John Calvin Commentary Obadiah 1:10-11

"For the violence done to thy brother Jacob, shame shall cover thee, and thou shalt be cut off for ever. In the day that thou stoodest on the other side, in the day that strangers carried away his substance, and foreigners entered into his gates, and cast lots upon Jerusalem, even thou wast as one of them." — Obadiah 1:10-11 (ASV)

The Prophet here presents the reason why God would deal so severely and dreadfully with the Idumeans. Had he simply prophesied of their destruction, it would have been an important matter, for the Jews might have known from this that their ruin was not chance, but the scourge of God. They might have known that they themselves were, along with others, chastised by God, and this would have been a useful instruction to them. But what brought them the chief consolation was to hear that they were so dear to God that he would undertake the defense of their wrongs, avenge them, and have regard for their safety. Therefore, when they heard that God, because he loved them, would punish the Idumeans, it was undoubtedly an invaluable comfort to them in their calamities. The Prophet now comes to this subject.

For the unjust oppression of thy brother Jacob, and so on. The word חמס chemes, violence, is to be taken passively, as if he said, “See how you have acted towards your brother Jacob.” And he calls him his brother, not for honor’s sake, but, on the contrary, for the purpose of demonstrating more fully the cruelty of the Idumeans; for consanguinity had no effect in preventing them from raging against their own brethren and, so to speak, against their own flesh and blood.

It was therefore a proof of barbarous inhumanity that the Idumeans, forgetting their common nature, were so inflamed with hatred against their own brethren: for, as it is well known, they had descended from the same common father, Abraham, and also from Isaac, and had the symbol of circumcision. The Idumeans indeed professed that they were the descendants of Abraham and were God’s peculiar people. Since God had made his covenant with their common father Isaac, and since they had equally retained circumcision, which was the seal of that covenant, how did it happen that the Idumeans conducted themselves so cruelly towards their brethren? We therefore see that the name of brother in this clause—for the oppression of thy brother Jacob—is mentioned for the purpose of enhancing their crime.

So then, he says, as you have been so violent against your brother, cover thee shall reproach, and forever shalt thou be cut off. He implies that the calamity would not be only for a time, as in the case of Israel, but that the Lord would execute such a punishment as would prove that the Idumeans were aliens to him; for God, in chastising his Church, always observes certain limits, as he never forgets his covenant. He indeed proves that the Idumeans were not his people, however much they might falsely boast that they were the children of Abraham and claim the sign of circumcision; for they were avowed enemies and had entirely departed from all godliness. It was therefore no wonder that their circumcision, which they had impiously profaned, was disregarded. But he later unfolds the same thing more fully and extensively.

In the day, he says, in which thou didst stand on the opposite side. But the Idumeans might have made this objection: “Why do you accuse us of having violently oppressed our brother? For we were not the cause why they were destroyed. They had a quarrel with the Assyrians; we labored to protect our own interest in the midst of these disturbances. We sought peace with the Assyrians, and if necessity so compelled us, that should not be ascribed to us as a crime or blame.” In this way, the Idumeans might have made a defense. But the Prophet dispels all such pretenses by saying, In the day in which thou didst stand on the opposite side, in the day in which strangers took away his substance, and aliens entered his gates, and cast lots on Jerusalem—were not thou there?

Even thou were as one of them. Now this is emphatically introduced—Even thou, or you also (Tu etiam); for the Prophet exhibits it here as a hateful omen: “It was no wonder that the Assyrians and Chaldeans shed the blood of your brethren, for they were enemies, they were foreigners, they were a very distant people. But you, who were of the same blood; you, whom the bond of religion ought to have restrained; and further, even you, who ought by the very claims of vicinity either to have helped your brethren, or at least to have condoled with them—yes, you were so cruel as to have been as one of his enemies! This surely can by no means be endured.”

We now perceive what the Prophet meant by saying, In the day in which thou didst stand on the opposite side: it is then, so to speak, an explanation of the former sentence, to prevent the Idumeans from making a false excuse by objecting that they had not been violent against their brethren. It was indeed the worst oppression when they stood opposite them; though they were not armed, they still took pleasure in a spectacle so mournful. Besides, they were not only idle spectators of the calamity of their brethren but were also, so to speak, a part of their enemies. “Have you then not been as one of them?” I will not proceed further now.

Grant, Almighty God, that as you have once received us under your protection, and have promised that our salvation would be so much cared for by you that, whatever Satan and the whole world may contrive, you will still keep us safe and secure—O grant that, being endowed with perseverance, we may remain within our borders and not be carried away here and there either by craft or by wicked counsels. But may you be pleased to keep us in genuine integrity so that, being protected by your help, we may by experience find that true which you declare in your word: that those who call on you in truth shall always know you to be propitious to them. And since you have already opened to us an access to you in the person of your only begotten Son, O grant that we, the sheep, may rely on him as our shepherd and submissively abide under his protection until we are removed from all dangers into that eternal rest which has been obtained for us by the blood of your Son Jesus Christ. Amen.

[Exposition continues from previous day's lecture]