'I am going to send for all the peoples from the north and for my servant, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia. I am going to bring them to fight against Judah and its inhabitants and against all the neighboring nations. I am going to destroy this nation and its neighbors and leave them in ruins forever, a terrible and shocking sight. I, the LORD, have spoken.

(SEE 25:19)

and said to Jacob, "I'm starving; give me some of that red stuff." (That is why he was named Edom. )

Esau hated Jacob, because his father had given Jacob the blessing. He thought, "The time to mourn my father's death is near; then I will kill Jacob."

So Esau lived in the hill country of Edom.

Moses sent messengers from Kadesh to the king of Edom. They said, "This message is from your kinsmen, the tribes of Israel. You know the hardships we have suffered,

and we cried to the LORD for help. He heard our cry and sent an angel, who led us out of Egypt. Now we are at Kadesh, a town at the border of your territory.

But the Edomites answered, "We refuse to let you pass through our country! If you try, we will march out and attack you."

The Edomites repeated, "We refuse!" and they marched out with a powerful army to attack the people of Israel.

I look into the future, And I see the nation of Israel. A king, like a bright star, will arise in that nation. Like a comet he will come from Israel. He will strike the leaders of Moab And beat down all the people of Seth.

He will conquer his enemies in Edom And make their land his property, While Israel continues victorious.

"Do not despise the Edomites; they are your relatives. And do not despise the Egyptians; you once lived in their land.

"Come," they say, "let us destroy their nation, so that Israel will be forgotten forever."

the people of Edom and the Ishmaelites; the people of Moab and the Hagrites;

Assyria has also joined them as a strong ally of the Ammonites and Moabites, the descendants of Lot.

You defeated them at Endor, and their bodies rotted on the ground.

Remember, LORD, what the Edomites did the day Jerusalem was captured. Remember how they kept saying, "Tear it down to the ground!"

Come, people of all nations! Gather around and listen. Let the whole earth and everyone living on it come here and listen.

Their corpses will not be buried, but will lie there rotting and stinking; and the mountains will be red with blood.

The LORD has prepared his sword in heaven, and now it will strike Edom, those people whom he has condemned to destruction.

The people will fall like wild oxen and young bulls, and the earth will be red with blood and covered with fat.

The rivers of Edom will turn into tar, and the soil will turn into sulfur. The whole country will burn like tar.

Owls and ravens will take over the land. The LORD will make it a barren waste again, as it was before the creation.

Thorns and thistles will grow up in all the palaces and walled towns, and jackals and owls will live in them.

Owls will build their nests, lay eggs, hatch their young, and care for them there. Vultures will gather there, one after another.

It is the LORD who will divide the land among them and give each of them a share. They will live in the land age after age, and it will belong to them forever.

"Who is this coming from the city of Bozrah in Edom? Who is this so splendidly dressed in red, marching along in power and strength?" It is the LORD, powerful to save, coming to announce his victory.

The LORD answers, "I have trampled the nations like grapes, and no one came to help me. I trampled them in my anger, and their blood has stained all my clothing.

I was amazed when I looked and saw that there was no one to help me. But my anger made me strong, and I won the victory myself.

The Sovereign LORD said, "The people of Edom took cruel revenge on Judah, and that revenge has brought lasting guilt on Edom.

My people Israel will take revenge on Edom for me, and they will make Edom feel my furious anger. Edom will know what it means to be the object of my revenge." The Sovereign LORD has spoken.

The LORD spoke to me.

Tell the people what I, the Sovereign LORD, am saying: "I am your enemy, mountains of Edom! I will make you a desolate wasteland.

"You were Israel's constant enemy and let her people be slaughtered in the time of her disaster, the time of final punishment for her sins.

I will make the hill country of Edom a wasteland and kill everyone who travels through it.

I will make you desolate forever, and no one will live in your cities again. Then you will know that I am the LORD.

So then, as surely as I, the Sovereign LORD, am the living God, I will pay you back for your anger, your jealousy, and your hate toward my people. They will know that I am punishing you for what you did to them.

I have heard the wild, boastful way you have talked against me."

just as you rejoiced at the devastation of Israel, my own possession. The mountains of Seir, yes, all the land of Edom, will be desolate. Then everyone will know that I am the LORD."

He will even invade the Promised Land and kill tens of thousands, but the countries of Edom, Moab, and what is left of Ammon will escape.

"Egypt will become a desert, and Edom a ruined waste, because they attacked the land of Judah and killed its innocent people.

The LORD says, "The people of Edom have sinned again and again, and for this I will certainly punish them. They hunted down their relatives, the Israelites, and showed them no mercy. Their anger had no limits, and they never let it die.

So I will send fire upon the city of Teman and burn down the fortresses of Bozrah."

This is the prophecy of Obadiah---what the Sovereign LORD said about the nation of Edom. The LORD has sent his messenger to the nations, and we have heard his message: "Get ready! Let us go to war against Edom!"

Your pride has deceived you. Your capital is a fortress of solid rock; your home is high in the mountains, and so you say to yourself, 'Who can ever pull me down?'

"When thieves come at night, they take only what they want. When people gather grapes, they always leave a few. But your enemies have wiped you out completely.

Your allies have deceived you; they have driven you from your country. People who were at peace with you have now conquered you. Those friends who ate with you have laid a trap for you; they say of you, 'Where is all that cleverness he had?'

The fighting men of Teman will be terrified, and every soldier in Edom will be killed.

and have hated Esau and his descendants. I have devastated Esau's hill country and abandoned the land to jackals."

If Esau's descendants, the Edomites, say, "Our towns have been destroyed, but we will rebuild them," then the LORD will reply, "Let them rebuild---I will tear them down again. People will call them 'The evil country' and 'The nation with whom the LORD is angry forever.' "

Then the people said, "Let's do something about Jeremiah! There will always be priests to instruct us, the wise to give us counsel, and prophets to proclaim God's message. Let's bring charges against him and stop listening to what he says."

He upsets the plans of cunning people, and traps the wise in their own schemes, so that nothing they do succeeds;

even at noon they grope in darkness.

The leaders of the city of Zoan are fools! Egypt's wisest people give stupid advice! How do they dare to tell the king that they are successors to the ancient scholars and kings?

The leaders of Zoan and Memphis are fools. They were supposed to lead the nation, but they have misled it.

So I will startle them with one unexpected blow after another. Those who are wise will turn out to be fools, and all their cleverness will be useless."

"On the day I punish Edom, I will destroy their clever men and wipe out all their wisdom.

They say they are wise, but they are fools;

instead of worshiping the immortal God, they worship images made to look like mortals or birds or animals or reptiles.

So listen to the plan that I have made against the people of Edom, and to what I intend to do to the people of the city of Teman. Even their children will be dragged off, and everyone will be horrified.

(SEE 36:10)

These are the tribes descended from Esau. Esau's first son Eliphaz was the ancestor of the following tribes: Teman, Omar, Zepho, Kenaz,

Kenaz, Teman, Mibzar,

Three of Job's friends were Eliphaz, from the city of Teman, Bildad, from the land of Shuah, and Zophar, from the land of Naamah. When they heard how much Job had been suffering, they decided to go and comfort him.

Job, will you be annoyed if I speak? I can't keep quiet any longer.

Now I announce that I will punish Edom and kill every person and animal there. I will make it a wasteland, from the city of Teman to the city of Dedan, and the people will be killed in battle.

So I will send fire upon the city of Teman and burn down the fortresses of Bozrah."

The fighting men of Teman will be terrified, and every soldier in Edom will be killed.

God is coming again from Edom; the holy God is coming from the hills of Paran. His splendor covers the heavens, and the earth is full of his praise.