Lord Yahweh, I will do according to your anger, and according to your envy which you have shown out of your hatred against them; and I will make myself known among them, when I shall judge you. You shall know that I, Yahweh, have heard all your insults which you have spoken against the mountains of Israel, saying, They are laid desolate, they are given us to devour. You have magnified yourselves against me with your mouth, and have multiplied your words against me: I have heard it. Thus says the Lord Yahweh: When the whole earth rejoices, I will make you desolate. As you did rejoice over the inheritance of the house of Israel, because it was desolate, so will I do to you: you shall be desolate, Mount Seir, and all Edom, even all of it; and they shall know that I am Yahweh.
Prepare you war against her; arise, and let us go up at noon. Woe to us! for the day declines, for the shadows of the evening are stretched out. Arise, and let us go up by night, and let us destroy her palaces.
Come near, you nations, to hear; and listen, you peoples: let the earth hear, and the fullness of it; the world, and all things that come forth from it. For Yahweh has indignation against all the nations, and wrath against all their host: he has utterly destroyed them, he has delivered them to the slaughter. Their slain also shall be cast out, and the stench of their dead bodies shall come up; and the mountains shall be melted with their blood. All the host of the sky shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll; and all their host shall fade away, as the leaf fades from off the vine, and as a fading [leaf] from the fig tree. For my sword has drunk its fill in the sky: behold, it shall come down on Edom, and on the people of my curse, to judgment. The sword of Yahweh is filled with blood, it is made fat with fatness, with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams; for Yahweh has a sacrifice in Bozrah, and a great slaughter in the land of Edom. The wild-oxen shall come down with them, and the bulls with the bulls: and their land shall be drunken with blood, and their dust made fat with fatness. For Yahweh has a day of vengeance, a year of recompense for the cause of Zion. The streams of [Edom] shall be turned into pitch, and the dust of it into sulfur, and the land of it shall become burning pitch. It shall not be quenched night nor day; the smoke of it shall go up for ever; from generation to generation it shall lie waste; none shall pass through it forever and ever. But the pelican and the porcupine shall possess it; and the owl and the raven shall dwell therein: and he will stretch over it the line of confusion, and the plummet of emptiness. They shall call the nobles of it to the kingdom, but none shall be there; and all its princes shall be nothing. Thorns shall come up in its palaces, nettles and thistles in the fortresses of it; and it shall be a habitation of jackals, a court for ostriches. The wild animals of the desert shall meet with the wolves, and the wild goat shall cry to his fellow; yes, the night-monster shall settle there, and shall find her a place of rest. There shall the dart-snake make her nest, and lay, and hatch, and gather under her shade; yes, there shall the kites be gathered, everyone with her mate. Seek you out of the book of Yahweh, and read: no one of these shall be missing, none shall want her mate; for my mouth, it has commanded, and his Spirit, it has gathered them. He has cast the lot for them, and his hand has divided it to them by line: they shall possess it forever; from generation to generation shall they dwell therein.
The burden of Dumah. One calls to me out of Seir, Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night?
Remember, Yahweh, against the children of Edom, The day of Jerusalem; Who said, "Raze it! Raze it even to its foundation!"
that sends ambassadors by the sea, even in vessels of papyrus on the waters, [saying], Go, you swift messengers, to a nation tall and smooth, to a people awesome from their beginning onward, a nation that measures out and treads down, whose land the rivers divide! All you inhabitants of the world, and you dwellers on the earth, when an ensign is lifted up on the mountains, look; and when the trumpet is blown, listen.
You will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you aren't troubled, for all this must happen, but the end is not yet.
Rejoice and be glad, daughter of Edom, that dwell in the land of Uz: The cup shall pass through to you also; you shall be drunken, and shall make yourself naked. The punishment of your iniquity is accomplished, daughter of Zion; he will no more carry you away into captivity: He will visit your iniquity, daughter of Edom; he will uncover your sins.
Don't let your heart faint, neither fear for the news that shall be heard in the land; for news shall come one year, and after that in another year [shall come] news, and violence in the land, ruler against ruler.
Set up a standard in the land, blow the trumpet among the nations, prepare the nations against her, call together against her the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz: appoint a marshal against her; cause the horses to come up as the rough canker-worm. Prepare against her the nations, the kings of the Medes, the governors of it, and all the deputies of it, and all the land of their dominion.
For, behold, I will stir up and cause to come up against Babylon a company of great nations from the north country; and they shall set themselves in array against her; from there she shall be taken: their arrows shall be as of an expert mighty man; none shall return in vain. Chaldea shall be a prey: all who prey on her shall be satisfied, says Yahweh. Because you are glad, because you rejoice, O you who plunder my heritage, because you are wanton as a heifer that treads out [the grain], and neigh as strong horses; your mother shall be utterly disappointed; she who bore you shall be confounded: behold, she shall be the least of the nations, a wilderness, a dry land, and a desert. Because of the wrath of Yahweh she shall not be inhabited, but she shall be wholly desolate: everyone who goes by Babylon shall be astonished, and hiss at all her plagues. Set yourselves in array against Babylon round about, all you who bend the bow; shoot at her, spare no arrows: for she has sinned against Yahweh. Shout against her round about: she has submitted herself; her bulwarks are fallen, her walls are thrown down; for it is the vengeance of Yahweh: take vengeance on her; as she has done, do to her.
Of Edom. Thus says Yahweh of Hosts: Is wisdom no more in Teman? is counsel perished from the prudent? is their wisdom vanished? Flee you, turn back, dwell in the depths, inhabitants of Dedan; for I will bring the calamity of Esau on him, the time that I shall visit him. If grape-gatherers came to you, would they not leave some gleaning grapes? if thieves by night, wouldn't they destroy until they had enough? But I have made Esau bare, I have uncovered his secret places, and he shall not be able to hide himself: his seed is destroyed, and his brothers, and his neighbors; and he is no more. Leave your fatherless children, I will preserve them alive; and let your widows trust in me. For thus says Yahweh: Behold, they to whom it didn't pertain to drink of the cup shall assuredly drink; and are you he who shall altogether go unpunished? you shall not go unpunished, but you shall surely drink. For I have sworn by myself, says Yahweh, that Bozrah shall become an astonishment, a reproach, a waste, and a curse; and all the cities of it shall be perpetual wastes. I have heard news from Yahweh, and an ambassador is sent among the nations, [saying], Gather yourselves together, and come against her, and rise up to the battle. For, behold, I have made you small among the nations, and despised among men. As for your terror, the pride of your heart has deceived you, O you who dwell in the clefts of the rock, who hold the height of the hill: though you should make your nest as high as the eagle, I will bring you down from there, says Yahweh. Edom shall become an astonishment: everyone who passes by it shall be astonished, and shall hiss at all the plagues of it. As in the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah and the neighbor cities of it, says Yahweh, no man shall dwell there, neither shall any son of man sojourn therein. Behold, he shall come up like a lion from the pride of the Jordan against the strong habitation: for I will suddenly make them run away from it; and whoever is chosen, him will I appoint over it: for who is like me? and who will appoint me a time? and who is the shepherd who will stand before me? Therefore hear the counsel of Yahweh, that he has taken against Edom; and his purposes, that he has purposed against the inhabitants of Teman: Surely they shall drag them away, [even] the little ones of the flock; surely he shall make their habitation desolate over them. The earth trembles at the noise of their fall; there is a cry, the noise which is heard in the Red Sea. Behold, he shall come up and fly as the eagle, and spread out his wings against Bozrah: and the heart of the mighty men of Edom at that day shall be as the heart of a woman in her pangs.
Then took I the cup at Yahweh's hand, and made all the nations to drink, to whom Yahweh had sent me:
Behold, the days come, says Yahweh, that I will punish all those who are circumcised in [their] uncircumcision: Egypt, and Judah, and Edom, and the children of Ammon, and Moab, and all that have the corners [of their hair] cut off, who dwell in the wilderness; for all the nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in heart.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible » Commentary on Obadiah 1
Commentary on Obadiah 1 Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
CHAPTER 1
Ob 1-21. Doom of Edom for Cruelty to Judah, Edom's Brother; Restoration of the Jews.
1. Obadiah—that is, servant of Jehovah; same as Abdeel and Arabic Abd-allah.
We—I and my people.
heard—(Isa 21:10).
and an ambassador is sent—Yea, an ambassador is already sent, namely, an angel, to stir up the Assyrians (and afterwards the Chaldeans) against Edom. The result of the ambassador's message on the heathen is, they simultaneously exclaim, "Arise ye, and let us (with united strength) rise," &c. Jer 49:14 quotes this.
2. I have made thee small—Thy reduction to insignificance is as sure as if it were already accomplished; therefore the past tense is used [Maurer]. Edom then extended from Dedan of Arabia to Bozrah in the north (Jer 49:8, 13). Calvin explains it, "Whereas thou wast made by Me an insignificant people, why art thou so proud" (Ob 3)? But if so, why should the heathen peoples be needed to subdue one so insignificant? Jer 49:15, confirms Maurer's view.
3. clefts of … rock—(So 2:14; Jer 48:28). The cities of Edom, and among them Petra (Hebrew, sela, meaning "rock," 2Ki 14:7, Margin), the capital, in the Wady Musa, consisted of houses mostly cut in the rocks.
4. exalt thyself—or supply from the second clause, "thy nest" [Maurer] (Compare Job 20:6; Jer 49:16; Am 9:2).
set … nest among … stars—namely, on the loftiest hills which seem to reach the very stars. Edom is a type of Antichrist (Isa 14:13; Da 8:10; 11:37).
thence will I bring thee down—in spite of thy boast (Ob 3), "Who shall bring me down?"
5. The spoliation which thou shalt suffer shall not be such as that which thieves cause, bad as that is, for these when they have seized enough, or all they can get in a hurry, leave the rest—nor such as grape-gatherers cause in a vineyard, for they, when they have gathered most of the grapes, leave gleanings behind—but it shall be utter, so as to leave thee nothing. The exclamation, "How art thou cut off!" bursting in amidst the words of the image, marks strongly excited feeling. The contrast between Edom where no gleanings shall be left, and Israel where at the worst a gleaning is left (Isa 17:6; 24:13), is striking.
6. How are the things of Esau searched out!—by hostile soldiers seeking booty. Compare with Ob 5, 6 here, Jer 49:9, 10.
hidden things—or "places." Edom abounded in such hiding-places, as caves, clefts in the rock, &c. None of these would be left unexplored by the foe.
7. Men of thy confederacy—that is, thy confederates.
brought thee … to the border—that is, when Idumean ambassadors shall go to confederate states seeking aid, these latter shall conduct them with due ceremony to their border, giving them empty compliments, but not the aid required [Drusius]. This view agrees with the context, which speaks of false friends deceiving Edom: that is, failing to give help in need (compare Job 6:14, 15). Calvin translates, "have driven," that is, shall drive thee; shall help to drive thee to thy border on thy way into captivity in foreign lands.
the men that were at peace with thee—literally, "the men of thy peace." Compare Ps 41:9; Jer 38:22, Margin, where also the same formula occurs, "prevailed against thee."
they that eat thy bread—the poorer tribes of the desert who subsisted on the bounty of Edom. Compare again Ps 41:9, which seems to have been before Obadiah's mind, as his words were before Jeremiah's.
have laid a wound under thee—"laid" implies that their intimacy was used as a SNARE laid with a view to wound; also, these guest friends of Edom, instead of the cushions ordinarily laid under guests at table, laid snares to wound, that is, had a secret understanding with Edom's foe for that purpose. Maurer translates, "a snare." But English Version agrees with the Hebrew, which means, literally, "a bandage for a wound."
none understanding—none of the wisdom for which Edom was famed (see Ob 8) to extricate him from his perilous position.
in him—instead of "in thee." The change implies the alienation of God from Edom: Edom has so estranged himself from God, that He speaks now of him, not to him.
8. (Isa 49:7; compare Job 5:12, 13; Isa 19:3; Jer 19:7).
in that day … even destroy—Heretofore Edom, through its intercourse with Babylon and Egypt, and from its means of information through the many caravans passing to and fro between Europe and India, has been famed for knowledge; but in that day at last ("even") I will destroy its wise men.
mount of Esau—that is, Idumea, which was a mountainous region.
9. cut off by slaughter—Maurer translates, "on account of the slaughter," namely, that inflicted on Judea by Edom (compare Ob 14). The Septuagint, Syriac, and Vulgate connect these words with Ob 10, "for the slaughter, for the violence (of which thou art guilty) against thy brother Jacob." English Version, "cut off by slaughter" (that is, an utter cutting off), answers well to "cut off for ever" (Ob 10). However, the arrangement of the Septuagint gives a better parallelism in Ob 10. "For the slaughter" (1) being balanced in just retribution by "thou shalt be cut off for ever" (4); as "For thy violence (not so bad as slaughter) against thy brother Jacob" (2) is balanced by "shame (not so bad as being cut off) shall cover thee" (3). Shame and extinction shall repay violence and slaughter (Mt 26:52; Re 13:10). Compare as to Edom's violence, Ps 137:7; Eze 25:12; Am 1:11.
10. against thy brother—This aggravates the sin of Esau, that it was against him who was his brother by birth and by circumcision. The posterity of Esau followed in the steps of their father's hatred to Jacob by violence against Jacob's seed (Ge 27:41).
Jacob—not merely his own brother, but his twin brother; hence the name Jacob, not Israel, is here put emphatically. Compare De 23:7 for the opposite feeling which Jacob's seed was commanded to entertain towards Edom's.
shame … cover thee—(Ps 35:26; 69:7).
for ever—(Isa 34:10; Eze 35:9; Mal 1:4). Idumea, as a nation, should be "cut off for ever," though the land should be again inhabited.
11. thou stoodest on the other side—in an attitude of hostility, rather than the sympathy which became a brother, feasting thine eyes (see Ob 12) with the misery of Jacob, and eagerly watching for his destruction. So Messiah, the antitype to Jerusalem, abandoned by His kinsmen (Ps 38:11).
strangers—the Philistines, Arabians in the reign of Jehoram, &c. (2Ch 21:16); the Syrians in the reign of Joash of Judah (2Ch 24:24); the Chaldeans (2Ch 36:1-23).
carried … captive his forces—his "host" (Ob 20): the multitude of Jerusalem's inhabitants.
cast lots upon Jerusalem—(Joe 3:3). So Messiah, Jerusalem's antitype, had lots cast for His only earthly possessions (Ps 22:18).
12. looked on—with malignant pleasure, and a brutal stare. So the antitypes, Messiah's foes (Ps 22:17). Maurer translates, as the Margin, "thou shouldest not look" any more. English Version agrees with the context better.
the day of thy brother—his day of calamity.
became a stranger—that is, was banished as an alien from his own land. God sends heavy calamities on those who rejoice in the calamities of their enemies (Pr 17:5; 24:17, 18). Contrast the opposite conduct of David and of the divine Son of David in a like case (Ps 35:13-15).
spoken proudly—literally, "made great the mouth"; proudly insulting the fallen (Eze 35:13, Margin; compare 1Sa 2:8; Re 13:6).
13. substance—translated "forces" in Ob 11.
14. stood in the crossway, to cut off those of his—Judah's.
that did escape—The Jews naturally fled by the crossways. (Maurer translates, "narrow mountain passes") well known to them, to escape to the desert, and through Edom to Egypt; but the Edomites stood ready to intercept the fugitives and either kill or "deliver them up" to the foe.
15. For—resumptive in connection with Ob 10, wherein Edom was threatened with cutting off for ever.
the day of the Lord—the day in which He will manifest Himself as the Righteous Punisher of the ungodly peoples (Joe 3:14). The "all" shows that the fulfilment is not exhausted in the punishment inflicted on the surrounding nations by the instrumentality of Nebuchadnezzar; but, as in Joe 3:14, and Zec 12:3, that the last judgment to come on the nations confederate against Jerusalem is referred to.
as thou hast done, it shall be done unto thee—the righteous principle of retribution in kind (Le 24:17; Mt 7:2; compare Jud 1:6, 7; 8:19; Es 7:10).
thy reward—the reward of thy deed (compare Isa 3:9-11).
16. ye … upon my holy mountain—a periphrasis for, "ye Jews" [Maurer], whom Obadiah now by a sudden apostrophe addresses. The clause, "upon My holy mountain," expresses the reason of the vengeance to be taken on Judah's foes; namely, that Jerusalem is God's holy mountain, the seat of His temple, and Judah His covenant-people. Jer 49:12, which is copied from Obadiah, establishes this view (compare 1Pe 4:17).
as ye have drunk, &c.—namely, the cup of wrath, being dispossessed of your goods and places as a nation, by Edom and all the heathen; so shall all the heathen (Edom included) drink the same cup (Ps 60:3; Isa 51:17, 22; Jer 13:12, 13; 25:15-33; 49:12; 51:7; La 4:21, 22 Na 3:11; Hab 2:16).
continually—whereas Judah's calamity shall be temporary (Ob 17). The foes of Judah shall never regain their former position (Ob 18, 19).
swallow down—so as not to leave anything in the cup of calamity; not merely "drink" (Ps 75:8).
be as though they had not been—not a trace left of their national existence (Job 10:19; Ps 37:36; Eze 26:21).
17. upon … Zion … deliverance—both in the literal sense and spiritual sense (Joe 2:32; Isa 46:13; 59:20; Ro 11:26). Maurer as the Margin explains it, "there shall be a remnant that shall escape." Compare Isa 37:32; to the deliverance from Sennacherib there described Grotius thinks Obadiah here refers. "Jerusalem shall not be taken, and many of the neighboring peoples also shall find deliverance there." Unlike Judah's heathen foes of whom no remnant shall escape (Ob 9, 16), a remnant of Jews shall escape when the rest of the nation has perished, and shall regain their ancient "possessions."
there shall be holiness—that is, Zion shall be sacrosanct or inviolable: no more violated by foreign invaders (Isa 42:1; Joe 3:17).
18. fire—See the same figure, Nu 21:28; Isa 5:24; 10:17.
house of Jacob … Joseph—that is, the two kingdoms, Judah and Ephraim or Israel [Jerome]. The two shall form one kingdom, their former feuds being laid aside (Isa 11:12, 13; 37:22-28; Jer 3:18; Ho 1:11). The Jews returned with some of the Israelites from Babylon; and, under John Hyrcanus, so subdued and, compelling them to be circumcised, incorporated the Idumeans with themselves that they formed part of the nation [Josephus, Antiquities, 13.17; 12.11]. This was but an earnest of the future union of Israel and Judah in the possession of the enlarged land as one kingdom (Eze 37:16, &c.).
stubble—(Mal 4:1).
19. they of the south—The Jews who in the coming time are to occupy the south of Judea shall possess, in addition to their own territory, the adjoining mountainous region of Edom.
they of the plain—The Jews who shall occupy the low country along the Mediterranean, south and southwest of Palestine, shall possess, in addition to their own territory, the land of "the Philistines," which runs as a long strip between the hills and the sea.
and they shall possess the fields of Ephraim—that is, the rightful owners shall be restored, the Ephraimites to the fields of Ephraim.
Benjamin shall possess Gilead—that is, the region east of Jordan, occupied formerly by Reuben, Gad, and half Manasseh. Benjamin shall possess besides its own territory the adjoining territory eastward, while the two and a half tribes shall in the redistribution occupy the adjoining territory of Moab and Ammon.
20. the captivity of this host—that is, the captives of this multitude of Israelites.
shall possess that of the Canaanites—Maurer translates, "the captives … whom the Canaanites (carried away captive into Phœnicia) even unto Zarephath, shall possess the south," namely, Idumea as well as the south (Ob 19). Henderson, similarly, "the captives that are among the Canaanites," &c. But the corresponding clauses of the parallelism are better balanced in English Version, "the ten tribes of Israel shall possess the territory of the Canaanites," namely, Western Palestine and Phœnicia (Jud 3:3). "And the captives of Jerusalem (and Judah) shall possess the southern cities," namely, Edom, &c. Each has the region respectively adjoining assigned to it; Israel has the western Canaanite region; Judah, the southern.
even unto Zarephath—near Zidon; called Sarepta in Lu 4:26. The name implies it was a place for smelting metals. From this quarter came the "woman of Canaan" (Mt 15:21, 22). Captives of the Jews had been carried into the coasts of Palestine or Canaan, about Tyre and Zidon (Joe 3:3, 4; Am 1:9). The Jews when restored shall possess the territory of their ancient oppressors.
in Sepharad—that is, the Bosphorus [Jerome, from his Hebrew Instructor]. Sephar, according to others (Ge 10:30). Palæography confirms Jerome. In the cuneiform inscription containing a list of the tribes of Persia [Niebuhr, Tab. 31.1], before Ionia and Greece, and after Cappadocia, comes the name CPaRaD. It was therefore a district of Western Asia Minor, about Lydia, and near the Bosphorus. It is made an appellative by Maurer. "The Jerusalem captives of the dispersion" (compare Jas 1:1), wherever they be dispersed, shall return and possess the southern cities. Sepharad, though literally the district near the Bosphorus, represents the Jews' far and wide dispersion. Jerome says the name in Assyrian means a boundary, that is, "the Jews scattered in all boundaries and regions."
21. saviours—There will be in the kingdom yet to come no king, but a prince; the sabbatic period of the judges will return (compare the phrase so frequent in Judges, only once found in the times of the kings, 2Ch 14:1, "the land had rest"), when there was no visible king, but God reigned in the theocracy. Israelites, not strangers, shall dispense justice to a God-fearing people (Isa 1:26; Eze 45:1-25). The judges were not such a burden to the people as the kings proved afterwards (1Sa 8:11-20). In their time the people more readily repented than under the kings (compare 2Ch 15:17), [Roos]. Judges were from time to time raised up as saviours or deliverers of Israel from the enemy. These, and the similar deliverers in the long subsequent age of Antiochus, the Maccabees, who conquered the Idumeans (as here foretold, compare 2 Maccabees 10:15,23), were types of the peaceful period yet to come to Israel.
to judge … Esau—to punish (so "judge," 1Sa 3:13) … Edom (compare Ob 1-9, 15-19). Edom is the type of Israel's and God's last foes (Isa 63:1-4).
kingdom shall be the Lord's—under Messiah (Da 2:44; 7:14, 27; Zec 14:9; Lu 1:33; Re 11:15; 19:6).