receive the measure which they meted to others. The last five verses com-prise the second part of the prophecy. On Mount Zion there shall be those that escape, and deliverance shall be given to the house of Jacob. The Israelites shall be agents in God's hand for the accomplishment of his vengeance; they shall expel the invaders of their country, and spread abroad on every side; the dispersed among the Gentiles shall return to their fellow-countrymen; and the great consummation shall arrive when "the kingdom shall be the Lord's."

"The relation of Edom to Israel had for the most part been of the most unfriendly character. Quarrels between relatives are proverbially bitter; this was the case with these two nations. The hostility showed itself in the refusal to allow Israel to pass through their land on the way to Canaan; it led to wars with Saul (1 Sam. xiv. 47) and with David, who must have had good reason for his very severe treatment of them when he put to death all the males (2 Sam. viii. 13, 14, Revised Version; 1 Kings xi. 15, etc.). Hadad, an Idumean chief, was one of Solomon's most inveterate opponents (1 Kings xi. 14-22); and though the Edomites were for many years kept under by stern measures, yet they rebelled whenever they saw a hope of success. Thus they joined with Moab and Ammon in an invasion of Judæa in the time of Jehoshaphat (2 Chron. xx. 22); under Jehoram they regained their independence, massacred the Judæans who were in their borders, and, in alliance with Philistines and desert tribes, plundered the king's palace in Jerusalem and slew his sons (2 Chron. xxi. 8, 17; Joel iii. 19; Amos i. 11). Some years later, however, they were successfully attacked by Amaziah, their stronghold Sela, or Petra, was taken, and the population was put to the sword, twenty thousand being slain in battle or butchered afterwards (2 Kings xiv. 7; 2 Chron. xxv. 11, etc.). Yet they were never completely subdued; they were always on the watch to smite Judah and to carry away captives (2 Chron. xxviii. 17). When Nebuchadnezzar besieged Jerusalem, they gladly joined the invaders (Ezek. xxxv.; xxxvi. 5), helped to plunder the city and to cut off stragglers who endeavoured to escape. This hostile attitude of Edom towards God's people is the ground of the judgment denounced by Obadiah.

The following eloquent passage from Dean Stanley's 'Lectures on the Jewish Church' (ii. 556) shows the attitude of Edom, and the feeling evoked by it in the breast of the Jews: "Deepest of all was the indignation roused by the sight of the nearest of kin, the race of Esau, often allied to Judah, often independent, now bound by the closest union with the power that was truly the common enemy of both. There was an intoxication of delight in the wild Edomite chiefs, as at each successive stroke against the venerable wall, they shouted, 'Down with it, down with it, even to the ground!' They stood in the passes to intercept the escape of those who would have fled down to the Jordan valley; they betrayed the fugitives; they indulged their barbarous revels on the temple hill. Long and loud has been the wail of execration which has gone up from the

Jewish nation against Edom. It is the one imprecation which breaks forth from the Lamentations of Jeremiah; it is the culmination of the fierce threats of Ezekiel; it is the sole purpose of the short, sharp cry of Obadiah; it is the bitterest drop in the sad recollections of the Israelite captives by the waters of Babylon; and the one warlike strain of the evangelical prophet is inspired by the hope that the Divine Conqueror should come knee-deep in Idumean blood."

The territory occupied by the Edomites extended from the southern end of the Dead Sea to the Elanitic Gulf, and comprised an area of about two thousand square miles. Though it was a mountainous district, and well deserved its biblical names of "the mount of Esau" and "Mount Seir," there was no want of fertile soil in its valleys and terraces. The ancient capital appears to have been Bozrah, a city that lay a few miles south of the Dead Sea. But at the time of Obadiah's prophecy this had been supplanted by the celebrated Sela, or Petra, the peculiar position of which place, with its difficult access, its rock-hewn dwellings, and natural defences, had tended to encourage in the Edomites a spirit of independence and security, which taught them to defy attack and to spurn all attempts at subjection.

There has always been great difficulty in visiting the modern reprosentatives of the Edomites, though some few enterprising persons have penetrated their fastnesses, and given to the world the results of their investigations. A late traveller who has succeeded in inspecting Petra has described his visit in the Century Magazine, November, 1885, from which the following extracts are taken: "Petra is identified with the Hebrew Selah, a Rock,' the Amorite, Edomite, and Moabite stronghold (Judg. i. 36; 2 Kings xiv. 7; Isa. xvi. 1). Strabo (xvi. 663; v. 15, edit. Did.) tells us of Petra as a city shut in by rocks in the midst of the desert, yet supplied abundantly with water, and important as a place of transit for Oriental productions. The city lay in a narrow valley, surrounded by precipitous hills. On the eastern and western sides the cliffs rise almost perpendi cularly to the height of six or seven hundred feet. On the north and south the natural barriers are less formidable, and may, in places, be passed by camels. Many recesses, or small lateral valleys, open into the main valley. The circuit of the entire depression, including these lateral valleys, is about four miles. The site of Petra lies half-way between the Gulf of Akabah and the Dead Sea, about seventy miles, as the vulture flies, from each. It has been said that there is but one entrance to Petra. Yet there is a 'back door,' so to speak, through which some travellers have made their way into the city, and by means of which they have also more suddenly made their departure. The real approach is through a narrow gorge (Wady Mousa) some two miles long, of which the gateway faces the east. This is reached from Palestine by way of Moab, east of the Dead Sea, and from the south by the route I took [viz. across the Red Sea, a few miles south of Suez; down the desert to Mount Sinai; thence north and east to the head of the Gulf of Akabah]. The back door may be gained

...

from north or south by way of the Wady Arabah-the vast desert waste which lies between the Gulf of Akabah and the Dead Sea, into which it opens near the base of venerable Mount Hor. . . . Breaking our way through the jungle on the further side of the stream [the Sik], we found ourselves in the very heart of the necropolis of Petra. It may be useful to remind the reader, before we enter Petra proper, that all its principal structures, be they tombs, palaces, or temples, are excavated from the rock, and not constructed of quarried stone. The sides of the mountains are cut to smooth perpendicular faces, which are occupied by unbroken ranges of temples and of homes for the living and the dead. The interiors behind the ornate fronts are but caves squared by the old stone-cutter, and are lighted only by their doors. Continuing our advance, we followed the stream a few rods, and descending as the pass narrowed, the entrance of the frightful chasm, seen afar off at sunrise, was reached at last. What an impregnable gateway! Spanning it is a fine buttressed arch, resting upon rock-cut foundations. Beneath this a little stream gurgles. We followed it through the only entrance-the 'front door' of Petra. The top of the northern wall of the defile was once inhabited. Excavations, bridges, terraced gardens, and various other evidences remain upon it of the industry and artistic taste of a wonderfully persevering people. When we had come fairly inside the gorge, we found it at times so narrow that two of us could not walk abreast. Its perpendicular sides vary in height from four hundred to seven hundred feet, and frequently, without absolutely meeting, they overhang to such a degree that the sky is shut out from the sight for a hundred yards at a stretch. On every side, more than a yard above the stream-bed, channels are cut in the rock as conduits for water, and in some places terra-cotta pipes are found cemented in these channels. Tiny niches abound also, cut in the sides of the gorgeold pagan divinities, no doubt. The growth of oleanders becomes more dense as the gorge descends. Green caper plants dangle from the crevices, and here and there a graceful tamarisk is found in the shade. The tiny brook, the Sik, follows the whole way. The quarried stone scattered along the path indicates that the floor of the fissure was once paved. At every turn we saw evidences of indefatigable effort, and of how lavishly labour was expended by the people who lived in Petra in its days of power. For nearly two miles we followed the semi-subterranean passage. The pathway now descended; the water grew deeper, the opposing thicket more impassable, the scene more grand. . . . Emerging from the gorge into an open area, we stood face to face with the strange edifice (the Khuzneh). ... The colour is a delicate rose-pink, like that of the buildings further on in the city, almost unbroken by waves of other hue. As the inner gate of the city beyond the Khuzneh was entered, to the right and left wondrous architectural fancies loomed up. On the left is a group of square-cut edifices, seeming at first like gigantic steps, but out of which varied façades appear upon a closer view. On the right is a trio of tombs and temples

hewn from the end of a range of cliffs, the last one looking like a great grim warder at the city gate. Beneath are numberless excavations, each one of which, from its appearance, might have been used first as a home for the living before being appropriated as a tomb. . . . Now emerging into the expanse of the little valley, the full glory of the Edomite capital burst upon us. Nature built these stupendous walls, and man adorned them with patient workmanship, each artist vying with his fellow in shaping these rainbow cliffs into forms of beauty."

The fulfilment of Obadiah's prophecy may be briefly summarized. It is most probable that, after the fall of Jerusalem, and notwithstanding the assistance which they gave to Nebuchadnezzar on that occasion, the Edomites were subdued by that monarch some five years later. History fails to assert this fact in unmistakable terms, but it is satisfactorily inferred from other considerations. Jeremiah prophesies (xxv. 9; xxvii. 3—6) that the Chaldeans shall attack this country as well as Egypt (xliii. 8-13), and Josephus ('Ant.,' x. 9. 7) narrates how they warred against Cole-Syria, the Ammonites, and Moabites, and then proceeded to invade Egypt. It is highly improbable that they left Petra unconquered in their rear, more especially as in all likelihood Edom joined with Ammon and Moab in resisting this aggression. Rather, the ruin mentioned by Malachi (i. 3, 4), "They shall build, but I will throw down," was then inflicted, and their "mountains were made a desolation, and their heritage given to the jackals of the wilderness." At this time the Nabathæans, an Arabian tribe, and possibly sent thither by Nebuchadnezzar, took possession of Petra; and thus, according to Obadiah's word, the heathen rose up against her in battle, seized her stronghold, and brought her down to the ground. Antigonus, one of the generals of Alexander the Great, conquered this people and despoiled Petra, B.C. 312. The Edomites, who had established themselves in Southern Palestine, suffered heavy defeats at the hands of Judas Maccabæus (1 Macc. v. 3, 65); John Hyrcanus compelled them to submit to the Mosaic Law (Josephus, ' Ant.,' xiii. 9. 1); Alexander Jannæus completed their ruin (ibid., 15. 4). The scanty remains of the people which existed at the siege of Jerusalem were almost entirely put to the sword ('Bell. Jud.,' iv. 5, etc.; v. 6. 1); the few survivors of the massacre took refuge among the tribes of the desert, and were absorbed in their community, so that Origen could say that in his time their name and language had wholly perished ('In Job.').

§ II. AUTHOR.

Of Obadiah, the author of this prophecy, nothing whatever is known. Not even his father's name is given in the title of the book, which is simply, "the vision of Obadiah." The name itself (in Greek, 'Aßdioú or 'Oẞdiov, sc. "Opaσis: in Latin, Abdias) signifies "Servant" or "Worshipper of Jehovah," and was common among the Hebrews; but the attempt to

identify the prophet with any of the persons so called in Holy Writ is entirely unsuccessful, and has arisen rather from the natural desire to know more concerning this holy man than from any special evidence or probability. Persons of the same name (though sometimes in different form) are found in 1 Kings xviii. 3; 1 Chron. iii. 21; vii. 3; viii. 38; ix. 16, 44; xii. 9; xxvii. 19; xxxiv. 12; Ezra viii. 9; Neh. x. 5; 2 Chron. xvii. 7; xxxiv. 12; but none of these has any pretension to be considered our prophet. The contents of his prophecy prove that he belonged to the kingdom of Judah, and St. Ephrem asserts that he came from Sichem. His tomb was shown at Samaria in St. Jerome's time.

§ III. DATE.

The age in which Obadiah lived and prophesied is a matter of great dispute, and, after all that can be said, must be considered as only probably ascertained. The most varying opinions have been held. While some regard him as the earliest, or among the earliest, of the minor prophets, others place him after the destruction of Jerusalem in the time of Captivity; and Hitzig sets his date as late as B.C. 312. The interval between the various dates amounts to six hundred years. "That is," says Dr. Pusey (Minor Prophets,' p. 227), "just as if men doubted, from internal evidence, whether a work were written in the time of William the Conqueror or in that of Cromwell; of St. Louis or Louis XVIII.; or whether Hesiod was a contemporary of Callimachus, and Ennius of Claudian; or the author of the 'Nibelungen Lied' lived with Schiller." The elements for determining this controversy are not very satisfactory. First, there is the position of the book in the Hebrew Bible. If this were proved to be strictly chronological, the question might be thus decided, and Obadiah might be regarded as prophesying about the age of Amos, next to whom he is arranged. The Septuagint places his book between Joel and Jonah, setting Micah before the former; and this order would give an approximately similar date. In the Hebrew arrangement the exilian or post-exilian prophets certainly occupy the last place; and Obadiah, occurring among the older seers, between Amos and Jonah, would appear to belong to an earlier age. But it is objected that this position is due to his prophecy being an expansion of the prediction about Edom in the concluding words of Amos (ix. 12), and has no bearing whatever upon his date. Though we can by no means concede this, and are disposed to lay great weight on the arrangement of the Hebrew canon, we must be guided by other considerations in determining the question. The contents of the book supply two further aids. In ver. 11 Obadiah alludes to the capture of Jerusalem; and if we knew for certain to what event he refers, we should at once be in a position to settle the difficulty. We gather from his language that Jerusalem was taken and plundered; that her soldiers were sent into captivity; that her citizens were sold as slaves; and that Edom joined with the invaders, cut