Abarbanel on Obadiah

Sefaria · Tanakh > Rishonim on Tanakh > Abarbanel > Prophets · 13 sections

1.1.1
The words of the prophet Ovadiah are one single prophecy only, therefore I haven't divided it into separate prophecies. And on it I have six questions.
1.1.2
The first question is whether this prophecy that Ovadiah said about Edom was already fulfilled by Nevuchadnezer after he conquered Eretz Yisrael and destroyed Jerusalem, he then subjugated the kingdoms of the nations surrounding including Egypt, Amon, Moav, Edom and the other nations as it says in the book of Jeremiah. Alternatively, was this prophecy fulfilled afterwards in the days of Hyrcanus, the Hasmonean king who went to the land of Edom and struck Edom and subjugated its pride and made them work and pay taxes and made them do bris milah like it's told in the works of Yosef Ben Gurion. Or, rather, this is a prophecy that hasn't yet been fulfilled and will be in the future.
1.1.3
The second question is "what is Edom and Har Esau?" that the prophet speaks of in this prophecy. Does this refer to the land of Edom that is adjacent to Eretz Yisrael that the Israelites passed alongside before entering the land of Sichon and Oz in the days of Moshe Rabbeinu, which was later conquered by King David and later again by Nevuchadnezer and later by Hyrcanus who was mentioned above. Or is this about the Edom that is Rome and the lands of the Christians that our sages have referred to Rome as the city of Edom and the land of Edom.
1.1.4
The third questions is what does this short prophecy of Ovadiah add to the lengthy prophecies about Edom in the book of Jeremiah. Chazal have already taught us that there is no case where two prophets give nevuah in the same style. So we also need to know which prophet, Ovadiah or Jeremiah came first chronologically. And what was the need for both these prophets to share about the same topic. If Hashem wanted to reveal His secrets to Ovadiah, why did He do so about Edom and not a different nation.
1.1.5
The fourth question, the prophet says "Thus says Hashem Elokim to Edom, we have received tidings from Hashem." Because of the phrase "we have received tidings from Hashem," it is not possible that this was the Word of Hashem, that Hashem said that He received the tidings using a plural language (we received) since Hashem is one. And if the prophet himself, is saying "we have received tidings" why the phrase "Thus says Hashem..."
1.1.6
The fifth question, "there will be no remnant to the house of Esau because Gd spoke" sounds like that there will no survivor from Esau because they will all die in the war. But in his book, Amos gave a contradictory message saying that the house of Jacob would inherit the leftover of Edom. This seems like there will be a leftover rom Edom that will be under the rule of Israel. How does this contradiction come if they are both the word of Gd.
1.1.7
The sixth question, "the exiles of these of Bnei Israel will possess what is from the Canaanites until Tzarfat". What do the Canaanites have to do with this and also what about Tzarfat. Rav Dovid Kimchi said that Canaanites are from the European countries of Alamania and Ashklavania, and I wouldn't know about where the prophecy comes from without the words of the Ibn Ezra who says that he heard from the great ones that the land of Ashkenaz was settled by Canaanites who fled Israel before the Israelites. But how can this be the case? Didn't the Canaanites flee to Africa like Chazal said. I will not explain the pesukim according to these questions.
1.1.8
The overarching theme of this prophecy is to tell about the future destruction of Edom and to explain that this nation which is called Edom started as a small nation and afterwards become rulers of the world. And that in the past, this nation already experienced may troubles but not a total destruction. But, in the days of the ingathering of the exiles, it will be destroyed and devastated completely and utterly because of it's wickedness that it did to Israel during the time of the destruction of the first temple and the second temple and as a result of decrees that they decreed against the Jewish people throughout their rule over them during the exile. And that Israel will return and rule over their lands and their governments and in all the cities in the Negev and Gd will be the One Ruler as is explained in the pesukim.
1.1.9
The vision of Ovadiah...behold I have made you small among the nations. The only way for us to understand prior events that our eyes didn't see is through the retellings of trustworthy men that we can rely on and from the philosophical proofs. And here the pesukim do not explain who Ovadiah was and in what generation he lived in, but Chazal have a mesorah from generations that he was the Ovadiah that was mentioned in Sefer Melachim, in the days of Achav who served Achav's household and that he was an Edomite convert descended from Elifaz (the character found in the parable of Job). The Midrash Tanchuma says about Ovadiah's vision, Hashem said to Elifaz, you rebuked my servant Job in a vision saying "In thought filled visions of the night..." (Job 4:13). I will bring from you a prophet that will exact punishment on your father's house (presumably Edom?) in a vision. And in Sanhedrin 39:2, Rabbi Yitzchak says, Hashem said, Ovadiah lived between two wicked people and did not learn from their ways- Achav and Jezebel. He was descended from Esau the wicked who lived among the righteous Yitzchak and Rivka and did not learn from their ways. Efraim Miksha (R' Meir's student) said in the name of R' Meir that Ovadiah was a Edomite convert and therefore he prophesized of the downfall of his ancestral nation, as it says "from within the forest comes the materials to make the axe to chop down the forest...and...a thigh rots from within..." and I already wrote in the introduction in the initial investigation why this book comes after Hosea, Yoel and Amos if Ovadiah proceeded them chronologically.
1.1.10
The Ibn Ezra in his wisdom writes that this Ovadiah cannot be the same one who is found in the book of Melachim because there Ovadiah is labeled as one who "fears Gd" and he isn't called a prophet there. Since prophet is a more respected label it should've been used to label him. But this argument is invalid because maybe Ovadiah hadn't yet received his prophecy while he was still serving the house of Achav, so the pesukim in Melachim only discuss his fear of Gd and his sustaining and hiding and saving the prophets. Proof that he had this prophecy later is found in II Kings 4:1 when a women, described as the wife of one of the bnei neviim cries out to Elisha the prophet saying that her husband, who had greatly feared Gd died. And this husband is surely the same Ovadiah who was famous for his piety and fear of Gd, since he is described as Gd fearing three times in the pesukim. And now, based on this, we learn that he is definitely from the bnei neviim himself, is it unlikely that he was the one to give this small prophecy here? And the fact that his wife doesn't identify him as a prophet is due to her humility or because he only had this one small prophecy so she identifies him as Gd fearing and the pesuk that introduces her tells us he was a navi. And maybe because of this his wife says "you know that he was Gd fearing" because Elisha was familiar with him and his prophecy. And the student of R' meir, who was also a Edom convert, told about Ovadiah, another Edom convert. And because Ovadiah was from Edom and came under the Wings of the Shechina, Gd showed him the destruction of his birthplace to comfort him for being a convert and to inform him of the end of his nation to be destroyed because a person much prefers to hear about his/her nation rather than any different one. And therefore Ovadiah received this prophecy about Edom. ...
1.1.11
And it's impossible to says that he saw the destruction of Edom that occurred in Nevuchadnezer's days like the Ibin Ezra writes, or the one that occurred in Hyrcanus's days because he says in order to cut off man from the Mt of Esau and also says there will be no remnant to Esau and it is known that Nevuchadnezer's and Hyrcanus's destructions weren't complete destructions without survivors. So this proves that it refers to a future time when they will be utterly destroyed without any remnant when Gd redeems His people. And don't be surprised that he would prophecy about an event so far in the future, since Bilaam, who came 300 years prior also prophesized about the destruction of Edom (Numbers 24:18) "Edom will be an inheritance and it's enemies will inherit Seir and Israel will be triumphant and Jacob will descent and destroy the remnant from the city." which refers to the future Edomites that are the Christian nation. And many prophets talked about the destruction of Edom, and in my opinion there were nine a)Bilaam b)Ovadiah c)Yishayahu d)Yoel e)Amos f)Jeremiah g)Ezekiel h)Malachi i)Dovid Hamelech in his sefer Tehillim and Dovid Hamelech lived in between Bilaam and Ovadiah. Maybe that' the meaning of "we have received tidings from Hashem" meaning that many prophets received this prophecy from Gd. And I already wrote in my commentary on Isiah that the way of prophets is that when they told about events that another prophet already told about, they used the words of the earlier prophet because the only prophet on the level to hear words directly rom Gd was Moshe Rabbeinu the father of prophets about whom it is said (Numbers 7:89) that he came to the tent of meeting to speak to Him and he heard the Voice...and with those words he wrote the Torah. But the other prophets were given visions and had to use their Gd-given discernment to deduce the meaning and they told what they saw in their own words which is why in their s books sometimes the words are their own and sometimes they speak about what another prophet said. For example, in parashat haazinu (Deut 32:36) Moshe Rabbeinu says "Because Gd will judge His people and have mercy on His servants..." And Dovid Hamelech uses similar language in Tehillim (Psalms 135) and says "Because Gd will judge his people and have mercy on his servants..." And even though Dovid Hamelech had many prophecies here he was quoting an earlier prophecy. And this is a common theme in the book of prophets. But two prophets are not given the same one prophecy in the same words. And this prophecy of the downfall of Edom was repeated to nine prophets because Gd wanted the matter to be well known and not a hidden matter. And because it was commonly prophesized about sometimes one prophet would borrow an earlier one's words which explains why Ovadiah and Jeremiah's language is so similar. But Jeremiah adds onto the words with his own prophecy. And thus we have answered the first three questions.
1.1.12
And the explanation of the pasuk "It has been heard from Hashem..." The Radak says that this is OVadiah saying "myself and the other prophets who discuss the destructions of Edom..." thus says Hashem... as if an envoy has een sent out among the nations to publicize this so that all the nations will come to war against the land of Edom. And if htis is the first thing that Ovadiah says why does it say AND an envoy has been sent out like it's connecting to the earlier and that's not the only questoin. Also how is it possible that all the nations of the world will rise up wihtout a reason to fight against Edom and what is this envoy that was sent and who sent it? Rather the true meaning is waht I said two times that the nation of Edom is the summation of the Christians that begin with the Romans will be awoken to go up and conquer Jerusalem because it is holy for their religion and Jesu is buried there as well and just like they have many times been stirred to conqured for any given reason. And because today all of Eretz Yisrael is under the rule of Egypt, they will therefore first fight the Christians in Egypt and deal a formidable blow and aftewrards conquer the land. And this the tidings that are heard among the nations that are east and south that are mostly the Muslims who will hear that the Christians brought their legions from their land and destroyed Egypt and conqured Israel and Jerusalem and it is a holy land for the Muslims as well. And then the Muslims will be stirred from the east to the south and they will each say to their fellow let us go up and fight in the name of our Gd against the accursed Christians and take vengeance from them for our Egyptian brothers since they have spilt their blood like water and take back the holy land from their hands. This is the envoy among the nations. And thus said Jeremiah (49:10) the envoy has been sent to gather and come against it and come to war...the meaning of this is the message and rumeors will be spread among the lands of the Muslims about waht the Christians have done in Egypt and the holy land when they have come for battle.
1.1.13
And Ezekiel also prophecized about his and told about the downfall of Egypt that would come about through the Christians intially (Ezekiel 30:9) "on that day the messengers come forth running to destroy the secure Kush they will be frightened on the day of Egypt's doom. The explanation is that if so this is exactly what Ovadiah's vision is speaking about "thus said Hashem to Edom..." The explanation o both is what vision was seen in his prophecy was the tiding from the nations and the envoys from mouth to mouth is a hint to the confusion and fear that will be among the Muslim countries when the Christians conquer the and of Israel and conquer Jerusalem. This prophecy discusses how the tidings will go out to the nations to tell them to come up for war and it hints to Jersulem where the war will take place. And afterward he tells what he sees he tells also what Hashem says to Edom meaning to say about Edom that "I have made you small" This is the explanation of this pasuk and answers the fourth questoin.

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