If you have been reading along with us you have learned that the Israelite people were descendants of Abraham through his grand-son Jacob (whose name God changed to Israel).  We also learned that Jacob was a twin with Esau.  Jacob was a schemer who tricked his brother out of his place as leader of the family.  Eventually through a couple of meetings with God Jacob turned his life around.  God blessed him and made him the ancestor of the Israelites.  While Jacob (Israel) and his brother, Esau, were reconciled the same was not true for the Israelites and Edomites (the descendants of Esau).  There was tension between them for the next 1500 years.

The Edomites settled in the territory south of the Dead Sea, a fairly desolate desert wilderness.  The capital of their kingdom was Sela (also known as the city of Petra).  You might know the city from the movie, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, it is the place where he enters a building carved into the side of a mountain.  That was just one building in the city but the rest were carved in the same way.  The Edomites controlled major trade routes in the region from their mountain fortress and considered themselves secure and impregnable.

When the Israelites left Egypt for the promised land they asked for permission to pass through the region on the main highway but were refused by the king of Edom (Numbers 20:14-21).  This is just one instance of the trouble between the Israelites and the Edomites.  The first king of Israel, Saul, defeated their army (1 Samuel 14:47), they were also attacked by the second king of Israel, David, who took over Petra (1 Chronicles18:11-14).  Joab, one of David’s generals, killed almost the whole male population of Edom (1 Kings 11:15-16) and a Israelite army post was set up in their fortresses.

In Obadiah’s prophecy we see this tension again between the people of Israel (called Judah and Jerusalem in Obadiah 10-12) and the Edomites.  The specific complaint was that they stood by and allowed “strangers” to ransack Jerusalem.  The nation of Israel was split into two kingdoms (931 BC) after the reign of David’s son Solomon.  The northern kingdom was called Israel and the southern kingdom was called Judah.  Jerusalem was the capital of Judah.  In the history of Judah there are four possible invasions that Obadiah could be referring to.  In 926 BC Judah was invaded by Egypt during the reign of Rehoboam.  During this invasion Edom remained subject to the control of Judah and Judah was not destroyed (1 Kings 14:25-28, 2 Chronicles 12:1-12, Obadiah 12, 13, 14).  The next invasion that might fit Obadiah was about 845 BC, Judah was invaded by the neighboring Philistines and Arabs.  The people of Edom also revolted at this time and it appears from 2 Chronicles 21:9 that they marched on Jerusalem.  The Philistines and Arabs must have actually entered Jerusalem because they took the kings possessions and family (2 Chronicles 21:8, 14-17).  In the invasion of 931 BC although the invaders took valuables they may have been delivered as a sort of tribute, a payoff to honor the invaders so they would leave without destroying the city.  The third possibility happened in 790 BC when the Northern kingdom invaded Judah.  But Obadiah calls the invaders strangers so this is not a good fit (2 Chronicles 25, Obadiah 11).  The last option is the one most often chosen by scholars and that is the invasion in 586 BC by Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon.  In that invasion Nebuchadnezzar entered and sacked Jerusalem (destroyed a lot of stuff).  Obadiah does not mention that kind of destruction; in fact in verses 17-18 he mentions a future time of destruction in Jerusalem but not a past destruction during which Edom assisted.

Because scholars think Obadiah is talking about the invasion by Nebuchadnezzar (after the fact) they date Obadiah somewhere between 586-500 BC (at which time Edom was destroyed).  Obadiah, however, is quoted by Amos (760 BC, Amos 1:6 with Obadiah 14, Amos 9:2 with Obadiah 4), by Jeremiah (627-585 BC and his later years were spent in exile in Egypt where he died so it would be unlikely he would have had an opportunity to hear or read Obadiah if Obadiah wrote after the invasion which led to Jeremiah being taken to Egypt.  Compare Jeremiah 49:7-22 with Obadiah 1-9), and by Joel (835 BC.  Compare Joel 3:3-6 with Obadiah 11-12).   Theses quotations suggest that Obadiah was written in response to the invasion of 845 BC sometime before 835 BC when Joel wrote.  In that case Obadiah would be the oldest of the “writing prophets” (prophets who wrote “books” of the Old Testament).