¹ The vision of Obadiah. Thus saith the Lord God concerning Edom: We have heard a word from the Lord, and an ambassador is sent among the heathen: “Arise ye, and let us rise up against her in battle”:

² “Behold, I have made thee small among the heathen; thou art greatly despised.

³ The pride of thine heart hath deceived thee, thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock, whose habitation is high, that saith in his heart, ‘Who shall bring me down to the ground?’

⁴ Though thou exalt thyself as the eagle, and though thou set thy nest among the stars, from thence will I bring thee down,” saith the Lord.

⁵ “If thieves came to thee, if robbers by night (how thou art cut off!), would they not have stolen till they had enough? If the grape-gatherers came to thee, would they not leave some grapes?

⁶ How the things of Esau are searched out! How his hidden things are sought out!

⁷ All the men of thy confederacy have brought thee even to the border; the men that were at peace with thee have deceived thee and prevailed against thee. They that eat thy bread have laid a wound under thee; there is no understanding in him.

⁸ Shall I not in that day,” saith the Lord, “even destroy the wise men out of Edom, and understanding out of the mount of Esau?

⁹ And thy mighty men, O Teman, shall be dismayed, to the end that every one of the mount of Esau may be cut off by slaughter.

¹⁰ “For thy violence against thy brother Jacob, shame shall cover thee, and thou shalt be cut off for ever.

¹¹ In the day that thou stoodest on the other side—in the day that the strangers carried away captive his forces, and foreigners entered into his gates and cast lots upon Jerusalem” even thou wast as one of them.

¹² But thou shouldest not have looked on the day of thy brother in the day that he became a stranger; neither shouldest thou have rejoiced over the children of Judah in the day of their destruction; neither shouldest thou have spoken proudly in the day of distress.

¹³ Thou shouldest not have entered into the gate of My people in the day of their calamity; yea, thou shouldest not have looked on their affliction in the day of their calamity, nor have laid hands on their substance in the day of their calamity.

¹⁴ Neither shouldest thou have stood in the crossway to cut off those of his that did escape; neither shouldest thou have delivered up those of his that remained in the day of distress.

¹⁵ “For the day of the Lord is near upon all the heathen. As thou hast done, it shall be done unto thee: thy reward shall return upon thine own head.

¹⁶ For as ye have drunk upon My holy mountain, so shall all the heathen drink continually; yea, they shall drink, and they shall swallow down, and they shall be as though they had not been.

¹⁷ “But upon Mount Zion shall be deliverance, and there shall be holiness; and the house of Jacob shall possess their possessions.

¹⁸ And the house of Jacob shall be a fire, and the house of Joseph a flame, and the house of Esau for stubble; and they shall kindle them and devour them. And there shall not be any remaining of the house of Esau, for the Lord hath spoken it.”

¹⁹ And they of the south shall possess the mount of Esau, and they of the plain the Philistines. And they shall possess the fields of Ephraim and the fields of Samaria, and Benjamin shall possess Gilead.

²⁰ And the captives of this host of the children of Israel shall possess that of the Canaanites, even unto Zarephath; and the captives of Jerusalem who are in Sepharad shall possess the cities of the south.

²¹ And saviors shall come up on Mount Zion to judge the mount of Esau; and the kingdom shall be the Lord’S.

1 The words of Jeremiah the son of Hilkiah, of the priests who were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin,

² to whom the word of the Lord came in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign.

³ It came also in the days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, unto the end of the eleventh year of Zedekiah the son of Josiah, king of Judah, unto the carrying away of Jerusalem captive in the fifth month.

⁴ Then the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,

⁵ “Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee, and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.”

⁶ Then said I, “Ah, Lord God! Behold, I cannot speak, for I am a child.”

⁷ But the Lord said unto me, “Say not, ‘I am a child,’ for thou shalt go to all whom I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak.

⁸ Be not afraid of their faces, for I am with thee to deliver thee,” saith the Lord.

⁹ Then the Lord put forth His hand and touched my mouth. And the Lord said unto me, “Behold, I have put My words in thy mouth.

¹⁰ See, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms to root out and to pull down, and to destroy and to throw down, to build and to plant.”

¹¹ Moreover the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, “Jeremiah, what seest thou?” And I said, “I see a rod of an almond tree.”

¹² Then said the Lord unto me, “Thou hast well seen, for I will hasten My word to perform it.”

¹³ And the word of the Lord came unto me the second time, saying, “What seest thou?” And I said, “I see a seething pot, and the face thereof is toward the north.”

¹⁴ Then the Lord said unto me, “Out of the north an evil shall break forth upon all the inhabitants of the land.

¹⁵ For lo, I will call all the families of the kingdoms of the north,” saith the Lord; “and they shall come and they shall set every one his throne at the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem, and against all the walls thereof round about, and against all the cities of Judah.

¹⁶ And I will utter My judgments against them concerning all their wickedness, who have forsaken Me, and have burned incense unto other gods, and worshiped the works of their own hands.

¹⁷ Thou therefore gird up thy loins, and arise and speak unto them all that I command thee. Be not dismayed at their faces, lest I confound thee before them.

¹⁸ For behold, I have made thee this day a fortified city, and an iron pillar, and brazen walls against the whole land — against the kings of Judah, against the princes thereof, against the priests thereof, and against the people of the land.

¹⁹ And they shall fight against thee; but they shall not prevail against thee, for I am with thee,” saith the Lord, “to deliver thee.”

2 Moreover the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

² “Go and cry in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, ‘Thus saith the Lord: “‘I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals, when thou wentest after Me in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown.

³ Israel was holiness unto the Lord, and the firstfruits of His increase. All that devour him shall offend; evil shall come upon them,’” saith the Lord.

⁴ Hear ye the word of the Lord, O house of Jacob, and all the families of the house of Israel.

⁵ Thus saith the Lord: “What iniquity have your fathers found in Me, that they are gone far from Me, and have walked after vanity, and have become vain?

⁶ Neither said they, ‘Where is the Lord that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, that led us through the wilderness, through a land of deserts and of pits, through a land of drought and of the shadow of death, through a land that no man passed through and where no man dwelt?’

⁷ And I brought you into a plentiful country to eat the fruit thereof and the goodness thereof; but when ye entered, ye defiled My land and made Mine heritage an abomination.

⁸ The priests said not, ‘Where is the Lord?’ And they that handle the law knew Me not; the pastors also transgressed against Me; and the prophets prophesied by Baal, and walked after things that do not profit.

⁹ “Therefore I will yet plead with you,” saith the Lord, “and with your children’s children will I plead.

¹⁰ For pass over to the isles of Chittim and see; and send unto Kedar and consider diligently, and see if there be such a thing.

¹¹ Hath a nation changed their gods, which are yet no gods? But My people have changed their Glory for that which doth not profit.

¹² Be astonished, O ye heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid; be ye very desolate,” saith the Lord.

¹³ “For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, and hewn them out cisterns—broken cisterns that can hold no water.

¹⁴ “Is Israel a servant? Is he a homeborn slave? Why is he despoiled?

¹⁵ The young lions roared at him and yelled, and they made his land waste; his cities are burned without inhabitant.

¹⁶ Also the children of Noph and Tahpanhes have broken the crown of thy head.

¹⁷ Hast thou not procured this unto thyself, in that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God when He led thee by the way?

¹⁸ And now what hast thou to do in the way of Egypt, to drink the waters of Sihor? Or what hast thou to do in the way of Assyria, to drink the waters of the river?

¹⁹ Thine own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy backslidings shall reprove thee. Know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and bitter that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God, and that the fear of Me is not in thee,” saith the Lord God of hosts.

²⁰ “For of olden time I have broken thy yoke and burst thy bonds; and thou saidst, ‘I will not transgress,’ when upon every high hill and under every green tree thou wanderest, playing the harlot.

²¹ Yet I had planted thee, a noble vine, wholly a right seed. How then art thou turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine unto Me?

²² For though thou wash thee with soda and take thee much soap, yet thine iniquity is marked before Me,” saith the Lord God.

²³ “How canst thou say, ‘I am not polluted; I have not gone after the Baalim’? See thy way in the valley; know what thou hast done. Thou art a swift dromedary traversing her ways,

²⁴ a wild ass used to the wilderness, that snuffeth up the wind at her pleasure. In her need who can turn her away? All they that seek her will not weary themselves; in her month they shall find her.

²⁵ Withhold thy foot from being unshod, and thy throat from thirst. But thou saidst, ‘There is no hope; no, for I have loved strangers, and after them will I go.’

²⁶ “As the thief is ashamed when he is found, so is the house of Israel ashamed—they, their kings, their princes, and their priests and their prophets,

²⁷ saying to a stock, ‘Thou art my father,’ and to a stone, ‘Thou hast brought me forth.’ For they have turned their back unto Me, and not their face; but in the time of their trouble they will say, ‘Arise, and save us!’

²⁸ But where are thy gods that thou hast made thee? Let them arise if they can save thee in the time of thy trouble; for according to the number of thy cities are thy gods, O Judah.

²⁹ “Why will ye plead with Me? Ye all have transgressed against Me,” saith the Lord.

³⁰ “In vain have I smitten your children; they received no correction. Your own sword hath devoured your prophets like a destroying lion.

³¹ O generation, see ye the word of the Lord! Have I been a wilderness unto Israel? A land of darkness? Why say My people, ‘We are lords; we will come no more unto Thee’?

³² Can a maid forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire? Yet My people have forgotten Me days without number.

³³ Why readiest thou thy way to seek love? Therefore hast thou also taught the wicked ones thy ways.

³⁴ Also in thy skirts is found the blood of the souls of the poor innocents; I have not found it by secret search, but upon all these.

³⁵ Yet thou sayest, ‘Because I am innocent, surely His anger shall turn from me.’ Behold, I will plead with thee because thou sayest, ‘I have not sinned.’

³⁶ Why gaddest thou about so much to change thy way? Thou also shalt be ashamed of Egypt as thou wast ashamed of Assyria.

³⁷ Yea, thou shalt go forth from him with thine hands upon thine head; for the Lord hath rejected thy confidences, and thou shalt not prosper in them.