Lectionary Calendar
Tuesday, August 12th, 2025
the Week of Proper 14 / Ordinary 19
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Read the Bible

Douay-Rheims Bible

Obadiah 1:2

Behold I have made thee small among the nations: thou art exceeding contemptible.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- The Topic Concordance - Abasement;   Enemies;   Heart;   Pride/arrogance;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Character of the Wicked;  

Dictionaries:

- American Tract Society Bible Dictionary - Idumea;   Bridgeway Bible Dictionary - Edom;   Obadiah, book of;   Fausset Bible Dictionary - Obadiah;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Obadiah, Book of;   The Hawker's Poor Man's Concordance And Dictionary - Obadiah;   People's Dictionary of the Bible - Zion;  

Encyclopedias:

- Condensed Biblical Cyclopedia - Kingdom of Judah;   International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Obadiah, Book of;   The Jewish Encyclopedia - Hafṭarah;   Holy Days;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
Look, I will make you insignificantamong the nations;you will be deeply despised.
Hebrew Names Version
Behold, I have made you small among the nations. You are greatly despised.
King James Version (1611)
Behold, I haue made thee small among the heathen: thou art greatly despised.
King James Version
Behold, I have made thee small among the heathen: thou art greatly despised.
English Standard Version
Behold, I will make you small among the nations; you shall be utterly despised.
New American Standard Bible
"Behold, I will make you small among the nations; You are greatly despised.
New Century Version
"Soon I will make you the smallest of nations. You will be greatly hated by everyone.
Amplified Bible
"Behold [Edom], I shall [humiliate you and] make you small among the nations; You are greatly despised.
Geneva Bible (1587)
Beholde, I haue made thee smal among the heathen: thou art vtterly despised.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
"Behold, I will make you small among the nations; You are greatly despised.
Legacy Standard Bible
"Behold, I will make you small among the nations;You are greatly despised.
Berean Standard Bible
"Behold, I will make you small among the nations; you will be deeply despised.
Contemporary English Version
The Lord said to Edom: I will make you the weakest and most despised nation.
Complete Jewish Bible
"I am making you the least of all nations, you will be beneath contempt.
Darby Translation
Behold, I have made thee small among the nations; thou art greatly despised.
Easy-to-Read Version
"Edom, I will make you the smallest nation. Everyone will hate you very much.
George Lamsa Translation
Behold, I have made you the least among the nations; you are greatly despised.
Good News Translation
The Lord says to Edom, "I will make you weak; everyone will despise you.
Lexham English Bible
"Look, I will make you insignificant among the nations. You will be utterly despised!
Literal Translation
Behold, I have given you to be small among the nations; you are greatly despised.
American Standard Version
Behold, I have made thee small among the nations: thou art greatly despised.
Bible in Basic English
See, I have made you small among the nations: you are much looked down on.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
Behold, I make thee small among the nations; thou art greatly despised.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
Behold, I haue made thee smal among the heathen, thou art vtterly despised.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
Arise ye, and let us rise up against her to war.
English Revised Version
Behold, I have made thee small among the nations: thou art greatly despised.
World English Bible
Behold, I have made you small among the nations. You are greatly despised.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Lo! Y yaf thee litil in hethene men, thou art ful myche `worthi to be dispisid.
Update Bible Version
Look, I have made you small among the nations: you are greatly despised.
Webster's Bible Translation
Behold, I have made thee small among the heathen: thou art greatly despised.
New English Translation
The Lord says, "Look! I will make you a weak nation; you will be greatly despised!
New King James Version
"Behold, I will make you small among the nations; You shall be greatly despised.
New Living Translation
The Lord says to Edom, "I will cut you down to size among the nations; you will be greatly despised.
New Life Bible
"I will make you small among the nations. Everyone will hate you.
New Revised Standard
I will surely make you least among the nations; you shall be utterly despised.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Lo! small, have I made thee, among the nations - Despised art thou exceedingly!
Revised Standard Version
Behold, I will make you small among the nations, you shall be utterly despised.
Young's Literal Translation
Lo, little I have made thee among nations, Despised [art] thou exceedingly.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Beholde, I will make ye small amoge the Heithen, so that thou shalt be vtterly despised.
THE MESSAGE
"Listen to this, Edom: I'm turning you to a no-account, the runt of the godless nations, despised. You thought you were so great, perched high among the rocks, king of the mountain, Thinking to yourself, ‘Nobody can get to me! Nobody can touch me!' Think again. Even if, like an eagle, you hang out on a high cliff-face, Even if you build your nest in the stars, I'll bring you down to earth." God 's sure Word.

Contextual Overview

1 The vision of Abdias. Thus saith the Lord God to Edom: We have heard a rumour from the Lord, and he hath sent an ambassador to the nations: Arise, and let us rise up to battle against him. 2 Behold I have made thee small among the nations: thou art exceeding contemptible. 3 The pride of thy heart hath lifted thee up, who dwellest in the clefts of the rocks, and settest up thy throne on high: who sayest in thy heart: Who shall bring me down to the ground? 4 Though thou be exalted as an eagle, and though thou set thy nest among the stars: thence will I bring thee down, saith the Lord. 5 If thieves had gone in to thee, if robbers by night, how wouldst thou have held thy peace? would they not have stolen till they had enough? if the grapegatherers had come in to thee, would they not have left thee at the least a cluster? 6 How have they searched Esau, how have they sought out his hidden things? 7 They have sent thee out even to the border: all the men of thy confederacy have deceived thee: the men of thy peace have prevailed against thee: they that eat with thee shall lay snares under thee: there is no wisdom in him. 8 Shall not I in that day, saith the Lord, destroy the wise out of Edom, and understanding out of the mount of Esau? 9 And thy valiant men of the south shall be afraid, that man may be cut off from the mount of Esau.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Numbers 24:18, 1 Samuel 2:7, 1 Samuel 2:8, Job 34:25-29, Psalms 107:39, Psalms 107:40, Isaiah 23:9, Ezekiel 29:15, Micah 7:10, Luke 1:51, Luke 1:52

Reciprocal: Jeremiah 49:15 - General Ezekiel 32:29 - Edom

Cross-References

Genesis 1:12
And the earth brought forth the green herb, and such as yieldeth seed according to its kind, and the tree that beareth fruit, having seed each one according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.
Genesis 1:14
And God said: Let there be lights made in the firmament of heaven, to divide the day and the night, and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days and years:
Job 26:7
He stretched out the north over the empty space, and hangeth the earth upon nothing.
Job 26:14
Lo, these things are said in part of his ways: and seeing we have heard scarce a little drop of his word, who shall be able to behold the thunder of his greatness?
Psalms 33:6
(32-6) By the word of the Lord the heavens were established; and all the power of them by the spirit of his mouth:
Isaiah 45:18
For thus saith the Lord that created the heavens, God himself that formed the earth, and made it, the very maker thereof: he did not create it in vain: he formed it to be inhabited. I am the Lord, and there is no other.
Nahum 2:10
She is destroyed, and rent, and torn: the heart melteth, and the knees fail, and all the loins lose their strength: and the faces of them all are as the blackness of a kettle.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Behold, I have made thee small among the Heathen,.... Or "a little one", or "thing" o; their number few, and their country not large, as Aben Ezra, especially in comparison of other nations; and therefore had no reason to be so proud, insolent, and secure, as they are afterwards said to be; or rather, "I will make thee"; the past for the future, after the prophetic manner, as Kimchi; that is weak and feeble, as the Targum; reduce their numbers, destroy their towns and cities, and bring them into a low and miserable condition: or the sense is, that he would make them look little, mean, and abject, in the sight of their enemies who would conclude, upon a view of them, that they should have no trouble in subduing them, and therefore should attack them without fear, and as sure of success:

thou art greatly despised; in the eyes of the nations round about; by their enemies, who looked upon them with contempt, because of the smallness of their number, their defenceless state and want of strength to support and defend themselves; see Jeremiah 49:15; had so the pope of Rome is little and despicable in the eyes of the monarchs of the earth; and the antichristian Edom will be more so at the time of its general ruin.

o קטן "parvium", V. L.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Behold, I have made thee small - God, having declared His future judgments upon Edom, assigns the first ground of those judgments. Pride was the root of Edom’s sin, then envy; then followed exultation at his brother’s fall, hard-heartedness and bloodshed. All this was against the disposition of God’s Providence for him. God had made him small, in numbers, in honor, in territory. Edom was a wild mountain people. It was strongly guarded in the rock-girt dwelling, which God had assigned it. Like the Swiss or the Tyrolese of old, or the inhabitants of Mount Caucasus now, it had strength for resistance through the advantages of its situation, not for aggression, unless it were that of a robber-horde. But lowness, as people use it, is the mother either of lowliness or pride. A low estate, acquiesced in by the grace of God, is the parent of lowliness; when rebelled against, it generates a greater intensity of pride than greatness, because that pride is against nature itself and God’s appointment. The pride of human greatness, sinful as it is, is allied to a natural nobility of character. Copying pervertedly the greatness of God, the soul, when it receives the Spirit of God, casts off the slough, and retains its nobility transfigured by grace. The conceit of littleness has the hideousness of those monstrous combinations, the more hideous, because unnatural, not a corruption only but a distortion of nature. Edom never attempted anything of moment by itself. “Thou art greatly despised.” Weakness, in itself, is neither despicable nor “despised.” It is despised only, when it vaunts itself to be, what it is not. God tells Edom what, amid its pride, it was in itself, “despicable;” what it would thereafter be, “despised” .

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Obadiah 1:2. I have made thee small among the heathen — God ever attributes to himself the rise and fall of nations. If they be great and prosperous, it is by God's providence; if they be low and depressed, it is by his justice. Compared with the Assyrians, Chaldeans, Egyptians, Syrians, Arabs, and other neighbouring nations, the Idumeans were a small people.


 
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