Obadiah, Book of 
 
 Consists of one chapter, "concerning Edom," its impending doom
 Ob 1:1-16 and the restoration of Israel Ob 1:17-21 This is the
 shortest book of the Old Testament. There are on record the account
 of four captures of Jerusalem,
  1. by Shishak in the reign of Rehoboam 1Ki 14:25
  2. by the Philistines and Arabians in the reign of Jehoram
     2Ch 21:16
  3. by Joash, the king of Israel, in the reign of Amaziah
     2Ki 14:13 and
  4. by the Babylonians, when Jerusalem was taken and
     destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar (B.C. 586) Obadiah Ob 1:11-14
     speaks of this capture as a thing past. He sees the calamity as
     having already come on Jerusalem, and the Edomites as joining
     their forces with those of the Chaldeans in bringing about the
     degradation and ruin of Israel. We do not indeed read that the
     Edomites actually took part with the Chaldeans, but the
     probabilities are that they did so, and this explains the words
     of Obadiah in denouncing against Edom the judgments of God.
 
 The date of his prophecies was thus in or about the year of the 
 destruction of Jerusalem. Edom is the type of Israel's and of God's 
 last foe Isa 63:1-4 These will finally all be vanquished, and the
 kingdom will be the Lord's (comp.) Ps 22:28