Obadiah 1:2

THE MESSAGE

"Listen to this, Edom: I'm turning you to a no-account, the runt of the godless nations, despised. You thought you were so great, perched high among the rocks, king of the mountain, Thinking to yourself, ‘Nobody can get to me! Nobody can touch me!' Think again. Even if, like an eagle, you hang out on a high cliff-face, Even if you build your nest in the stars, I'll bring you down to earth." God 's sure Word.

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
Look, I will make you insignificantamong the nations;you will be deeply despised.

Hebrew Names Version
Behold, I have made you small among the nations. You are greatly despised.

King James Version (1611)
Behold, I haue made thee small among the heathen: thou art greatly despised.

King James Version
Behold, I have made thee small among the heathen: thou art greatly despised.

English Standard Version
Behold, I will make you small among the nations; you shall be utterly despised.

New American Standard Bible
"Behold, I will make you small among the nations; You are greatly despised.

New Century Version
"Soon I will make you the smallest of nations. You will be greatly hated by everyone.

Amplified Bible
"Behold [Edom], I shall [humiliate you and] make you small among the nations; You are greatly despised.

Geneva Bible (1587)
Beholde, I haue made thee smal among the heathen: thou art vtterly despised.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
"Behold, I will make you small among the nations; You are greatly despised.

Legacy Standard Bible
"Behold, I will make you small among the nations;You are greatly despised.

Berean Standard Bible
"Behold, I will make you small among the nations; you will be deeply despised.

Contemporary English Version
The Lord said to Edom: I will make you the weakest and most despised nation.

Complete Jewish Bible
"I am making you the least of all nations, you will be beneath contempt.

Darby Translation
Behold, I have made thee small among the nations; thou art greatly despised.

Easy-to-Read Version
"Edom, I will make you the smallest nation. Everyone will hate you very much.

George Lamsa Translation
Behold, I have made you the least among the nations; you are greatly despised.

Good News Translation
The Lord says to Edom, "I will make you weak; everyone will despise you.

Lexham English Bible
"Look, I will make you insignificant among the nations. You will be utterly despised!

Literal Translation
Behold, I have given you to be small among the nations; you are greatly despised.

American Standard Version
Behold, I have made thee small among the nations: thou art greatly despised.

Bible in Basic English
See, I have made you small among the nations: you are much looked down on.

JPS Old Testament (1917)
Behold, I make thee small among the nations; thou art greatly despised.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
Behold, I haue made thee smal among the heathen, thou art vtterly despised.

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
Arise ye, and let us rise up against her to war.

English Revised Version
Behold, I have made thee small among the nations: thou art greatly despised.

World English Bible
Behold, I have made you small among the nations. You are greatly despised.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Lo! Y yaf thee litil in hethene men, thou art ful myche `worthi to be dispisid.

Update Bible Version
Look, I have made you small among the nations: you are greatly despised.

Webster's Bible Translation
Behold, I have made thee small among the heathen: thou art greatly despised.

New English Translation
The Lord says, "Look! I will make you a weak nation; you will be greatly despised!

New King James Version
"Behold, I will make you small among the nations; You shall be greatly despised.

New Living Translation
The Lord says to Edom, "I will cut you down to size among the nations; you will be greatly despised.

New Life Bible
"I will make you small among the nations. Everyone will hate you.

New Revised Standard
I will surely make you least among the nations; you shall be utterly despised.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Lo! small, have I made thee, among the nations - Despised art thou exceedingly!

Douay-Rheims Bible
Behold I have made thee small among the nations: thou art exceeding contemptible.

Revised Standard Version
Behold, I will make you small among the nations, you shall be utterly despised.

Young's Literal Translation
Lo, little I have made thee among nations, Despised [art] thou exceedingly.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Beholde, I will make ye small amoge the Heithen, so that thou shalt be vtterly despised.

Contextual Overview

¹ Obadiah's Message to Edom from God , the Master. We got the news straight from God by a special messenger sent out to the godless nations: "On your feet, prepare for battle; get ready to make war on Edom! ²"Listen to this, Edom: I'm turning you to a no-account, the runt of the godless nations, despised. You thought you were so great, perched high among the rocks, king of the mountain, Thinking to yourself, ‘Nobody can get to me! Nobody can touch me!' Think again. Even if, like an eagle, you hang out on a high cliff-face, Even if you build your nest in the stars, I'll bring you down to earth." God 's sure Word. ⁵"If thieves crept up on you, they'd rob you blind—isn't that so? If they mugged you on the streets at night, they'd pick you clean—isn't that so? Oh, they'll take Esau apart, piece by piece, empty his purse and pockets. All your old partners will drive you to the edge. Your old friends will lie to your face. Your old drinking buddies will stab you in the back. Your world will collapse. You won't know what hit you. So don't be surprised"—it's God 's sure Word!— "when I wipe out all sages from Edom and rid the Esau mountains of its famous wise men. Your great heroes will desert you, Teman. There'll be nobody left in Esau's mountains. Because of the murderous history compiled against your brother Jacob, You will be looked down on by everyone. You'll lose your place in history. On that day you stood there and didn't do anything. Strangers took your brother's army into exile. Godless foreigners invaded and pillaged Jerusalem. You stood there and watched. You were as bad as they were. You shouldn't have gloated over your brother when he was down-and-out. You shouldn't have laughed and joked at Judah's sons when they were facedown in the mud. You shouldn't have talked so big when everything was so bad. You shouldn't have taken advantage of my people when their lives had fallen apart. You of all people should not have been amused by their troubles, their wrecked nation. You shouldn't have taken the shirt off their back when they were knocked flat, defenseless. And you shouldn't have stood waiting at the outskirts and cut off refugees, And traitorously turned in helpless survivors who had lost everything.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Numbers 24:18, 1 Samuel 2:7, 1 Samuel 2:8, Job 34:25-29, Psalms 107:39, Psalms 107:40, Isaiah 23:9, Ezekiel 29:15, Micah 7:10, Luke 1:51, Luke 1:52

Reciprocal: Jeremiah 49:15 - General Ezekiel 32:29 - Edom

Cross-References

Genesis 1:14
God spoke: "Lights! Come out! Shine in Heaven's sky! Separate Day from Night. Mark seasons and days and years, Lights in Heaven's sky to give light to Earth." And there it was.

Psalms 33:6
The skies were made by God 's command; he breathed the word and the stars popped out. He scooped Sea into his jug, put Ocean in his keg.

Isaiah 45:18
God , Creator of the heavens— he is, remember, G od. Maker of earth— he put it on its foundations, built it from scratch. He didn't go to all that trouble to just leave it empty, nothing in it. He made it to be lived in. This God says: "I am God , the one and only. I don't just talk to myself or mumble under my breath. I never told Jacob, ‘Seek me in emptiness, in dark nothingness.' I am God . I work out in the open, saying what's right, setting things right. So gather around, come on in, all you refugees and castoffs. They don't seem to know much, do they— those who carry around their no-god blocks of wood, praying for help to a dead stick? So tell me what you think. Look at the evidence. Put your heads together. Make your case. Who told you, and a long time ago, what's going on here? Who made sense of things for you? Wasn't I the one? God ? It had to be me. I'm the only God there is— The only God who does things right and knows how to help. So turn to me and be helped—saved!— everyone, whoever and wherever you are. I am God , the only God there is, the one and only. I promise in my own name: Every word out of my mouth does what it says. I never take back what I say. Everyone is going to end up kneeling before me. Everyone is going to end up saying of me, ‘Yes! Salvation and strength are in God !'" All who have raged against him will be brought before him, disgraced by their unbelief. And all who are connected with Israel will have a robust, praising, good life in God !

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Behold, I have made thee small among the Heathen,.... Or "a little one", or "thing" o; their number few, and their country not large, as Aben Ezra, especially in comparison of other nations; and therefore had no reason to be so proud, insolent, and secure, as they are afterwards said to be; or rather, "I will make thee"; the past for the future, after the prophetic manner, as Kimchi; that is weak and feeble, as the Targum; reduce their numbers, destroy their towns and cities, and bring them into a low and miserable condition: or the sense is, that he would make them look little, mean, and abject, in the sight of their enemies who would conclude, upon a view of them, that they should have no trouble in subduing them, and therefore should attack them without fear, and as sure of success:

thou art greatly despised; in the eyes of the nations round about; by their enemies, who looked upon them with contempt, because of the smallness of their number, their defenceless state and want of strength to support and defend themselves; see Jeremiah 49:15; had so the pope of Rome is little and despicable in the eyes of the monarchs of the earth; and the antichristian Edom will be more so at the time of its general ruin.

o קטן "parvium", V. L.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Behold, I have made thee small - God, having declared His future judgments upon Edom, assigns the first ground of those judgments. Pride was the root of Edom’s sin, then envy; then followed exultation at his brother’s fall, hard-heartedness and bloodshed. All this was against the disposition of God’s Providence for him. God had made him small, in numbers, in honor, in territory. Edom was a wild mountain people. It was strongly guarded in the rock-girt dwelling, which God had assigned it. Like the Swiss or the Tyrolese of old, or the inhabitants of Mount Caucasus now, it had strength for resistance through the advantages of its situation, not for aggression, unless it were that of a robber-horde. But lowness, as people use it, is the mother either of lowliness or pride. A low estate, acquiesced in by the grace of God, is the parent of lowliness; when rebelled against, it generates a greater intensity of pride than greatness, because that pride is against nature itself and God’s appointment. The pride of human greatness, sinful as it is, is allied to a natural nobility of character. Copying pervertedly the greatness of God, the soul, when it receives the Spirit of God, casts off the slough, and retains its nobility transfigured by grace. The conceit of littleness has the hideousness of those monstrous combinations, the more hideous, because unnatural, not a corruption only but a distortion of nature. Edom never attempted anything of moment by itself. “Thou art greatly despised.” Weakness, in itself, is neither despicable nor “despised.” It is despised only, when it vaunts itself to be, what it is not. God tells Edom what, amid its pride, it was in itself, “despicable;” what it would thereafter be, “despised” .

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Obadiah 1:2. I have made thee small among the heathen — God ever attributes to himself the rise and fall of nations. If they be great and prosperous, it is by God's providence; if they be low and depressed, it is by his justice. Compared with the Assyrians, Chaldeans, Egyptians, Syrians, Arabs, and other neighbouring nations, the Idumeans were a small people.