Behold, I have made thee small among the heathen: thou art greatly despised.
| Word | Hebrew | Strong’s | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| made | נְתַתִּ֖יךָ ne.ta.Ti.kha | H5414 | to give · verb, qal perfect, 1st person common singular + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine singular |
| small | קָטֹ֛ן ka.Ton | H6996 | abbreviated · adjective, masculine singular absolute |
| heathen | בַּגּוֹיִ֑ם ba.go.Yim | H1471 | a foreign nation · preposition with the article + noun, common masculine plural absolute |
| greatly | מְאֹֽד me.'Od | H3966 | properly · cardinal number, masculine singular absolute |
| despised | בָּז֥וּי ba.Zui | H959 | to disesteem · verb, qal passive participle, masculine singular absolute |
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
I have made thee small--Thy reduction to insignificance is as sure as if it were already accomplished; therefore the past tense is used [MAURER]. Edom then extended from Dedan of Arabia to Bozrah in the north (, ). CALVIN explains it, "Whereas thou wast made by Me an insignificant people, why art thou so proud" ()? But if so, why should the heathen peoples be needed to subdue one so insignificant? , confirms MAURER'S view.
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 tow and depressed, it is by his justice. Compared with the Assyrians, Chaldeans, Egyptians, Syrians, Arabs, and other neighboring nations, the Idumeans were a small people.
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 n…
Read the whole note in the consoleObadiah 2-4 2 Behold, I have made thee small among the heathen: thou art greatly despised. 2 Ecce parvum posui te inter gentes, contemptus tu valde. 3 The pride of thine heart hath deceived thee, thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock, whose habitation is high; that saith in his heart, Who shall bring me down to the ground? 3 Superbia cordis tui decepit te, qui habitas in scissuras petrae (vel, rupis;) excelsa habitatio ejus, dicens in corde suo, Quis detrahet me in terram? 4 Though thou exalt thyself as the eagle, and though thou set thy nest among the stars, thence will I bring thee down, saith the LORD. 4 Si exaltaveris quasi aquila, etsi inter nubes posueris nidum suum, inde…
Obadiah shows here that the Edomites must be subjected to captivity because of their pride and the enmity they held against their brothers. In a different sense he says that the devil is made least, as the words that follow are extremely suitable to him as well.
(Version 2, verse 2) Behold, I have made you a little one among the nations: you are very contemptible. The pride of your heart has lifted you up, dwelling in the clefts of the rock, exalting your throne, saying in your heart: Who will bring me down to the ground? If you elevate yourself like an eagle, and if you place your nest among the stars: from there I will bring you down, says the Lord. LXX: Behold, I have made you a little one among the nations: you are very dishonored. The pride of your heart has lifted you up, you who dwell in the clefts of the rock, exalting your dwelling and saying in your heart: Who will bring me down to the ground? Though you soar aloft like the eagle, though your nest is set among the stars, from there I will bring you down, declares the Lord. Jeremiah, of whom we have mentioned above, agrees in almost the same words, saying: Behold, I have made you small among the nations; you are utterly despised among mankind. Your arrogance has deceived you, and the pride of your heart, you who live in the clefts of the rock, who strive to grasp the height of the hill: though you soar aloft like the eagle, from there I will bring you down, declares the Lord. In prophetic interpretation, we must follow our custom, that first we lay the foundations of history, and then, if possible, we raise lofty towers and the peaks of roofs. 'O Edom,' He says, 'though you are the least among all the nations around, and small in comparison to the other peoples, you rise up in arrogance beyond your strength. And though you dwell in caves, or rather in the rocky caverns, humble and poor, and not possessing the lofty roofs of buildings, you are lifted up as an eagle to the heights, and you swell with such pride in your thoughts, that you believe yourself to dwell among the stars. Even if you could penetrate the heights of the heavens beyond nature, I would bring you down from there and bring you to the earth,' says the Lord God. But what is added in Jeremiah, and which you strive to understand, reveals the height of the hill, representing Mount Zion, and through this either the city of Jerusalem itself or the temple built within it. As for the eagle, it is known by those who discuss the nature of birds that it flies higher than all other birds. It is said to have such a keen sight that while it soars above the motionless sea with its steady wings, it can see…
The Lord threatens Edom with war, because He has determined to reduce and humble the nation, which now, with its proud confidence in its lofty rocky towers, regards itself as invincible. Oba 1:2. "Behold, I have made thee small among the nations; thou art greatly despised. Oba 1:3. The pride of thy heart hath deceived thee; thou that dwellest in rocky castles, upon its lofty seat; that saith in its heart, Who will cast me down to the ground?: Oba 1:4. If thou buildest high like the eagle, and if thy nest were placed among stars, thence will I cast thee down, is the saying of Jehovah." Oba 1:2 is correctly attached in Jeremiah (Oba 1:15) by כּי, inasmuch as it contains the reason for the atta…
Read the whole note in the consoleI will cut you down: Several messages of judgment rehearse Edom’s specific sins against Israel (1:10-14; Jer 49:7-22; Ezek 25:12-14; 36:5;). Edom frequently appears among the nations that opposed Israel and the Lord (Isa 34; Ezek 35–36; Amos 9:1-15). • down to size among the nations . . . your own pride: Edom’s rocky topography mimicked Edom’s pride. The height of the mountain fortress that provided their security only emphasizes the height from which Edom would fall. Edomite princes were among the arrogant rulers of the nations (Ezek 32:29; cp. Gen 36; 1 Chr 1:43-54).
Behold I have made you small—In contrast with what his father called him, his big son, and his mother called him her big son, the Holy One, blessed be He, says: In My eyes, he is small (Pesikta d’Rav Kahana p. 56; Pesikta Rabbathi, ed. Meir Ish Shalom p. 79a; Pesikta Rabbathi ed. Warsaw p. 144; Gen. Rabbah 65:11). And our Sages (Avodah Zarah 10a) expounded: small for they have neither script nor language. [from Avodah Zarah 10a] despised—That they did not crown a king the son of a king.
Henry, Jamieson-Fausset-Brown, Clarke, Gill, Calvin and Keil & Delitzsch are in the public domain; Tyndale Open Study Notes © Tyndale House Publishers, CC BY-SA 4.0 — all from the Free Use Bible API (bible.helloao.org). Rashi: the Rosenbaum & Silbermann Pentateuch (public domain) and the Judaica Press and Metsudah Tanakh (CC BY), via Sefaria. Spurgeon's Treasury of David: public domain (lyteword's markdown edition, CC0).
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
