Obadiah 1:10-14

Causes of the judgment, Obadiah 1:10-14.

In Obadiah 1:10 the prophet who gave to the book its present form begins to speak. In the contents of Obadiah 1:1-9 he saw a message suitable to his own age; and since it expressed his own thoughts in a vivid and forceful manner, he adopted it for his own use. But the causes responsible for the threat at the earlier period were probably not the same as those which led him to proclaim the same judgment. The latter grew out of his own present historical situation; hence he must set them forth in his own language. This he does in 10ff., beginning (verse Obadiah 1:10) with the general statement that the judgment is made necessary by the hostility of Edom toward Judah, which statement is followed by a reiteration of the previous threat. In Obadiah 1:11-14 he describes in greater detail the crimes of Edom.