Albert Barnes Commentary Obadiah 1:4

"Though thou mount on high as the eagle, and though thy nest be set among the stars, I will bring thee down from thence, saith Jehovah." — Obadiah 1:4 (ASV)

Though you exalt yourself as the eagle— (or, your nest) The eagle builds its nest in places nearly inaccessible to man. The Edomites were a race of eagles. It is not the language of poetry or exaggeration but is poetic because it is so true.

And though you set your nest in the stars. This is people’s language, strange as it is: “I shall touch the stars with my crown;” “I shall strike the stars with my lofty crown;” “since I have touched heaven with my lance.”

As Job says (Job 20:6–7), Though his excellency mounts up to the heavens and his head reaches to the clouds, yet he shall perish forever, like his own dung.

And Isaiah to the king of Babylon, the type of Antichrist and of the Evil one (Isaiah 14:13, 11): You have said in your heart, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; your pomp is brought down to the grave, the worm is spread under you, and the worms cover you.

“The pagan saw this. Aesop, when asked what God does, said, ‘He humbles the proud and exalts the humble.’ And another, ‘Whom morning’s dawn beholds proud,
The setting sun beholds bowed.’“

They who boast of being Christians, and are on that ground self-satisfied, promising themselves eternal life, and thinking that they need not fear Hell, because they are Christians and hold the faith of the Apostles, while their lives are altogether alien from Christianity, are such Edomites, priding themselves because they dwell in clefts of the rocks. For it is not enough to believe what Christ and the apostles taught, unless you do what they commanded.

These spiritual Edomites, from a certain love or some fear of future torments, are moved by grief for sin, and give themselves to repentance, fastings, and almsgiving, which is no other than to enter the clefts of the rocks; because they imitate the works of Christ and the apostles who are called rocks, like those to whom John said (Matthew 3:7), O you generation of vipers, who has warned you to flee from the wrath to come?

But, since they have no humility, they become as a result the more inflated with pride. The more of such works they do, the more pleasures they allow themselves, and daily become prouder and more wicked. The pride then of their heart deceives them, because they seem in many things to follow the deeds of the holy, and they fear no enemies, as though they dwelt in clefts of the rocks.

They exalt their throne, in that, through the shadow of lofty deeds, they seem to have many below them, mount as high as they can, and place themselves where they think they need fear no peril. But to them the Lord says, Though you exalt yourself as the eagle—from there will I bring you down. For, however exalted they are, and however they seem good and great, they are brought down to the ground and out from the caverns of the rocks, in which they thought they lived securely, in that they lapse into overt shameful sin; from where all perceive what they also were then, when they were thought to be righteous.

And it is striking that they are compared to eagles. For although the eagle flies aloft, yet from there it looks to the earth and the carcasses and animals which it would devour, as Job writes of it (Job 39:28–30), She dwells and abides upon the rock, upon the crag of the rock, and the strong place. From there she seeks the prey; her eyes behold from afar; her young ones also suck up blood, and where the slain are, there she is. So these, while they pretend perfection, never turn their eyes away from earthly goods, always casting them on honors, or wealth, or pleasure, without which they count life to be no life.

It is also well called their nest. For, however they may toil in seeking an assured, restful security of life, yet what they build is a nest made of hay and stubble, constructed with great toil, but easily destroyed.

This security of rest they lose when they are permitted, by the just judgment of God, to fall into uncleanness, ambition, or the foulest sins, and are deprived of the glory which they unjustly gained, and their folly becomes manifest to all.

Of such, among the apostles, was the traitor Judas. But the rich too and the mighty of this world—although they think that their possessions and what, with great toil, they have gained when they have raised themselves above others, are most firm—it is but that nest which they have placed among the stars, soon to be dissipated by wind and rain.