Old/New Testament
Rise Up! Let Us Attack Edom
1 The vision of Obadiah about Edom:
I heard a message from the Lord,
and a herald has been sent to advise the nations:
“Rise up! Let us attack Edom!”
2 The Lord says to Edom:
I will make you the least of all the nations;
you are the object of utter contempt.
3 The pride in your heart has led you astray,
you who live in the crannies of the rock,
whose dwelling is on the heights.
You think to yourself,
“Who can bring me down to the ground?”
4 Even though you soar like an eagle
and your nest is set among the stars,
from there I will bring you down
says the Lord.
5 If thieves approached you,
or robbers during the night,
you would not be destroyed,
for wouldn’t they steal only what they wanted?
If grape-pickers were to come to you,
wouldn’t they leave gleanings?
6 But note how they will ransack Esau
and steal his hidden treasures.
7 All your former allies
will drive you to your borders.
Your confederates will overpower you,
those who eat your bread will set a trap for you,
but you will not realize it.[a]
8 On that day, says the Lord,
I will destroy all the wise men of Edom,
and wisdom will disappear from the mountains of Esau.
9 Your warriors will be so terrified, O Teman,[b]
that there will be no survivors on the mountains of Esau.
10 Because of the slaughter and the violence
inflicted on your brother Jacob,
shame will cover you
and you will be cut off forever.
11 On the day when you stood aside
while strangers carried off his wealth,
and foreigners passed through his gates
and cast lots for Jerusalem,
you were as evil as they were.
Do Not Gloat over Your Brother on the Day of His Misfortune
12 Do not gloat over your brother
on the day of his misfortune.
Do not rejoice over the children of Judah
on the day of their ruin,
nor boast unfeelingly
on the day of their distress.
13 Do not enter the gate of my people
on the day of their calamity.
Do not join in the gloating
on the day of their calamity.
Do not lay your hands on their possessions
on the day of their calamity.
14 Do not wait at the crossroads
to slaughter their fugitives.
Do not hand over the survivors
on the day of their distress.
15 For the day of the Lord is near
for all the nations.
As you have done,
so will it be done to you;
your deeds will recoil upon your own head.
Dominion Will Belong to the Lord
16 Just as you have drunk on my holy mountain,
so shall all the nations drink continually;
they shall drink and gulp it down
and be as though they had never been.
17 But on Mount Zion a remnant will be saved;
it will be holy,
and the house of Jacob will take possession
of those who dispossessed them.
18 Then the house of Jacob will be a fire,
and the house of Joseph a flame.
The house of Esau will be stubble;
it will be set afire and consumed,
and no one of the house of Esau will survive,
for the Lord has spoken.
19 My people from the Negeb[c]
will occupy the mount of Esau,
and people from the lowlands
will occupy the foothills
of the land of the Philistines.
They will occupy the fields of Ephraim and Samaria,
and Benjamin will possess Gilead.
20 The exiles of the Israelites
will possess Phoenicia as far as Zarephath,[d]
and the exiles of Jerusalem who are in Sepharad
will possess the towns of the Negeb.
21 Those who have been saved
will ascend Mount Zion
to rule over the mountains of Esau,
and dominion will belong to the Lord.
Chapter 9
The Fifth Trumpet: the First Woe.[a] 1 Then the fifth angel blew his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen from the sky to the earth. He was given the key to the shaft leading down to the abyss. 2 When he unlocked the shaft of the abyss, smoke rose up from the abyss like smoke from a huge furnace, so that the sun and the sky were darkened by the smoke from the abyss. 3 And out of the smoke locusts dropped down onto the earth, and they were given the same powers that scorpions have on the earth. 4 They were commanded not to damage the grass or the earth or any plant or tree, and they were told to attack only those people who did not have God’s seal on their foreheads.
5 They were given permission to torture these people for five months, but they were not allowed to kill them, and the torment they were to inflict was to be like that of a scorpion when it stings someone. 6 During that time, these people will seek death but will not find it; they will long to die, but death will elude them.
7 In appearance the locusts were like horses equipped for battle. On their heads they wore what appeared to be gold crowns. Their faces were like human faces, 8 and their hair was like women’s hair. Their teeth were like lions’ teeth, 9 and their chests were like iron breastplates. The sound of their wings was like the rumble of many horses and chariots rushing into battle.
10 These locusts had tails and stings like those of scorpions, and in their tails they had the power to torment people for five months. 11 They had as their king the angel of the abyss, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in Greek, Apollyon.
12 The first woe has passed, but two more are still to come.
13 The Sixth Trumpet: the Second Woe.[b] Then the sixth angel blew his trumpet, and I heard a voice[c] emanating from the horns of the gold altar that stood in the presence of God. 14 It said to the sixth angel who was holding the trumpet, “Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates.”
15 And so the four angels, who had been held in readiness for this very hour, day, month, and year, were released to kill a third of mankind.[d] 16 The number of their cavalry troops was two hundred million. This was the number I heard.
17 This is how I saw the horses and their riders in my vision. The riders wore breastplates in shades of red, blue, and yellow. The heads of the horses were like heads of lions, and issuing forth from their mouths were fire, smoke, and sulfur. 18 By these three plagues of fire, smoke, and sulfur that poured forth from their mouths, a third of mankind was killed. 19 The power of the horses was in their mouths and in their tails. Their tails were like serpents, with heads that inflicted harm.
20 However, the rest of mankind who survived these plagues did not repent of the work of their hands or cease their worship of demons[e] and of idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone, and wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk. 21 Nor did they repent of their murders, their sorcery, their sexual immorality, or their thefts.
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