Obadiah 1:16 - Exposition

As ye have drunk. There are two interpretations of this passage. By the first, the people addressed are considered to be the Jews, and the word "drunk" is taken metaphorically in both clauses (see note on Nahum 3:11 ). The meaning is then this—As ye Jews, who are upon my holy mountain, the people of election, have not escaped from suffering the wrath of God, so all the nations shell feel the same, and that to a much more terrible extent. Confirmatory of this explanation is the language of Jeremiah, who ( Jeremiah 25:15-29 ) bids all the nations to drink the cup of God's wrath, beginning at Jerusalem and passing on to Edom, and then says, in answer to any who refuse the offered draught, "Lo, I begin to bring evil on the city which is called by my name, and should ye be utterly unpunished?" The same notion is found also in Jeremiah 49:12 and Lamentations 4:21 , etc. But there are objections to this view of the passage. The previous verse enunciated the doctrine of retribution; this verse confirms the former with the words, "for as ye," etc. It would be no proof of the lex talionis on the Edomites to cite what had happened to the Jews. What is wanted is an assertion that what they had done should be repaid to them in like coin, Besides, the prophecy is nominally addressed to the Edomites, not to the Jews, and it would he most harsh to change the subject suddenly here. "Upon my mountain" cannot be equivalent to "ye who are upon my mountain;" nor is such an expression ever used to signify "Judaeans." It is best, therefore, to take the clause as referring to the Edomites and their comrades, who, after their victory, indulged in unseemly revelry, and profaned the mountain hallowed by God's presence in the temple with their idolatrous festival The "drinking" in this first clause is literal; in the following clause it is figurative. Septuaguint, ἔπιες , "thou didst drink," which makes the connection of the subject here with that in Lamentations 4:15 more evident, and it has probably been altered by the translators for that purpose. So shall all the heathen drink continually. The prophet plays on the word "drink." The nations shall drink, not wine, but the wrath of God ( Psalms 75:8 ; Jeremiah 25:15 ). The nations are spoken of here because Edom is taken as a type of all nations hostile to God, and the retribution that falls on him is extended to all who assume his attitude towards God's people (Keil). Continually ; Vulgate , jugiter, perpetually, in uninterrupted succession. The LXX . has οἶνον , by a mistaken reading. They shall swallow down; drink a full draught; Septuagint, καταβήσονται , they shall go down." They shall be as though they had not been. They shall drain the wrath of God till they utterly perish, till, as nations, they exist no more (comp. Ezekiel 26:21 ; Ezekiel 27:36 ). Septuagint, καθὼς οὐχ ὑπάρχοντες , as if not, being" (comp. Ecclus. 38:11; 44:9). (For the accomplishment of this prophecy against Edom, see Introduction, § L)