A more detailed version of this analysis will be sent to anyone requesting it at elmerphd21@hotmail.com.
John D. W. Watts begins his commentary on Obadiah by stating, “This smallest of the books in the Old Testament has earned disproportionate attention from the scholars.” The reason given by Allen for this phenomenon is that the book “cries out to be considered as a model upon which to demonstrate structural and strophic theories.” A random survey of fourteen proposed divisions found in the literature based on these theories, some involving textual rearrangements, showed virtually no agreement among them.
Five-fold Divisions
It is hard to do justice to the text with less than five major divisions. Thus, Raabe begins by considering the divine speech formulas (“Thus spoke the Lord Yahweh” and “utterance of Yahweh”) at Obad. 1, 4, 8 and 18 as boundaries for at two of his proposed sections. He then divides Obad. 8-18 into two speeches directed to Edom (vv. 8-15) and Judah (vv. 16-18), respectively. These five resulting sections exhibit almost perfect symmetry in regard to their length:
Verses Words Syllables
1-4 48 114
5-7 43 100
8-15 106 241
16-18 47 103
19-21 46 111
As appealing as this proposal is, it artificially interrupts the flow of the book and the parallel sections above do not show any corresponding parallelisms of thought.
Watts also divides the book into five separate units (discounting the title) using form-critical standards: 1-4, 5-10, 11-14, 15-16, and 17-21. These divisions preserve both the coherent flow of ideas within each section and the observed unity of vv. 17-21. In addition, they may be tentatively grouped as shown below to bring out the symmetrical organization of the whole composition.
Figure 1: Five-part Structure of Obadiah
A. The Lord Yahweh (Obad.1-4)
B. Day of the Lord (Obad. 5-10)
C. Edom's Sin (Obad. 11-14)
B'. Day of the Lord (Obad. 15-16)
A'. Yahweh the King (Obad. 17-21)
If a chiastic structure is intended for Obadiah, as the data seem to suggest, then the powerful indictment of Edom in vv. 11-14 stands at the center of the composition to highlight with uncompromising repetition the major sin for which Edom will have to face judgment on the coming Day: siding not with her brother Judah but with Judah's enemies instead.
Repetition in Obadiah
This is not the end of a discussion of Obadiah's structure, however. There is another literary technique acting to unify and order the book in a much more overt manner than the possible use of chiasm: the utilization of repeated words and phrases. Magary provides a list of these repeated phrases, such as:
“If..., would they not...” vv. 5-6
“on (in) the day” vv. 11-14
“you should not have...” vv. 12-14
“house of Jacob/Esau” vv. 17-18
“shall possess” vv. 19-20
A more in-depth look at some of the repetitions in Obadiah reveals additional patterns generally unnoticed by other students of the book until Raabe's Anchor Bible entry. Much of what follows will be a summary of and interaction with his insightful findings.
There are two Hebrew words for “people” used in Obadiah: goyim (generally referring to the Gentile nations) and 'am (usually applied to the Jews). These terms have special theological significance for Obadiah since one of the major questions answered by the book is, “In which camp is Edom?” These words are used a total of five times in the text. Their pattern of occurrence is as follows:
Obad. 1 (goyim)
Obad. 2 (goyim)
Obad. 13 (‘am)
Obad. 15 (goyim)
Obad. 16 (goyim)
The central appearance refers to Judah while the others are addressed to Edom. In vv. 1 and 2, Edom is included “among the nations,” and in the last two usages she is addressed as “you” and her fate is specifically compared to that of the nations. Another important pattern centering on Section C of the book is found with the key word “day.” It appears ten times in Obad. 11-14, in each case referring to the past pillaging of Judah. These occurrences are bracketed by the only other appearances of the word, in Obad. 8 and 15, where they refer to the future Day of the Lord which will be experienced by all the nations. These two work patterns centering on Section C help to confirm the validity of the structure in Figure 1.
There is a seven-fold appearance of “Yahweh” in the book. The first and last are especially noteworthy. The rare compound name “Lord Yahweh” in Obad. 1 pictures him “as Lord of all, of heaven, of earth, of history, of Israel, of himself.” Bridger notes that these two verses, as well as v. 15 in the middle of the work, stress the sovereignty of God.
Also mentioned seven times in the text are the words “Esau” and “mount.” The exact number of occurrences is again an indication that their presence is purposeful and, in fact, both terms are highly significant when applied to Edom. The first harkens back to the origin of the nation as a brother to Jacob, making their crime against Judah especially heinous. In addition, Watts notes another possible reason for the Genesis allusion: “Esau's early ascendancy is overcome by Jacob's tenacity. It is Jacob, not Esau, who finally possessed both the blessing and the land.” Raabe speculates that the use of “Esau” for Edom in v. 8 predicting the disappearance of its wisdom may point back to the foolishness of Esau's selling of his birthright. The term “mount” points to the arrogance of Edom in relying on geography to preserve her rather than on Yahweh (see Obad. 3-4). These terms thus emphasize the two charges Yahweh levels against Edom that will earn them judgment on the coming Day.
Vertical Parallelism
Allen notes, “All three (sic) sections of the book and the individual strophes are tied together by various interlocking devices.” Raabe uses the phrase “vertical parallelism” to denote this literary peculiarity so evident in Obadiah. He illustrates the concept with the example of vv. 3 and 4:
3e. “Who will bring me down to the ground?
--------------
4a. Though you soar aloft like the eagle,
4b. though your nest is set among the stars,
4c. thence I will bring you down, says the Lord.”
The common poetic parallelism within a line pair, such as 4a and b, is styled “horizontal parallelism” and distinguished from the repetition of phrases spaced more distantly in the text, which are called examples of “vertical parallelism.” Vertical parallelism can be used to unite an individual section (as in the example above) or act as a bridge to connect two adjacent sections of the book. The problem comes in distinguishing between these two different functions. Such ambiguity resulting from the use of multiple interlocking devices functioning at different levels (both within a section and between sections) is the prime reason for confusion among commentators on how to divide the book. Of course there is confusion! Since the main purpose of the vertical parallels is to unify the text, any attempt to divide it into neat parcels goes against the author's original intent.
The above argues that any attempted division of the text will be somewhat arbitrary given the nature of the book. But it is still instructive to demonstrate how the proposed structure of Fig. 1 utilizes both levels of vertical parallelism to unify individual sections (Level I) and tie together adjacent sections (Level II). This exercise is shown graphically in Fig. 2 for repeated words and phrases in the book.
In conclusion, we should note that the strand of pearls pictured in Fig. 2 is really not complete without the clasp that completes the circle: namely, the appearance of “Yahweh” at the end of the book to match its occurrence at the beginning. As Livingston states, “The sovereignty of God is never far from sight... As the prophecy of Obadiah begins with the Lord dominating the scene, it ends with the proclamation that he is to be King of all.” (G. H. Livingston)
Figure 2: Vertical Parallelism in the Book of Obadiah
Section Level I Parallelism Level II Parallelism
A “says the Lord,”
“up / down,”
“your heart,”
“will bring down,”
“nations”
“Edom,”
“deceived you,”
“if...”
B “If..., would...?,”
“Esau / Jacob,”
“understanding,”
“cut off”
“your brother,”
“day,”
“cut off”
C “on the day,”
“you should not have,”
“distress / calamity,”
“entered gate(s),”
“wealth”
“day,”
“you...”
B' “all the nations,”
“just as you have”“mount”
A' “mount,”
“house,”“Jacob / Esau,”
“possess,”
“Negeb”
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