Obadiah 1:7 Commentary and Bible Study

What has happened, or what will happen, evidently, to Edom, and what did happen is this. The nations roundabout her were against her, but there were some she could rely on. She had some close friends. She had a treaty with this one and with that one, and they came to her and they said, ‘The attack is on this border.’ This report brought them out with all their troops and their fighting men, and actually the Edomites were pretty good at fighting because they made their living not only from their mineral deposits, but also from hiring out their army as mercenaries to other people. They were famous for that in the ancient world. Though there weren't many of them, they were crack troops, and they all responded to this alarm from their friendly neighbour, and went to the border, and the enemy came over the other border on the other side. Even your friends have plotted against you. Even they will bring you down and they will go with the enemy and plunder you and deceive you. ‘They that eat thy bread’ even. The servants in your house of other nationalities perhaps; even they will betray you and turn on you and there will be trouble from the inside as well as from the outside. Then at the end of that seventh verse we are told this: ‘There is none understanding in him.’ He doesn’t even understand his own type, his fellow unbelievers. He will count on them and feel that he has those he can trust, but they will let him down and behave in most unexpected ways. His philosophy of life will let him down, and as for his accounting for God’s response to the way he lives, he has totally overlooked this.