Obadiah — The Coverdale Bible (1535)

Obadiah, the shortest book of the Hebrew Bible, is an oracle against Edom. In Coverdale’s Bible of 1535 it stands in the Prophets under the heading “The Prophet Abdy”. Coverdale’s summary of the chapters stands before the text; the 1535 Bible has no verse numbers, so the text keeps its own paragraphs, in 1 chapter, with the marginal notes and references printed after each chapter.

What Abdy conteyneth.

• Chap. I He prophecyeth agaynst the proude stomackes of the Edomites, that vexed the Israelites in their aduersite. He sheweth, what plages shal come vpon them.

Chapter 1

THis is the vision that was shewed [A] vnto Abdy: Thus hath yᵉ LORDE God spokē vpō Edō:⁽¹⁾ We haue herde of the LORDE yᵗ there is an embassage sent amonge the Heithen: Vp, let vs aryse, and fight agaynst them. Beholde, I will make yᵉ small amōge the Heithen, so that thou shalt be vtterly despised.⁽²⁾ The pryde of thine herte hath lift the vp, thou that dwellest in yᵉ strōge holdes off stone, and hast made the an hye seate: Thou sayest in thyne herte: who shal cast me downe to the grounde? But though thou wentest vp as hye as the Aegle,⁽³⁾ and maydest thy nest aboue amonge the starres: yet wolde I plucke the downe from thēce. Yf yᵉ theues & robbers came to yᵉ by-night, thou takinge thy rest: shulde they not steale, till they had ynough? yf the grape gatherers came vpon the, wolde they not leaue the some grapes? But how shall they rype Esau, and seke out his treasures?

[B] Yee the men that were sworne vnto the, shal dryue the out off the borders off thyne owne londe. They that be now at one with the, shal disceaue the, and ouercome yᵉ: Euē they that eate thy bred, shall betraye the, or euer thou perceaue it. Shal not I at the same tyme destroye the wyse men of Edom,⁽⁴⁾ ād those that haue vnderstondinge, from the mount of Esau? Thy giauntes (o Theman) shalbe afrayed, for thorow the slaughter they shalbe all ouer throwne vpon the moūt of Esau. Shame shal come vpon the, for yᵉ malice that thou shewedest to thy brother Iacob: yee for euermore shalt thou perish, & that because of the tyme,⁽⁵⁾ when thou didest set thyself agaynst him, euen when the enemies caried awaye his hoost, and when the aleauntes came in at his portes, and cast lottes vpon Ierusalem, and thou thyself wast as one of them.

[C] Thou shalt nomore se the daye of thy brother, thou shalt nomore beholde the tyme of his captiuyte: thou shalt nomore reioyse ouer the children of Iuda, in the daye of their destruccion, thou shalt tryumphe nomore in the tyme of their trouble. Thou shalt nomore come in at the gates off my people, in the tyme of their decaye: thou shalt not se their mysery in the daye of their fall.

Thou shalt sende out no man agaynst their hoost, in the daye of their aduersite: nether shalt thou stōde wayringe enymore at yᵉ corners of the stretes, to murthur soch as are fled, or to take them presoners, that remayne in the daye of their trouble. For the daye off the LORDE is harde by vpon all Heithen. Like as thou hast done,⁽⁶⁾ so shalt thou be dealte withall, yee thou shalt be rewarded euen vpon thine heade. For like wyse as ye haue droncken vpon myne holy hill, so shal all heithen dryncke continually: yee dryncke shall they, and swalowe vp so that ye shall be, as though ye had neuer bene.

But vpon the mount Sion, there shall a [D] remnaunt escape: these shalbe holy,⁽⁷⁾ and the house of Iacob shal possesse euen those, that had them selues afore in possessiō. Morouer, the house of Iacob shalbe a fyre,⁽⁸⁾ the house of Ioseph a flame, & the house of Esau shalbe the strawe: which they shal kyndle and cōsume, so that nothinge shalbe left of the house of Esau, for the LORDE himself hath sayde it. They of the south shal haue the mount of Esau in possession: and loke what lieth vpon the grounde, that shal the Philistynes haue: the playne feldes shal Ephraim and Samaria possesse: and the mountaynes of Galaad shal Ben Iamin haue. And this hoost shalbe the childrē of Israels presoners: Now what so lieth from Canaan vnto Sarphad, and in Sepharad, that shal be vnder the subieccion of Ierusalem: and the cities of the south shall enheret it. Thus they that escape vpon the hill off Sion, shall go vp to punysh the mount off Esau,⁽⁹⁾ and the kyngdome shalbe the LORDES.

Notes to Chapter 1

⁽¹⁾ ⟨illegible⟩

⁽²⁾ ⟨illegible⟩. 49. c

⁽³⁾ ⟨illegible⟩ 9 a ⟨illegible⟩. 2. b

⁽⁴⁾ ⟨illegible⟩sa. 29.c ⟨illegible⟩ Cor. 1. c

⁽⁵⁾ ⟨illegible⟩ 17. c ⟨illegible⟩. 20. c

⁽⁶⁾ ⟨illegible⟩. ⟨illegible⟩0 c ⟨illegible⟩. 3. b

⁽⁷⁾ Zach. 2.

⁽⁸⁾ Iere. 5. c

⁽⁹⁾ Zac. 14. b

The ende off the prophet Abdy.

Colophon

This page is an archival transcription of the printed text, not a Good Works Translation. Source: Biblia the Byble, that is, the holy Scrypture of the Olde and New Testament, faithfully translated in to Englyshe (M.D.XXXV; STC 2063.3), translated by Myles Coverdale, the copy in Cambridge University Library, keyed and encoded by the Text Creation Partnership (EEBO-TCP Phase I, text A10349, 2005) and released under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 public-domain dedication.

11 places are still marked ⟨illegible⟩ (0 in the text, 11 in the marginal notes).

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