You are strongly recommended to add to your library the excellent revised edition of Harper's Bible Dictionary titled, The Harper Collins Bible Dictionary, Revised Edition [book review], edited by Paul J. Achtemeier, with the Society of Biblical Literature (NY: Harper Collins, 1996). It is currently the best one-volume Bible dictionary in English, and it is available at Border's Books, Christian Science Reading Rooms, http://www.borders.com, or http://www.christianbook.com.

Obadiah (Heb., ‘worshiper’ or ‘servant of Yah[weh]’), a common biblical name used of at least eleven biblical personages including the prophet Obadiah and a high royal official allied with the prophets during Ahab’s reign (1 Kings 18:3). The name is used of premonarchical, monarchical, and postexilic people (i.e., the entire time span of the OT). Its popularity is also indicated by its use in five seals, a Samaria ostracon, and in three Hellenistic Egyptian papyri. Any faithful worshiper could be called God’s servant (Ps. 113:1), though the title is usually used of special personages such as Moses (Num. 12:7) or David (1 Kings 11:34). The name thus expresses the parents’ hope that the child would be loyal to God. Names expressing the same sentiment are common in the ancient Near East and are found in Phoenicia, Ugarit, and Mesopotamia.

Obadiah, the Book of, an OT book, the fourth of the twelve Minor Prophets. It is the shortest book in the OT with only twenty-one verses. Its prophecy is directed against the Edomites, whose punishment is predicted for their participation in the sack of Israel. It is thus similar to the Book of Nahum, which predicts Assyria’s downfall.

Obadiah is difficult and abounds in philological problems. It opens with the words ‘The vision of Obadiah’ (v. 1) and gives no further historical or biographical information about the prophet. Many scholars question the book’s unity since vv. 1-6 are partially shared with Jer. 49:14-16, 9-10, the book incorporates several styles, and it equivocates about whether the destruction is only against Edom or includes all the nations. However, the book is best interpreted as a unity; its inconsistencies may have been caused by the author’s reuse in vv. 1-6 (or 1-11) of the same early anti-Edom material that was also used in Jeremiah 49.

The book has three sections:

I. Edom’s inevitable destruction (1-9)

II. The misdeeds perpetrated by Edom against Israel (10-14)

III. The future restoration of Israel at the expense of the other nations (15-21).

The first section is unusually full of vivid imagery and describes Edom’s pride in terms reminiscent of Ezekiel’s oracle against Tyre (Ezek. 28). The second section emphasizes the severed kinship between the brothers Jacob and Edom/Esau (10, 12) and ends with a string of eight prohibitions recalling Edom’s hostile acts of 587/6 b.c. Verse 15 acts as a bridge between Edom’s destruction and the general destruction of the nations, thus introducing the third section, which is very rich in references to earlier prophetic images. The nations drink poison (v. 16; cf. Jer. 25:15-16 and elsewhere), a remnant remains on Mt. Zion (Isa. 37:32), and Israel is a destructive fire (Isa. 10:12-19). Finally, Israel repossesses its land (19) and the exiles far (‘Sepharad’ is Sardis) and near (‘Zarephath’ is in Phoenicia) return (20); God’s dominion in ultimate victory is portrayed through the common image of God as king (21).

The composition of this book was probably motivated by Edom’s participation in the sack of Jerusalem in 587/6. Edom’s participation is not recounted in the biblical historical books but is hinted at in Lam. 4:21-22 and Ps. 137:7, and is explicit in the extrabiblical 1 Esdras 4:45. Edom’s participation in this destruction was particularly resented because Israel felt a kinship relationship to Edom, considering them brothers (Gen. 25:24-26). The book was probably composed soon after the destruction of the Temple and before Edom’s destruction in the fifth century b.c. (cf. Mal. 1:2-4). A date of composition in the sixth or fifth century b.c. also fits the author’s extensive familiarity with prophetic motifs.