Obadiah 5-7
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
5 If thieves came to you, robbers by night
—how you have been destroyed!—
would they not steal merely till they had enough?
If grape pickers came to you,
would they not leave some gleanings?[a](A)
6 [b]How Esau has been searched out,
his treasures hunted down!
7 To the border they have driven you—
all your allies;
Your partners have deceived you,
they have overpowered you;
Those who eat your bread[c]
will replace you with foreigners,
who have no understanding.
Footnotes
- 5 Something of value may escape the thief, and the grape picker always leaves something for the gleaners, but God’s devastation of Edom will be complete.
- 6 With the past tense in vv. 5–7, the prophet presents a future event as if it had already happened.
- 7 Those who eat your bread: alliances were often established by covenant meals (cf. Gn 31:44–46). When Edom is destroyed, foreigners will replace the Edomites, who were known for wisdom (cf. v. 8; Jer 49:7; Jb 2:11).
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