The Book of Abdias (Obadiah)

Abdias is a single chapter of twenty-one verses, read in a few minutes. It is the fourth of the twelve Minor Prophets, after Amos and before Jonas (Jonah). Its subject is one nation, Edom, descended from Esau, the twin brother of Jacob. Its lesson reaches every soul: pride is brought down, cruelty to a brother is repaid, and "the kingdom shall be for the Lord". The chapter page of Abdias sets the Latin Vulgate beside the Douay-Rheims.

Who wrote the Book of Abdias (Obadiah)?

The book names its author in its first words: "The vision of Abdias" (Visio Abdiae, Abdias 1:1). The Church has always received it as the work of the prophet of that name. Abdias is the Greek form of the Hebrew 'Obhadhyah, which, the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia explains, "means 'the servant [or worshipper] of Yahweh'". Protestant Bibles, which follow the Hebrew spelling, call him Obadiah.

Of his life Scripture says nothing more. The Catholic Encyclopedia quotes the Abbé Trochon: "nothing is known of Abdias; his family, station in life, place of birth, manner of death, are equally unknown to us." The only thing we may infer, it adds, is that he "belonged to the Kingdom of Juda".

An old Jewish tradition made him the same man as the Abdias of 3 Kings 18, the governor of King Achab's house, who "feared the Lord very much" and, when Jezabel was killing the prophets of the Lord, "took a hundred prophets and hid them by fifty and fifty in caves, and fed them with bread and water." Several men of the Old Testament bear the name, and the Encyclopedia observes that, in the absence of authoritative information, Jewish and Christian traditions "have been freely circulated to supply its place"; we note it as a tradition, not a certainty.

The Pontifical Biblical Commission issued no decision on Abdias. Some recent scholars, the Encyclopedia notes, have treated the name as a title, "the servant of the Lord", rather than a proper name. The Church's canon, the Vulgate title and the Fathers all speak simply of the prophet Abdias, and so do we.

When was the Book of Abdias written?

The book gives no king's name and no date. Verses 11–14 speak of a day when "strangers carried away his army captive, and foreigners entered into his gates, and cast lots upon Jerusalem", while Edom looked on and joined in. The Catholic Encyclopedia sets out three leading opinions.

The first, held by Vigouroux, Trochon, Lesêtre and others, places the book in the ninth century BC, about the reign of Joram of Juda. In his days "Edom revolted, from being subject to Juda, and made themselves a king", and the Philistines and Arabians "came up into the land of Juda, and wasted it, and they carried away all the substance that was found in the king's house" (2 Paralipomenon 21; compare 4 Kings 8).

Abdias says nothing of the burning of the city or the Temple. And when Joel 2:32 says "in mount Sion, and in Jerusalem shall be salvation, as the Lord hath said", the words "as the Lord hath said" seem to introduce a quotation of Abdias 17, "in mount Sion shall be salvation". On this view Abdias wrote before Joel and Amos, about the middle of the ninth century.

The second, held by Jahn, Allioli and others, sets the book about the time of the Babylonian captivity, after Nabuchodonosor took Jerusalem in 588–587 BC, because only that catastrophe seems to fit "the day of their destruction" and "the day of their ruin". Psalm 136 (137) remembers that day: "Remember, O Lord, the children of Edom, in the day of Jerusalem: Who say: Rase it, rase it, even to the foundation thereof." A third opinion places it later still, after the return from exile, on account of the closing vision of the day of the Lord upon all nations.

The Encyclopedia concludes that none of these opinions "conflicts with the prophetical import of the work concerning the utter ruin of Edom at a later date and concerning the Messianic times." Verses 1–9 also run closely parallel to Jeremias' oracle against Edom (Jeremias 49:7–22); those who hold the early date see Jeremias taking up the older prophet's words.

Edom and Jacob: the background

To understand Abdias, begin in the Book of Genesis, at Genesis 25. Rebecca carried twins who "struggled in her womb", and the Lord told her: "Two nations are in thy womb ... and the elder shall serve the younger." Esau was born first, "red, and hairy", and when he sold his birthright for red pottage, "his name was called Edom", that is, red. "Esau, the same is Edom", says Genesis 36, and he settled in Mount Seir, the rocky highlands south-east of the Dead Sea.

After Jacob took the blessing, "Esau therefore always hated Jacob" (Genesis 27:41). The brothers were reconciled in their lifetime, when "Esau ran to meet his brother, and embraced him" (Genesis 33), but the nations born of them were not. Edom refused Israel passage out of Egypt (Numbers 20), yet the Law commanded, "Thou shalt not abhor the Edomite, because he is thy brother" (Deuteronomy 23:7). Edom's sin is the graver for being a brother's.

What is the Book of Abdias about? A summary

The single oracle falls into three movements: Edom's downfall, its cause, and the day of the Lord with the restoration of Sion.

The pride and fall of Edom (verses 1–9)

The Lord has sent "an ambassador to the nations: Arise, and let us rise up to battle against him" (verses 1–9). Edom trusted in its strongholds among the rocks of Mount Seir: "The pride of thy heart hath lifted thee up, who dwellest in the clefts of the rocks, and settest up thy throne on high: who sayest in thy heart: Who shall bring me down to the ground?" God answers: "Though thou be exalted as an eagle, and though thou set thy nest among the stars: thence will I bring thee down." Thieves take only what they want, but Esau will be searched to his hidden things; his allies will betray him, "they that eat with thee shall lay snares under thee", and his wise men will fail him.

The crime: violence against a brother (verses 10–14)

Then comes the charge: "For the slaughter, and for the iniquity against thy brother Jacob, confusion shall cover thee, and thou shalt perish for ever." When foreigners entered Jerusalem and cast lots for it, "thou also wast as one of them." The prophet lists Edom's wrongs as commands (Abdias 1:12–14): do not look on in the day of thy brother, do not rejoice over Juda, do not stand in the crossways to kill those who flee. Challoner explains: "It is a reprehension for what they had done, and at the same time a declaration that these things should not pass unpunished." On "thou shalt not magnify thy mouth" he notes: "thou shalt not speak arrogantly against the children of Juda as insulting them in their distress."

The day of the Lord and the kingdom (verses 15–21)

The vision widens to all peoples: "For the day of the Lord is at hand upon all nations: as thou hast done, so shall it be done to thee: he will turn thy reward upon thy own head" (verses 15–21). The cup of judgment Jerusalem drank will pass to the nations. "And in mount Sion shall be salvation, and it shall be holy." Jacob shall be a fire, Joseph a flame, and Esau stubble. The exiles shall come home and possess the land on every side, "and the captivity of Jerusalem that is in Bosphorus" (where the Hebrew reads Sepharad) "shall possess the cities of the south." The book ends: "And saviours shall come up into mount Sion to judge the mount of Esau: and the kingdom shall be for the Lord."

The meaning of Abdias: themes and the Catholic reading

Pride goes before a fall. Edom is the portrait of the proud soul: secure in its own heights, scornful of God, sure that no one can bring it down. Pride, first of the seven deadly sins, is judged here in the eagle's nest pulled from among the stars; see What Does God Say About Pride?

Rejoicing in a brother's ruin. Edom's sin was not only violence but gloating: to "look on", to "rejoice", to "magnify the mouth" over a brother's distress. Abdias condemns the cold satisfaction we feel at another's fall; the answer is the charity set out in What Does God Say About Revenge?.

The justice of God. "As thou hast done, so shall it be done to thee." God repays each according to his works, and the day of the Lord comes upon all nations, not upon Edom alone. The prophet's day of the Lord points beyond history to the judgment the Church teaches among the four last things; see also What Does God Say About Justice?.

Jacob and Esau, election and grace. Malachias (Malachi) begins his prophecy with the same two brothers: "I have loved Jacob, but have hated Esau" (Malachias 1:2–3), and St Paul quotes it in Romans 9:13. Challoner's note on Malachias explains that God "preferred his posterity, to make them my chosen people ... without any merit on their part", and adds: "Not that God punished Esau, or his posterity, beyond their desert." The Epistle to the Hebrews makes Esau a warning to Christians, the "profane person ... who for one mess, sold his first birthright" (Hebrews 12:16).

Christ and the Church of the Gentiles. St Augustine, in The City of God (XVIII, 31), reads the last verses of Abdias of Christ. Taking Edom, "by that form of speech in which a part is put for the whole", for all the nations, he understands Mount Sion as Judea, "where it is predicted there shall be safety, and a Holy One, that is, Christ Jesus".

Those who come up out of Sion are "the believers in Christ from Judea, of whom the apostles are chiefly to be acknowledged", who won the nations "through the preaching of the gospel", so that believers might be "translated into the kingdom of God". Mount Esau, he concludes, "signifies the Church of the Gentiles". In this reading the book that opens on Edom's ruin closes on the nations gathered into the kingdom. The same hope sounds in Amos 9, where the rebuilt tabernacle of David will "possess the remnant of Edom, and all nations", words St James applies to the calling of the Gentiles in Acts 15.

"The kingdom shall be for the Lord." The last words of Abdias, et erit Domino regnum, are fulfilled in the Son of Mary, of whom the angel said that "he shall reign in the house of Jacob for ever. And of his kingdom there shall be no end" (Luke 1:32–33), and in the heavenly cry of Apocalypse 11:15: "The kingdom of this world is become our Lord's and his Christ's." In Isaias 63 the Redeemer "cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bosra", and Challoner notes that Edom and Bosra are "taken in a mystical sense for the enemies of Christ and his church."

Famous verses of Abdias

Abdias 1:3–4, the eagle's nest, opens in the Vulgate with Superbia cordis tui extulit te, "the pride of thy heart hath lifted thee up"; read it in Abdias 1 with the Latin beside the English.

Abdias 1:15, sicut fecisti, fiet tibi, "as thou hast done, so shall it be done to thee", the law of the day of the Lord that runs through Joel 2 and Amos 9.

Abdias 1:17 and 1:21, salvation on Mount Sion and et erit Domino regnum, the two verses St Augustine reads of Christ and His Church.

Abdias in the canon and the liturgy

Abdias is a protocanonical book, received by Jews and Christians alike, and it stands in every Bible, Catholic and Protestant. In the Hebrew Bible it belongs to the "Book of the Twelve", the Minor Prophets, which Ecclesiasticus already honours: "may the bones of the twelve prophets spring up out of their place: for they strengthened Jacob" (Ecclesiasticus 49:12). The Council of Trent, in its decree on the canonical Scriptures (Session IV, 1546), names it among "the twelve minor prophets, to wit, Osee, Joel, Amos, Abdias, Jonas, Micheas", in the order of the Vulgate. The Douay-Rheims calls it "The Prophecy of Abdias" (Prophetia Abdiae); Protestant Bibles call it Obadiah. Our pages on the Douay-Rheims Bible and the Latin Vulgate explain these names.

In the liturgy, the 1962 Missal takes no lesson from Abdias, but the Roman Breviary reads it at Matins. The Minor Prophets fill the fourth week of November, beginning with Osee (Hosea) on the Sunday; Abdias has its day on the Friday, when the lessons are taken from verses 1–11, between Amos on Thursday and Jonas on Saturday, as the Church's year draws to its close with the thought of judgment. You can pray the Office in our Breviary and follow the season in the liturgical calendar.

How to read the Book of Abdias

Read it whole, aloud, in one sitting. Read Genesis 27 first, so that the names Jacob and Esau carry their weight; then compare Jeremias 49 and Ezechiel 35, the other great oracles against Edom. Keep the Latin open, and examine your heart against verses 3 and 12: where do I trust my own height, and where have I looked with satisfaction on a brother's fall?

Frequently Asked Questions

Who wrote the Book of Obadiah?

The Church receives the book as the work of the prophet Abdias (Obadiah), whom it names in its first verse: "The vision of Abdias." Nothing certain is known of his life beyond what the book implies, that he belonged to the Kingdom of Juda. An old tradition identified him with Achab's steward of 3 Kings 18, who hid a hundred prophets, but this is uncertain.

When was the Book of Obadiah written?

The book gives no date. Catholic scholars have proposed the reign of Joram of Juda in the ninth century BC, when Philistines and Arabians plundered Jerusalem; the time of the Babylonian captivity, after Nabuchodonosor took Jerusalem in 588–587 BC; or a date after the return from exile. As the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia notes, none of these opinions touches the prophecy of Edom's ruin and of the Messianic times.

What is the Book of Obadiah about?

It is a prophecy against Edom, the nation descended from Esau, for its pride and for its cruelty to Juda, its brother nation, when Jerusalem was taken. It foretells Edom's fall, announces that "the day of the Lord is at hand upon all nations", and ends with salvation on Mount Sion and the words "the kingdom shall be for the Lord." You can read it in a few minutes in Abdias 1.

How many chapters are in the Book of Obadiah?

One. Abdias (Obadiah) has a single chapter of twenty-one verses, the shortest book of the Old Testament. It is the fourth of the twelve Minor Prophets, between Amos and Jonas.

What is the main message of the Book of Obadiah?

God brings down the proud and repays every injustice: "as thou hast done, so shall it be done to thee." Edom trusted in its rocky heights and rejoiced at its brother's ruin, and it fell. But the book ends in hope, with salvation on Mount Sion and the kingdom given to the Lord, which St Augustine reads of Christ and the calling of the Gentiles.

Does the Book of Obadiah relate the doom of Nineveh?

No. Abdias speaks only of Edom, the people of Esau. The doom of Ninive (Nineveh) is the subject of the prophet Nahum, "The burden of Ninive", while Jonas tells of Ninive's repentance at an earlier preaching.

Where is the Book of Obadiah in the Bible?

It stands in every Bible, Catholic and Protestant, among the twelve Minor Prophets, after Amos and before Jonas (Jonah). Catholic Bibles that follow the Vulgate and the Douay-Rheims call it Abdias, Protestant Bibles call it Obadiah; it is the same book.

Who is Edom in the Book of Obadiah?

Edom is the nation descended from Esau, the elder twin of Jacob, who was called Edom, "red", after the red pottage for which he sold his birthright (Genesis 25). His people settled in Mount Seir, south-east of the Dead Sea, and Abdias condemns them for joining the foreigners who plundered Jerusalem, their brother's city. The Fathers also read Edom as a figure of the nations, and St Augustine sees the mount of Esau at the end of the book as the Church of the Gentiles.

Read the whole Prophecy of Abdias verse by verse, Latin and English side by side, in the Iter Fidei Catholic Bible app.

Sources. Holy Scripture, Douay-Rheims (Challoner) and Latin Vulgate: Abdias 1, with Challoner's notes; Genesis 25, 27, 33, 36; Numbers 20; Deuteronomy 23:7; 3 Kings 18:3–4; 4 Kings 8:20–22; 2 Paralipomenon 21:8–17; Psalm 136 (137):7; Ecclesiasticus 49:12; Isaias 63:1 with Challoner's note; Jeremias 49:7–22; Ezechiel 35; Joel 2:32; Amos 9:11–12; Acts 15:16–17; Malachias 1:2–4 with Challoner's note; Luke 1:32–33; Romans 9:13; Hebrews 12:16–17; Apocalypse 11:15. St Augustine, The City of God XVIII, 31. Roman Breviary, Matins of the fourth week of November. Council of Trent, Session IV (1546), Decree on the Canonical Scriptures. F. Gigot, "Abdias", The Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. I (1907).