Sermon Tone Analysis

Starter Quote

ZECOT - Obadiah

Consisting of only 291 words, Obadiah is by far the shortest book in the OT

In recent years it has become fashionable to view the Book of the Twelve as an intentional literary composition, with a coherent plot and/or themes and literary patterns signaling that those who collected these works intended the entire work to be read as a coherent corpus.

Accordingly, Obadiah 1–5, which is heavily dependent on Jeremiah 49:9, 14–16, has been adapted to imitate Amos 9:1–4, and Obadiah 8–14 represents a mosaic of anti-Edom oracles, drawing on Isaiah and Ezekiel and composed for the Book of the Twelve.

Background Information

Author

Obadiah - Not clear which Obadiah

Date

Multiple dates have been proposed (850-400 BC)

Most likely between 586-553 BC

586 BC - Fall of Jerusalem

553 BC - Fall of Edom

Audience

Edomites - Obadiah 1-15

Judahites - Obadiah 16-21

Genre

Prophecy

Satire

Outline of Book

Obadiah 1-4 - First Declaration

Obadiah 5-7 - Second Declaration

Obadiah 8-14 - Third Declaration

Obadiah 15-18 - The Day of the Lord

Obadiah 19-21 - The Kingdom will be Yahweh’s

Purpose of Obadiah

Announce the destruction of Edom & encourage the Judahites

Theology

God is sovereign over all

The Day of the Lord

God will judge the nations

God will be merciful to His people

Quotes on the book of Obadiah

Anchor Yale Bible Commentary

The book of Obadiah is the smallest book in the Hebrew Bible, or the Old Testament.

With only one chapter of 21 verses it can easily be overlooked by readers of the Bible.

After all, what are 21 verses compared to, say, the 1,364 verses (MT) of Jeremiah?

Yet close study of Obadiah is worth the effort.

For one thing, its small size proves to be advantageous.

Readers can hold in the mind and memorize the whole book without too much difficulty.

This enables them to see the entire forest without getting lost among the trees, something that cannot be done so easily with a large book.

Furthermore, Obadiah flows in the mainstream of the Israelite prophetic tradition, a characteristic that has not always been recognized.

This short book elegantly summarizes many of the great prophetic themes, such as divine judgment against Israel’s enemies, the day of Yahweh, the lex talionis as the standard of judgment, the cup-of-wrath metaphor, Zion theology, Israel’s possession of the land, and the kingship of Yahweh.

Thereby the book serves as a concise epitome for much of the message of the prophets.

It also illustrates the nature of prophetic discourse: its poetry and prose; its types of speech, such as judgment, accusation, warning, and promise; and its rhetorical style.

It especially exemplifies oracles against the foreign nations, a category that occupies much of the corpus of the Latter Prophets.

Therefore attention to the little book of Obadiah should prove to be a rewarding experience for serious students of the Bible.