Obadiah: Obadiah 5-6-The Wealth of Edom Will Be Plundered Lesson # 6

If thieves came to you, if plunderers came by night— how you have been destroyed!— would they not steal only enough for themselves? If grape gatherers came to you, would they not leave gleanings? (ESV)

Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom

Sunday October 22, 2017

www.wenstrom.org

Lesson # 6

If thieves came to you, if plunderers came by night— how you have been destroyed!— would they not steal only enough for themselves? If grape gatherers came to you, would they not leave gleanings? (ESV)

“If thieves came to you” is the protasis of an unreal condition, which is a protasis that is presented as one that has not been and could not be fulfilled.

We say, “presented as” because it is possible for a speaker to be mistaken or to lie.

What is relevant for a condition being unreal is not the unreality of the event, but rather that the speaker refers to it as being unreal.

Here in , the prophet is presenting a hypothetical situation taking place among the Edomites.

In fact, he is posing a rhetorical question to the Edomite people in order to make an emphatic assertion.

“If plunderers came by night” is also the protasis of an unreal condition, which is a protasis that is presented as one that has not been and could not be fulfilled.

Here in , the prophet is presenting another rhetorical question to the Edomite people in order to make an emphatic assertion.

“Would they not steal only enough for themselves?” is another rhetorical question which demands an emphatic positive response and is used of hypothetical robbers and thieves only wanting to steal only those items which meet their need.

“How you have been destroyed!” is an emotional interjection which functions rhetorically as Obadiah’s announcement of God’s judgment of Edom.

“If grape gatherers came to you” is the protasis of an unreal condition, which is a protasis that is presented as one that has not been and could not be fulfilled.

Here in , the prophet is presenting another rhetorical question to the Edomite people in order to make an emphatic assertion.

“Would they not leave gleanings?” is another rhetorical question which demands an emphatic positive response.

If thieves came to you, if robbers came during the night, would they not want to steal only their sufficiency? If crop harvesters came to you, would they not want to leave gleanings? O how you will certainly be destroyed! (My translation)

The prophet Obadiah employs two rhetorical questions to present two metaphors here in verse 5 in order to emphasize that the nation of Edom will be totally and utterly destroyed.

They are “designed to focus attention on the completeness of Edom’s coming loss by contrasting to it theoretical instances of partial loss.”[1]

Both rhetorical questions present two hypothetical scenarios which typically take place in everyday life in Obadiah’s day and age.

Both demand a positive response.

Both demand that the Edomites and the remnant of Israel in Obadiah’s day reflect upon their knowledge of what thieves would do if they broke into their homes and what crop harvesters would do if they went into their fields to harvest their crops.

Both emphasize with the reader the degree to which God will destroy Edom.

The first asserts that thieves coming to rob during the night would only steal as much as they wanted.

I.A. Busenitz writes “The first interrogative illustration highlights the normal practice of thieves. Thieves would seize only that for which they came or what they could hurriedly gather and carry away.”[2]

The second asserts that harvesters would leave behind gleanings when harvesting a crop.

Interestingly, the Mosaic law required that the Israelites leave some grain behind in the fields for the poor (; ; see also ).

This was the case with grapes and olives (; ).

However, the Edomites did not have such laws as the Israelites.

In Gentile nations, some gleanings from the harvest would be left on purpose and maybe even for the poor of the land or more than likely some gleanings would be deliberately missed in order hurry getting the harvest in to the barns before winter.

However, this rhetorical question is directed at both the Edomites and the remnant of Israel in Obadiah’s day and age.

Now, both robbers or thieves and harvesters nearly always leave something behind.

The robbers and thieves only take that which they wanted while crop harvesters nearly always leave gleanings in the field.

However, this will not be the case when God judges the nation of Edom.

is nearly identical to .

The fact that something would have remained after the imagined acts of theft or harvest stands in stark contrast to the totality of Edom’s destruction as predicted by Obadiah.

Edom will be so decimated as a result of God’s judgment that nothing at all will be left.[3]

Therefore, the purpose of the two rhetorical questions in is to set up the contrast with what Edom would experience.

Edom would not be destroyed partially but rather totally and completely.

There would be nothing left of her.

“O how you will certainly be destroyed!” is an emotional interjection which functions rhetorically as Obadiah’s announcement of God’s judgment upon the nation of Edom and expresses the certainty that God will destroy the nation of Edom.

This interjection appears in the very middle of these two rhetorical questions.

To the English-speaking person, it would seem that Obadiah should have put this interjection at the end of the verse.

But instead, he interrupts his own thought to interject in emphatic terms his announcement of Edom’s destruction since in his mind, it cannot wait.

In Hebrew, Obadiah is being very eloquent.

However, it sounds funny and awkward in English.

Since this emphatic interjection and assertion is the point of the comparison between these two metaphors or illustrations, I placed it at the end of the verse in my translation.

In English, this is where we would expect to find the concluding point of a metaphorical comparison.

How Esau has been pillaged, his treasures sought out! (ESV)

This verse is an emotional interjection which functions rhetorically as Obadiah’s announcement of God’s judgment of Edom.

“Esau” refers to the people who descended from Jacob’s brother Esau and is synonymous with “Edom” which appeared in since the name Esau here is a synecdoche of part for whole referring to the Edomites.

Both words refer to the people who descended from Jacob’s brother Esau and who settled in the region south of the Dead Sea, north of the Red Sea and East of the Rift valley and which sometimes expanded west into the Negev.

O how the descendants of Esau will certainly be plundered! Their hidden valuables will certainly be ransacked! (Author’s translation)

This expresses the certainty that the nation of Edom will be plundered or ransacked by the Gentile nations in the sixth century B.C.

This verse issues two predictions.

The first is that the people of Edom will certainly be plundered.

The second is that their hidden valuables will certainly be ransacked.

The picture is that of the violent action of conquering warriors ransacking a city in order to loot and plunder its valuables.

A comparison of with verse 6 indicates that the soldiers of the various Gentile nations in the Mediterranean and Mesopotamian regions of the world in the sixth century B.C. would ransack their cities and towns in order to loot and plunder their hidden valuables.

The second prediction emphasizes that nothing can be hidden from the God of Israel, even Edom’s “hidden” valuables will be plundered and ransacked by foreign armies sent by Him.

Charles Feinberg writes “The capital of Edom, Petra was the great market of the Syrian and Arabian trade where many costly articles were treasured. These will all be looted.”[4]

The prophecy in makes clear that the means by which God will judge the nation of Edom would be other Gentile nations.

It also makes clear that God would employ warfare to judge Edom.

[1] Busenitz, I. A. (2003). Commentary on Joel and Obadiah (p. 250). Geanies House, Fearn, Ross-shire, Great Britain: Mentor.

[2] Busenitz, I. A. (2003). Commentary on Joel and Obadiah (pp. 250–251). Geanies House, Fearn, Ross-shire, Great Britain: Mentor.

[3] Biblical Studies Press. (2005). The NET Bible First Edition; Bible. English. NET Bible.; The NET Bible. Biblical Studies Press.

[4] Feinberg, Charles L. The Minor Prophets; page 127; Moody Press; Chicago; copyright 1948, 1951 and 1952.