Obadiah 1:6 - Exposition

Obadiah contemplates Eden's ruin, in retribution of her plundering Jerusalem, and speaks of it as past. How are the things of Esau searched out! literally, how are the things searched out, Esau! i.e. the people and property that belong to Esau. The enemy leave no place unexamined. So in Zephaniah 1:12 the Lord says, "I will search Jerusalem with candles." (For "Esau" as equivalent to "Eden," see Genesis 25:30 .) His hidden things ( matspon , ἅπαξ λεγόμενον ); hidden treasures; Septuagint, τὰ κεκρυμμένα αὐτοῦ . Jeremiah ( Jeremiah 49:10 ) gives, "secret places." Keil notes that Petra was a great emporium of the trade between Arabia and Syria, and that in it great treasures were stored (Diod. Sic; 19.95).