Obadiah

Meaning "servant of Yahweh," Obadiah was a very common Old Testament name, with at least a dozen persons by the name recorded in it. They are discussed here in the order in which they appear in the Old Testament.

1. An official in charge of Ahab's palace, and a devout believer of Yahweh from his youth, who had hidden away a hundred of Yahweh's prophets away from the hands of Jezebel (1 Ki 18:3-4). He met Elijah and was sent by Elijah to Ahab to inform the king that he had come. He did but only after Elijah promised he would not disappear once Obadiah left to do his bidding. Out of the meeting with Ahab, came the battle with the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel. We hear no more of Obadiah after this.

2. Six different individuals by the name are listed in the genealogies of 1 Chron: from the tribe of Judah (3:21), the tribe of Issachar (7:3), of Benjamin (8:38), of Levi (9:16) and of Saul (9:44). No details are provided about any of them.

3. One of David's commanders were called Obadiah, and another the "son of Obadiah. The first was a Gadite "brave warriors, ready for battle and able to handle the shield and spear. Their faces were the faces of lions, and they were as swift as gazelles in the mountains," who served as the second-in-command of David's army when the latter was banished from Saul's presence (1 Chron 12:9). Ishmaiah son of Obadiah was commander of the Zebulun division of David's army (1 Chron 27:19).

4. An official of King Jehoshaphat's count sent by the king, together with other Levites and priests, to teach the torah of the Lord in the towns of Judah (2 Chron 17:7).

5. A supervisor, a Levite, appointed to oversee the restoration and repair of the temple in the reign of Josiah when the Book of the Law was found that led to an even greater effort at the religious reformation under the young king (2 Chron 34:12).

6. Three Obadiah's are listed in the post-exilic community associated with Ezra-Nehemiah. One of them, "the son o f Jehiel, and with him 218 men," was among those registered to come up with Ezra to Jerusalem from Babylon during the reign of Artaxerxes (Ezr 8:9). Later a priest named Obadiah was among those who signed the national covenant initiated by Nehemiah (Neh 10:5). Finally, an Obadiah is listed as one of the "gatekeepers who guarded the storerooms at the gates" during the time when Nehemiah was governor (Neh 12:25). It is possible, though unlikely, that these names may represent the same or different persons.

7. The prophet who has left us his oracles against the nation of Edom by his name (Oba 1:1). It is the shortest book of the Old Testament, but also one of the most difficult. The book is essentially a denunciation against Edom for her raid against Jerusalem in the days of her trouble. Scholars cannot agree when Obadiah delivered his oracle. Most think that it should be dated in the 6th Cent BC, just after Judah went into exile or soon afterwards. This date has the advantage that Edom's attack on Jerusalem at this time is also recalled in a number of other passages (e.g., Psm 137:7; Lam 4:21-22). A smaller number of scholars associate the events mentioned in the book with the rebellion of Edom during the reign of Jehoram (2 Ki 8:20-22; 2 Chron 21:8-10), and date Obadiah's oracle to the 9th Cent BC. Like all the other OAN (oracles against the nations), Obadiah evinces a strong sense of divine justice and the conviction that Yahweh is the Sovereign Lord of all the earth. Like many of the other biblical prophets, Obadiah was not particularly keen to tell us much about himself; he delivered God's message and he seemed happy to leave things at that.

Resources:

Nancy Guthrie with Jonathan Gibson, "Teaching Obadiah. The Gospel Coalition (US). September 3, 2020.
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