Matthew Henry on Obadiah 1:10-16
When we have read Edom's doom, no less than utter ruin, it is natural to ask, Why, what evil has he done? What is the ground of God's controversy with him? Many things, no doubt, were amiss in Edom; they were a sinful people, and a people laden with iniquity. But that one single crime which is laid to their charge, as filling their measure and bringing this ruin upon them, that for which they here stand indicted, of which they are convicted, and for which they are condemned, is the injury they had done to the people of God (Oba 1:10): "It is for thy violence against thy brother Jacob, that ancient and hereditary grudge which thou hast borne to the people of Israel, that all this shame shall…
Read the whole note in the consoleJamieson-Fausset-Brown on Obadiah 1:11
thou stoodest on the other side--in an attitude of hostility, rather than the sympathy which became a brother, feasting thine eyes (see ) with the misery of Jacob, and eagerly watching for his destruction. So Messiah, the antitype to Jerusalem, abandoned by His kinsmen ().
strangers--the Philistines, Arabians in the reign of Jehoram, &c. (); the Syrians in the reign of Joash of Judah (); the Chaldeans (2Ch. 36:1-23).
carried . . . captive his forces--his "host" (): the multitude of Jerusalem's inhabitants.
cast lots upon Jerusalem-- (). So Messiah, Jerusalem's antitype, had lots cast for His only earthly possessions ().
Adam Clarke on Obadiah 1:11
Thou stoodest on the other side - Thou not only didst not help thy brother when thou mightest, but thou didst assist his foes against him.
And cast lots - When the Chaldeans cast lots on the spoils of Jerusalem, thou didst come in for a share of the booty; "thou wast as one of them."
John Gill on Obadiah 1:11
In the day thou stoodest on the other side,.... Aloof off, as a spectator of the ruin of Jerusalem, and that with delight and pleasure; when they should, as brethren and neighbours, have assisted against the common enemy; but instead of this they stood at a distance; or they went over to the other side, and joined the enemy, and stood in opposition to their brethren the Jews:
in the day that the strangers carried away captive his forces; that is, at the time that the Chaldeans took Jerusalem, and carried captive as many of the forces of the Jews as fell into their hands; or when
"the people spoiled his substance,''
as the Targum; plundered the city of all its wealth and riches:
and forei…
