The Prophet Obadiah, expounded by Charles Paul Caspari [pp. 226-240]

The Prophet Obadiah, Expounded
himself, "let us rise up against her in battle," may be in a
measure relieved by a comparison of others in which the Lord
appears advancing at the head of the assembled instruments of
his vengeance; so that it does not appear necessary to depart
from this the most natural and obvious construction of the
clause, by putting these words into the mouth of the nations as
descriptive of the ready obedience they yield to the message
received; or, which would be still farther from the design of the
prophet, ascribing them to individual Israelites, exhorting each
other to engage in a war to which the nations had already been
divinely invited.
The ground of sending the ambassador and collecting the
nations, is God's determination to break the power of Edom,
which from the certainty of its accomplishment is spoken of as
though it were already effected. "I have made thee small
a,aong the heathen." I have already done so in purpose, and
shall certainly and speedily do so in the actual event. "Thou
art" in consequence "greatly despised." It was only a deceit
practised upon him by his proud heart, when he was led to
conclude himself to be so secure in his high habitations and his
clefts of the rocks, (admirably descriptive of Petra, of whose
strength and almost inaccessible situation travellers give such
surprising accounts,) that he could not be brought down to the
ground. They had left out of the account one who was able
and who was resolved to dislodge them, even though their habitations were loftier than they were, or loftier than any man
could place them. Were they even on those lofty pinnacles
where only the eagle can build her nest, or were they among
the very stars, "thence will I bring thee down, saith the
LORD."
It is an error with some interpreters to regard v. 2, as a
historical statement designed by its contrast with what follows
to exhibit the offensiveness of Edom's pride in a more glaring
light; as though the meaning were, God has made them a
small, despised people, but the pride of their heart has led them
to suppose themselves invincible. A people against whom the
nations are thus summoned, and who possess such almost
impregnable seats in their mountain fastnesses, cannot be
regarded as very contemptible.
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