Obadiah 1:17–18, King James Version
Italic words were supplied in the English translation for clarity.
Obadiah 1:17–18
Deliverance on Zion Reverses the Houses' Fortunes
Zion's 'But' is deliverance and holiness, not mere triumph
But upon mount Zion shall be deliverance, and there shall be holiness; and the house of Jacob shall possess their possessions. The nations have just been pictured drinking down to nothing. The turn is not a sneer. Escape, holiness, and restored possession answer the dispossession of Judah on that same mountain.
The KJV's 'possess their possessions' follows a wording that can also be read, with other ancient support, as possessing those who dispossessed them. The reversal of loss is clear; the exact object is not settled. Restoration here is joined to holiness. It is not unrestricted gloating in the other direction.
Fire and stubble stay under the sentence the LORD has spoken
And the house of Jacob shall be a fire, and the house of Joseph a flame, and the house of Esau for stubble, and they shall kindle in them, and devour them; and there shall not be any remaining of the house of Esau; for the LORD hath spoken it. Jacob and Joseph together reverse Esau's earlier violence in a consuming image. 'No remaining' is prophetic speech of corporate defeat, not a demographic certificate that every individual of Edomite descent vanished in one hour.
The last clause governs the fire: the LORD hath spoken it. The metaphor does not authorize churches, militias, or states to burn a people they decide to call Esau. It does not authorize modern territorial violence or ethnic cleansing. The brother names remain ancestral houses in this oracle, not a map for erasing neighbors.
How this should shape us
Stand with displaced and plundered people in ways that protect life, restore what was taken, and keep holiness in the restoration. Leave the consuming image with the LORD who spoke it. Do not preach stubble over any living ethnicity, and do not treat Zion's deliverance as permission to become Edom in reverse.
Teach it back
Explain Obadiah 1:17–18 in your own words. Include the Edom-Judah setting, the unit's movement, one material uncertainty, and one conclusion the context rules out.
Your explanation stays in this browser. It is not sent or saved.
Go deeper
The explanation above is meant to stand on its own. Open these notes only if you want language, history, disagreements, or source locations.
Where careful interpreters disagreeThe strongest options and their difficulties
Where do careful interpreters disagree?
Best judgment: The object of 'possess' in verse 17 is textually and grammatically disputed. The scope of 'no remaining' in verse 18 also requires poetic and corporate judgment categories. Interpreters further debate how closely the unit's horizon should be tied to historical return, later canonical hope, or final judgment; the text itself joins Zion's restoration to Edom's reversal.
How certain? probableResearch trail and exact locationsThe source record behind this section
Supports: Exact reader-facing Scripture wording and complete verse coverage for this thought unit.
Obadiah 1:17–18, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus
Supports: Hebrew forms, clause boundaries, repeated roots, names, and the base wording behind translation discussion.
Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2 (commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00), wlc/Obad.xml, Masoretic words and morphology for 1:17–18
Supports: Material translation, syntax, text, date, geography, and uncertainty notes for the unit.
NET Bible Obadiah PDF, pp. 1723–1727, translation and notes on 1:17–18
Supports: Day-of-the-LORD, recompense, drinking, Jeremiah 49, and broader literary parallels as a documented modern thesis.
Ferries, 'Edom and Babylon,' pp. 489–493
Supports: Addressee, speech roles, betrayal, Zion, possession, restoration, and responsible reader participation.
Toffelmire, 'Sitz im What?', pp. 238–242
Sources for This Section
These records identify the source, the claim it supports, and the exact location used. A source remains evidence to evaluate; it does not replace the biblical text.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact reader-facing Scripture wording and complete verse coverage for this thought unit.
Exact location: Obadiah 1:17–18, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Obadiah
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Hebrew forms, clause boundaries, repeated roots, names, and the base wording behind translation discussion.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2 (commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00), wlc/Obad.xml, Masoretic words and morphology for 1:17–18
Open source ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible: Obadiah with translators' notes
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press, 2006
Supports: Material translation, syntax, text, date, geography, and uncertainty notes for the unit.
Exact location: NET Bible Obadiah PDF, pp. 1723–1727, translation and notes on 1:17–18
Open source ↗peer reviewed journal article
Edom and Babylon: Archetypal Enemies of God and His People. A Comparative Analysis of Obadiah and Isaiah 13:2–14:23
Ryan A. R. Ferries
Old Testament Essays 35.3, 2022
Supports: Day-of-the-LORD, recompense, drinking, Jeremiah 49, and broader literary parallels as a documented modern thesis.
Exact location: Ferries, 'Edom and Babylon,' pp. 489–493
Open source ↗scholarly essay
Sitz im What? Context and the Prophetic Book of Obadiah
Colin M. Toffelmire
SBL Press, in The Book of the Twelve and the New Form Criticism, 2015
Supports: Addressee, speech roles, betrayal, Zion, possession, restoration, and responsible reader participation.
Exact location: Toffelmire, 'Sitz im What?', pp. 238–242
Open source ↗