ABDIAS, whose name is interpreted THE SERVANT OF THE LORD,
is believed to have prophesied about the same time as OSEE,
JOEL, and AMOS: though some of the Hebrews, who believe him
to be the same with ACHAB's steward, make him much more
ancient. His prophecy is the shortest of any in number of
words, but yields to none, says ST. JEROME, in the sublimity
of mysteries. It contains but one chapter.
Abdias Chapter 1
The destruction of Edom for their pride: and the wrongs they
did to Jacob: the salvation and victory of Israel.
1:1. The vision of Abdias. Thus saith the Lord God to Edom:
We have heard a rumour from the Lord, and he hath sent an
ambassador to the nations: Arise, and let us rise up to
battle against him.
1:2. Behold I have made thee small among the nations: thou
art exceeding contemptible.
1:3. 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?
1:4. Though thou be exalted as an eagle, and though thou set
thy nest among the stars: thence will I bring thee down,
saith the Lord.
1:5. If thieves had gone in to thee, if robbers by night,
how wouldst thou have held thy peace? would they not have
stolen till they had enough? if the grapegatherers had come
in to thee, would they not have left thee at the least a
cluster?
1:6. How have they searched Esau, how have they sought out
his hidden things?
1:7. They have sent thee out even to the border: all the men
of thy confederacy have deceived thee: the men of thy peace
have prevailed against thee: they that eat with thee shall
lay snares under thee: there is no wisdom in him.
1:8. Shall not I in that day, saith the Lord, destroy the
wise out of Edom, and understanding out of the mount of
Esau?
1:9. And thy valiant men of the south shall be afraid, that
man may be cut off from the mount of Esau.
1:10. For the slaughter, and for the iniquity against thy
brother Jacob, confusion shall cover thee, and thou shalt
perish for ever.
1:11. In the day when thou stoodest against him, when
strangers carried away his army captive, and foreigners
entered into his gates, and cast lots upon Jerusalem: thou
also wast as one of them.
1:12. But thou shalt not look on in the day of thy brother,
in the day of his leaving his country: and thou shalt not
rejoice over the children of Juda, in the day of their
destruction: and thou shalt not magnify thy mouth in the day
of distress.
Thou shalt not look, etc... or, thou shouldst not, etc. It
is a reprehension for what they had done, and at the same
time a declaration that these things should not pass
unpunished.-Ibid. Thou shalt not magnify thy mouth... That
is, thou shalt not speak arrogantly against the children of
Juda as insulting them in their distress.
1:13. Neither shalt thou enter into the gate of my people in
the day of their ruin: neither shalt thou also look on in
his evils in the day of his calamity: and thou shalt not be
sent out against his army in the day of his desolation.
1:14. Neither shalt thou stand in the crossways to kill them
that flee: and thou shalt not shut up them that remain of
him in the day of tribulation.
1:15. 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.
1:16. For as you have drunk upon my holy mountain, so all
nations shall drink continually: and they shall drink, and
sup up, and they shall be as though they were not.
1:17. And in mount Sion shall be salvation, and it shall be
holy, and the house of Jacob shall possess those that
possessed them.
1:18. And the house of Jacob shall be a fire, and the house
of Joseph a flame, and the house of Esau stubble: and they
shall be kindled in them, and shall devour them: and there
shall be no remains of the house of Esau, for the Lord hath
spoken it.
1:19. And they that are toward the south, shall inherit the
mount of Esau, and they that are in the plains, the
Philistines: and they shall possess the country of Ephraim,
and the country of Samaria: and Benjamin shall possess
Galaad.
1:20. And the captivity of this host of the children of
Israel, all the places of the Chanaanites even to Sarepta:
and the captivity of Jerusalem that is in Bosphorus, shall
possess the cities of the south.
1:21. And saviours shall come up into mount Sion to judge
the mount of Esau: and the kingdom shall be for the Lord.
The text in this file was taken with permission from Catholic Software's Douay Bible program, a complete multimedia Bible for the PC. The complete product description follows:
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