This is a very short one, for it is a single-page prophecy. Already, the prophet Malachias (Malachy) had condemned Edom and the Edomites, descendants of Esau son of Isaac the patriarch, in a most final manner. Edom – the Hebrew colour red – was the name given to the twin brother of the patiarch Jacob, because he was covered with red fur from birth, and after Jacob’s inheritance of the promises made to Abraham, the tribes of Esau departed to live in the south country, east of the Negev desert, called Seir. Their history was one of constant rivalry with the tribes of Jacob, who were called Israel.
“…as not Esau brother to Jacob? Yet to Jacob I proved Myself a friend, the Lord says, no friend to Esau; I have made a waste of yonder mountain-side, of all his lands a dragon-haunted desert. ‘Ay, but,’ says Edom, ‘what if we have fallen on evil days? Give us time to repair the ruins!’ Trust me, says the Lord of hosts, as fast as they build, I will pull down; land of rebellion men shall call it, brood the Lord hates, and for ever.“
Prophecy of Malachias, 1: 2-4
Abdias continues with this denunciation of Edom, who are here presented as a proud nation and one that had attacked Israel whenever they had the chance to do so, and had probably rejoiced in the destruction of the Israelite kingdoms and of Jerusalem herself by the Chaldeans. They had not attempted to help Juda when the attack from Babylonia arrived, and may even have collaborated in a general looting of what was left of Jerusalem after the Chaldeans had been and left.
“What wonder if hopes of thine come to nothing, name of thine perish eternally, that didst assail thy own brother, with murderous wrong? Hast thou forgotten the day when thou stoodest aloof, while the enemy disarmed his ranks, while aliens thronged through yonder gates, and parcelled out Jerusalem by lot, thyself making common cause with them? What, look on idly, when fortune turns against that brother of thine; nay, triumph over Juda’s fall, boast of his calamity? He overthrown, and thou wouldst find thy way in at the gates of My own city; he overthrown, and thou wouldst rejoice at his discomfiture; he overthrown, and thou wouldst offer him battle?”
Abdias, 10-13
The rest of this short prophecy foretells a restoration of the tribes of Juda and Benjamin, with Jews returning home from far away, and an utter destruction of nations like Edom and Philistia, who had rejoiced in the destruction of Juda.
Catholic Louth and Mablethorpe 