And the house of Jacob shall be a fire, and the house of Joseph a flame, and the house of Esau for stubble, and they shall kindle them, and devour them; and there shall not be any remaining of the house of Esau;
for the LORD has spoken it.
All Commentaries on Obadiah 1:18 Go To Obadiah 1
Jerome
AD 420
Edom is subjugated and will be devoured by the hostile nations with whom it formerly was in league against Jacob. The remnant, however, will be on Mount Zion, where there will be salvation and holiness. The interpretation here is, either it is that the Lord himself will return to the temple which he left because of sin, or there will be absolute holiness, that is, the Holy of Holies will once again be established. And the house of Jacob will occupy it under the rule of Zerubbabel and Ezra and Nehemiah, who occupied it as Jacob’s descendants. And the house of Jacob (that is, Judah) will be a fire, the house of Joseph (that is, the ten tribes of Samaria) a flame. But the house of Esau, that is, the Edomites, who nevertheless raged and cruelly stood against their brother, will be turned into stubble. And as fire and flames devour stubble, so the two kingdoms in union with one another will destroy Edom and devour it. And there will be nothing left of the people of Edom that might be able to announce the destruction of the adversary to the neighboring nations. For this is why the Septuagint translates pyrophoros, which we interpret as “stubble,” as nearest to the ancient way of speaking. .
