Page 96
The Prophesie of OBADIAH.
THERE is no undoubted certainty of the times of this Prophet, and there is some controversie about his person. The Hebrew Doctors most generally hold, that this Obadiah was he that lived with Ahab, 1 King. 18. and that he was a proselited Idumean: they express it thus, The holy blessed God said, Of them, and among them will I raise up one against them: there shall come Obadiah, who dwelt with two wicked persons, Ahab and Jezabel, and learned not their works, and he shall take venge∣ance of Esau, who dwelt with two righteous persons, Isaac and Rebecca, and learned not their works. But Aben Ezra moderately and discreetly refuseth this opinion, For, saith he, where it is said, Obadiah feared the Lord, if it had been this very Prophet, how doth he call him a fearer of the Lord, and not rather a Prophet, seeing that Prophesie was a degree more honourable? And withal, when Jezabel sought to destroy all the Lords Prophets, how could Obadiah have escaped if he had been a Prophet, being always at Court in Jezabels eye? Had this Obadiah been Ahabs Courtier, it were easie enough to tell in what time and place to lay this Prophesie, but since he was not, as is apparent by these Arguments alledged, and might be confirmed by more, we are still to seek who this Pro∣phet was, and in what time he lived. It appeareth by the matter of his Prophesie, that Judah and Jerusalem had been under great calamity and captivity, and that Edom had helped forward the misery, see ver. 10, 11, 12, 13, 14. strangers had carried away cap∣tive the forces of Jerusalem, and forreiners had entred into her gates, and cast Lots up∣on her, and Edom was as one of them: Now whether this meaneth the Babilonish capti∣vity, or some riffling of Jerusalem some time before, there is the question: At the sack∣ing of it by the Babilonians, the Edomites were busie to help on the ruine, as it is re∣lated in Psal. 137. 7. and they cryed, Rase it, rase it, even to the foundation; and if this Prophesie refer to that time, then should it be laid after the Prophesie of Jeremy for time and order: But these two arguments do perswade, that this Prophesie of Obadiah, and this spleen of Edom against Jerusalem were of a timelier and sooner date; 1. Be∣cause there is no mention at all of any such a Prophet at and after the destruction of Je∣rusalem, when men of the best note and eminency are reckoned very carefully. 2. Be∣cause he mentioneth only the Captivity of Israel and Judah in Zarephath and Sepharad, not in France and Spain, as the words are commonly interpreted, but in Sarepta of Zi∣don, and in other places thereabout, or in Edom: Now if this his Prophesie had been after the Babilonian had destroyed Jerusalem, it had been proper to have spoken of the Captivity of Israel in Assyria, and of Judah in Babilon, and not of a small parcel of Captives in two small Towns or Places. Therefore I cannot but conceive that Obadiah lived contemporary with these men, with whose Prophesies his is laid, Hosea, Amos, and Jonah, and that this malicious carriage of the Edomites against Jerusalem and Judah, was either when it was sacked by Shishak King of Egypt, 1 King. 14. 25. or by the Phi∣listims and Arabians, 2 Chron. 21. 16, 17. or by Joash King of Israel, 2 Chron. 25. 21. and that these Captives of Israel and Judah in Sarepta and Sepharad, were like those in Amos 1, 6, 9. taken by the Sidonian, and by whosoever inhabited Sepharad, to be delivered up to Edom.