Obadiah 1:8

(Verse 8, 9.) Shall I not in that day, saith the Lord, destroy the wise out of Edom, and understanding out of the mount of Esau? And thy mighty men shall be dismayed, O Teman, to the end that every one of the mount of Esau may be cut off by slaughter. Septuagint: In that day, saith the Lord, I will destroy the wise out of Edom, and understanding out of the mount of Esau. And thy mighty men, O Theman, shall be afraid, that every one from the mount of Esau may be cut off by destruction.

Thus wisdom perishes from Teman, as it is in the parallel place, Jer. xlix. This was, (1.) The just punishment of their folly in trusting to an arm of flesh: There is no understanding in them,

Shall I not in that day, saith the Lord, even destroy the wise men out of Edom,....

Jer 19:7). in that day . . . even destroy--Heretofore Edom, through its intercourse with Babylon and Egypt, and from its means of information through the many caravans passing to and fro between Europe and India, has been famed for knowledge; but in that day at last ("even") I will destroy its wise men. mount of Esau--that is, Idumea, which was a mountainous region.

quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens

Shall I not in that day even destroy the wise out of Edom? - It was then no common, no recoverable, loss of wisdom, for God, the Author of wisdom, had destroyed it. The pagan had a proverb, “whom God willeth to destroy, he first dements.” So Isaiah foretells of Judah Isa 29:14, “The wisdom of their wise shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent shall be hid.” Edom was celebrated of old for its wisdom. Eliphaz, the chief of Job’s friends, the representative of human wisdom, was a Temanite Job 4:1. A vestige of the name of the Shuhites, from where came another of his friends, probably still lingers among the mountains of Edom. Edom is doubtless included among the “sons of the East” 1Ki 4:30 whose wisdom is set as a counterpart to that of Egypt, the highest human wisdom of that period, by which that of Solomon would be measured. “Solomon’s wisdom excelled the wisdom of all the children of the East country and all the wisdom of Egypt.” In Baruch, they are still mentioned among the chief types of human wisdom (Bar. 3:22, 23). “It (wisdom) hath not been heard of in Chanaan, neither hath it been seen in Theman. The Agarenes that seek wisdom upon earth, the merchants of Meran and of Theman, the authors of fables and searchers-out of understanding, none of these have known, the way of wisdom, or remember her paths.” Whence, Jeremiah Jer 49:7, in using, these words of Obadiah, says: “Is wisdom no more in Teman? Is counsel perished from the prudent? Is their wisdom vanished?” He speaks, as though Edom were a known abode of human wisdom, so that it was strange that it was found there no more. He speaks of the Edomites “as prudent,” discriminating , full of judgment, and wonders that counsel should have “perished” from them. They had it eminently then, before it perished. They thought themselves wise; they were thought so; but God took it away at their utmost need. […]