Obadiah
Introduction
As to the person and circumstances of Obadiah, nothing certain is known, since the heading to his prophecy simply contains the name עבדיה, i.e., servant, worshipper of Jehovah (Ὀβδιού al. Ἀβδιού, sc. ὅρασις, lxx), and does not even mention his father's name. The name Obadiah frequently occurs in its earlier form ‛Obadyâhū. This was the name of a pious governor of the palace under king Ahab (1Ki 18:3.), of a prince of Judah under Jehoshaphat (2Ch 17:7), of a grave Gadite under David (1Ch 12:9), of a Benjamite (1Ch 8:38), of an Issacharite (1Ch 7:3), of a Zebulunite (1Ch 27:19), of several Levites (1Ch 9:16, 1Ch 9:44; 2Ch 34:12), and of different men after the captivity (1Ch 3:21; Ezr 8:9; Neh 10:6). The traditional accounts of our prophet in the rabbins and fathers, some of whom identify him with Ahab's pious commander of the castle, others with the third captain sent by Ahaziah against Elisha (2Ki 1:13), whilst others again make him an Edomitish proselyte (see Carpzov, Introd. p. 332ff., and Delitzsch, de Habacuci vita atque aetate, pp. 60, 61), are quite worthless, and evidently false, and have merely originated in the desire to know something more about him than the simple name (see C. P. Caspari, Der Proph. Ob. pp. 2, 3).
The writing of Obadiah contains but one single prophecy concerning the relation in which Edom stood to the people of God. It commences with the proclamation of the destruction with which the Lord has determined to visit the Edomites, who rely upon the impregnability of their rocky seat (Oba 1:1-9); and then depicts, as the cause of the divine judgment which
