Obadiah 1:17

But upon Mount Zion shall be deliverance,.... Not only by Cyrus, at the end of the seventy years' captivity; and by the Maccabees from the Idumeans, and other enemies; but by the Messiah; for not

But upon mount Zion shall be deliverance, and there shall be holiness; and the house of Jacob shall possess their possessions.

But. or And, Heb. Upon Mount Zion; historically, and in the letter, this refers to the people of the Jews, to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and those who worshipped God in the temple. In the mystical sense or typical, it refers. to the gospel church, and the setting up the kingdom of Christ, and the salvation and redemption of God’ s Israel. Deliverance; a remnant that shall escape the enemies’ sword, and which, after seventy years’ captivity, shall be delivered and restored by Cyrus: a hieroglyphic of Israel’ s redemption by Christ. There shall be holiness; or, it shall be holy, the temple, the city rebuilt, the people returned from captivity, shall be holy to the Lord; they shall obey his law, attend his temple service, and offer a pure offering to the Lord, &c. All this typical, and accomplished in the Christian church, though not fully and perfectly till the church is glorified in the heavenly Zion. The house of Jacob; literally the survivors of the two tribes in the Babylonish kingdom, and some others of the ten tribes, but including the elect of God, the house of Jacob in the extent of it, as taken in . Shall possess their possessions; either the possessions of the heathen, their enemies, or rather their own ancient possessions, out of which the violence of their enemies did east them when they were led captive, and dispossessed of all.

Obadiah 1:17 But upon mount Zion shall be deliverance, and there shall be holiness; and the house of Jacob shall possess their possessions.Ver. 17. But upon mount Zion shall be deliverance] God will "turn again their captivity as the streams in the south." He stirred up the spirit of Cyrus to send them home; he restored unto them both religion and liberty; he did all that could be done for them, by sanding his Son among them in the fulness of time, "made of a woman," &c., made also unto all his people, "wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption," 1 Corinthians 1:30. Jesus hath delivered us from the wrath to come, 1 Thessalonians 1:10. Neither is there any other name, whereby heaven is to be had, but only by the name of Jesus. And there shall be holiness] "Holiness to the Lord," as Zechariah 14:20. All the Lord’ s people shall be a holy nation, 1 Peter 2:9. Every inhabitant of the city of God shall be partaker of holiness, both imputed and imparted; that, for justification, being inherent in Christ, imputed to us; this, for sanctification, imparted by Christ, inherent in us. And the house of Jacob shall possess their possessions] They returning from Babylon shall not only recover their own possessions, out of the hands of the Edomites, Samaritans, and Syrians, by virtue of an edict from King Darius; but they shall also possess the Edomites themselves, and their territories; when converted to the faith of Christ, they shall bring their wealth unto the Church, and (as it is said of Tyre, Isaiah 23:18) feed and clothe therewith the saints of God.

17-21.— OF THE KINGDOM OF JEHOVAH ON MOUNT ZION.(17) Deliverance.—Better, as in margin, the fugitives of Israel who have survived the recent calamity. This is clear from Isaiah 10:20, where phelκytah is in parallelism with shear=remnant, as well as Joe 2:32; Hebrews 3:5, where it is parallel to serξdξm, also remnant. (Comp. also Judges 21:17; 2 Chronicles 20:24.) While the judgment is falling upon all the heathen nations, Mount Zion will be an asylum for all the Israelites who had fled for safety, and been scattered and dispersed. Holiness.—See margin. Zion was once more to become a sanctuary, and those who inhabited it holy. (Comp. Isaiah 6:13.) Their possessions.—Whose—their own that had been lost, or those of the nations? The Vulgate, following the LXX., read “those who had possessed them,” indicating subjugation of the heathen tribes. But the parallelism is undoubtedly in favour of the other view—the remnant of Israel would be saved, and regain their old possessions. Having stated this, the prophet goes on to describe what would happen to Edom and its possessions. (18) Though, in the preceding verse, “house of Jacob” would seem to embrace all the restored Israel, without any reference to the distinction of the two kingdoms, in this verse, being opposed to “house of Joseph,” it requires to be taken as synonymous with Judah; as in Isaiah 46:3 : “Hearken unto me, O house of Jacob, and all the remnant of the house of Israel.” (Comp. Psalms 77:15; Psalms 80:1; Psalms 81:4-5.) For the expressive imagery, comp. Nahum 1:10; Isaiah 27:4; Isaiah 10:17. Any remaining.—Heb., sarξd, a fugitive. The LXX. must have had a different text, as they read here πυροϕόρος, i.e., wheat-bearer, apparently (as the various reading shows) a mistake for πυρϕόρος, fire-bearer.(19) After the destruction of the heathen the new kingdom of Zion will be restored, at least as far as the ancient territories which are at present held by the Idumζans, to the north and west of the original Edom, are concerned. Three divisions are enumerated of the house of Jacob (i.e., Judah; see Note, Obadiah 1:18), and separate mention made of Benjamin. They of the south.—Those at present occupying the south—Heb., negev—i.e., the dry parched country forming the southern portion of the tribe of Judah (Joshua 15:21), are to inhabit Mount Esau: i.e., are to extend their territory to its extreme south-eastern limit; they of the Shephelah, i.e., the western lowland on the Mediterranean, are to seize on the neighbouring Philistia, at present Idumζan; while they at present confined to the hill-country in the north and centre of Judah are to spread themselves over Ephraim and Samaria. Our present Hebrew text leaves the subject of this latter clause uncertain, as it is in the Authorised Version “they.” But the LXX., τὸὄρος indicates that hahor=the mountain, has dropped out, a conjecture which is abundantly borne out by the geographical arrangement of the localities in the passage. Benjamin, for which no room is left on the west of Jordan, is to push across it into Gilead instead.

Verse 17. But upon Mount Zion shall be deliverance] Here is a promise of the return from the Babylonish captivity. They shall come to Zion, and there they shall find safety; and it is remarkable that after their return they were greatly befriended by the Persian kings, and by Alexander the Great and his successors; so that, whilst they ravaged the neighbouring nations, the Jews were unmolested. See Calmet. And there shall be holiness] They shall return to God, separate themselves from their idols, and become a better people than they were when God permitted them to be carried into captivity. The house of Jacob shall possess] They were restored to their former possessions. But this may refer also to their future restoration under the Gospel, when they shall be truly converted, and become holiness to the Lord; for salvation and holiness shall be the characteristics of Zion-the Christian Church, for ever.

17–21. The Restoration of Israel By an easy transition the prophet passes to the second and brighter part of his picture. The destruction of her enemies is accompanied by the restoration and salvation of Israel. There is however no sudden break between the two portions of the prophecy. The key-note of deliverance had already been struck in the earlier portion by the implied promise (Obadiah 1:16) that the punishment of Israel was not to be, like that of her enemies, continual. The tones of vengeance are heard still in the later portion, and are only lost at length in the final strain of victory, “The kingdom shall be the Lord’s.” Israel is to regain her former possessions (Obadiah 1:17), to overcome her ancient foes (Obadiah 1:18), to spread abroad in all directions (Obadiah 1:19-20), till as the ultimate issue which in the fulness of time shall be reached, God’s kingdom is set up in the world (Obadiah 1:21).

But (And) upon (in) Mount Zion, shall be deliverance, or, an escaped remnant, and there (and it) shall be holiness - The sifting times of the Church are the triumph of the world; the judgment of the

The exaltation of the Jews, Obadiah 1:17-21.The judgment upon the nations is accompanied and followed by the restoration and glorification of Zion (compare Joe 2:32 ff.).