Book of Obadiah

Isaiah	Yeshayahu
Jeremiah	Yirmeyahu
Ezekiel	Yekhezqel

Joshua	Yehoshua
Judges	Shofetim
Samuel	Shemuel
Kings	Melakhim

Genesis	Bereshit
Exodus	Shemot
Leviticus	Wayiqra
Numbers	Bemidbar
Deuteronomy	Devarim

The Book of Obadiah is a book of the Bible whose authorship is attributed to Obadiah. Obadiah is one of the Twelve Minor Prophets in the final section of Nevi'im, the second main division of the Hebrew Bible. The text consists of a single chapter, divided into 21 verses with 440 Hebrew words, making it the shortest book in the Tanakh (The Hebrew Bible), though there are three shorter New Testament epistles in Greek (Philemon with 335 words, 2 John with 245 words, and 3 John with 219 words). The Book of Obadiah is a prophecy concerning the divine judgment of Edom and the restoration of Israel.^[1]^[2]

The majority of scholars date the Book of Obadiah to shortly after the fall of Jerusalem in 587 BC.^[3] As part of the recent Persian turn in Minor Prophets scholarship, the Book of Obadiah is considered to have been shaped by the conflicts between Yehud and the Edomites in the fifth and fourth centuries BCE and to have evolved through a process of redaction.^[4]^[5]

^ Coogan, M. A Brief Introduction to the Old Testament: The Hebrew Bible in its Context. Oxford University Press, New York (2009) p. 315
^ Nelson's Compact Illustrated Bible Dictionary, Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1978, p. 191, ISBN 0-8407-5636-4
^ Riding, Charles Bruce. “Dating Obadiah to 801 BC”. Reformed Theological Review 80, no. 3 (December 1, 2021): 189–217. Accessed January 7, 2025. https://rtrjournal.org/index.php/RTR/article/view/286
^ Becking, Bob (2021). Julia M. O'Brien (ed.). The Oxford Handbook of the Minor Prophets. Oxford University Press. pp. 437–448. doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190673208.013.28. The constant quarrels between the Persian province Yehud and the Edomites in the fifth and fourth centuries BCE should hence be seen as the delivery room for the traditions leading to the book of Obadiah. This book articulates and ventilates the way in which the inhabitants of Jerusalem and surroundings found a way to cope with the Edomite threat. Not a single event but a string of events stands at the background of this biblical book. This also indicates that Obadiah in its present form is the final product of a process of redaction and rewriting.
^ Ben Zvi, Ehud. 1996. A Historical-Critical Study of the book of Obadiah. BZAW 242. Berlin: de Gruyter.

[1] Coogan, M. A Brief Introduction to the Old Testament: The Hebrew Bible in its Context. Oxford University Press, New York (2009) p. 315

[2] Nelson's Compact Illustrated Bible Dictionary, Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1978, p. 191, ISBN 0-8407-5636-4

[3] Riding, Charles Bruce. “Dating Obadiah to 801 BC”. Reformed Theological Review 80, no. 3 (December 1, 2021): 189–217. Accessed January 7, 2025. https://rtrjournal.org/index.php/RTR/article/view/286

[4] Becking, Bob (2021). Julia M. O'Brien (ed.). The Oxford Handbook of the Minor Prophets. Oxford University Press. pp. 437–448. doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190673208.013.28. The constant quarrels between the Persian province Yehud and the Edomites in the fifth and fourth centuries BCE should hence be seen as the delivery room for the traditions leading to the book of Obadiah. This book articulates and ventilates the way in which the inhabitants of Jerusalem and surroundings found a way to cope with the Edomite threat. Not a single event but a string of events stands at the background of this biblical book. This also indicates that Obadiah in its present form is the final product of a process of redaction and rewriting.

[5] Ben Zvi, Ehud. 1996. A Historical-Critical Study of the book of Obadiah. BZAW 242. Berlin: de Gruyter.

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Book of Obadiah

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