Obadiah 1:6
in Obadiah 1But how Esau will be pillaged, his hidden treasures sought out!
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
How are the things of Esau searched! how are his hidden treasures sought out!
KJV
How are the things of Esau searched out! how are his hidden things sought up!
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This verse in Obadiah 1
Commentary
10 notes on this verse(Verse 4 onwards) If thieves entered your house, or robbers at night, how would you remain silent? Wouldn't they have stolen enough for themselves? If grape harvesters entered your vineyard, wouldn't they at least leave some grapes for you? How deeply they searched, how thoroughly they investigated his hidden places! Septuagint: If thieves entered your house, or robbers at night, where would you hide? Wouldn't they have stolen enough for themselves? And if grape harvesters came to you, would they not leave some grapes? How Esau has been searched, and his hidden things have been discovered?
This site's exposition
If grape gatherers came to you
on Obadiah 1:5-7
The judgment is measured against thieves and grape gatherers, who take only what they want, so Edom's ruin will be worse than any raid. In verse 7 "the men at peace with you will deceive and overpower you". So the nation that betrayed its brother is betrayed in turn.
This site's exposition
how Esau will be pillaged
Esau stands for the nation, the people called by their father's name, as John Wesley notes. The Hebrew sets the one name beside a plural verb, Albert Barnes observes, so the search reaches every man of Esau and every hidden treasure. Edom's rocks hid its wealth.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
If thieves came to you, oh, how you would be silenced! Everything would be open for plunder because of the overwhelming fear, until [the plunderers] have stolen enough [riches] for themselves, for they are people of insatiable and consuming greed. If grape gatherers came to …
The Puritans and the Awakening4 voices
How art thou fallen, and how great is thy fall! How art thou stupefied! so the Chaldee words it. How senseless art thou under these desolating judgments, as if they were but common strokes!
Esau - The father of this people, put for his posterity. Sought up - All that the Edomites had laid up in the most secret places, are seized and brought forth by soldiers.
How are the things of Esau searched out!....
How are the things of Esau, the things he sets his heart upon and places his happiness in, his good things, his best things, how are these things, which were so carefully treasured up and concealed, now searched out by the enemy and seized! How are the hidden things, his hidden treasures, plundered, rifled, and sought up!
2 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
How are the things of Esau searched out! - literally, “How are Esau, out searched!” i. e., Esau, as a whole and in all its parts and in all its belongings, all its people and all its property, one and all. The name “Esau” speaks of them as a whole; the plural verb, “are outsearched,” represents all its parts.
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
How are the things of Esau searched out!--by hostile soldiers seeking booty. Compare with Ob 5, 6 here, Jer 49:9, 10. hidden things--or "places." Edom abounded in such hiding-places, as caves, clefts in the rock, &c.
The words behind it
5 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| אֵ֚יךְ | ʾeikh | how! | H349 → | |
| נֶחְפְּשׂ֣וּ | nechpesu | they will be plundered | H2664 → | |
| עֵשָׂ֔ו | ʾesav | Esau | H6215 → | 97 times |
| נִבְע֖וּ | nivu | they will be searched out | H1158 → | |
| מַצְפֻּנָֽיו׃ | matzpunav | hidden treasures its | H4710 → |
אֵ֚יךְhow!
ʾeikhH349 →
נֶחְפְּשׂ֣וּthey will be plundered
nechpesuH2664 →
עֵשָׂ֔וEsau
ʾesavH6215 →97 times
נִבְע֖וּthey will be searched out
nivuH1158 →
מַצְפֻּנָֽיו׃hidden treasures its
matzpunavH4710 →
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Psalms 139:1O LORD, You have searched me and known me.
it leads to
- Hebrews 4:13
Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight; everything is uncovered and exposed before the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.
- Jeremiah 12:3
But You know me, O LORD; You see me and test my heart toward You. Drag away the wicked like sheep to the slaughter and set them apart for the day of carnage.
- Jeremiah 17:9–10
The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?
- Psalms 44:21
would not God have discovered, since He knows the secrets of the heart?
- Psalms 17:3
You have tried my heart; You have visited me in the night. You have tested me and found no evil; I have resolved not to sin with my mouth.
- Hebrews 4:13
Through
Daniel 2:22He reveals the deep and hidden things; He knows what lies in darkness, and light dwells with Him.
it leads to
- Jeremiah 23:24
“Can a man hide in secret places where I cannot see him?” declares the LORD. “Do I not fill the heavens and the earth?” declares the LORD.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Job 12:22
He reveals the deep things of darkness and brings deep shadows into light.
- 1 John 1:5
And this is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you: God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all.
- Jeremiah 23:24
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies6
About Obadiah
Who and where
1 name in this verse with a page on the site.
This page draws on 10 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Carl Friedrich Keil, The Twelve Minor Prophets; Edward Bouverie Pusey, The Minor Prophets: A Commentary; Ephrem the Syrian, COMMENTARY ON OBADIAH; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Commentary on Obadiah; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.