And the captives of this host of the children of Israel shall possess the land of the Canaanites, even unto Zarephath; and the captives of Jerusalem, who are in Sepharad, shall possess the cities of the south.
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Augustine of Hippo
AD 430
Obadiah, so far as his writings are concerned the briefest of all the prophets, speaks against Edom, that is, the nation of Esau, that reprobate elder of the twin sons of Isaac and of the grandsons of Abraham. Now by that form of speech in which a part is understood for the whole, we understand Edom as referring to the nations. We may understand what Christ says in the same way: “But upon Mount Zion shall be safety, and there shall be a holy one.” And a little further, at the end of the same prophecy, he says concerning Paul, “And the redeemed shall come up out of Mount Zion, that they may defend Mount Esau, and it shall be a kingdom to the Lord.” It is quite evident that this was fulfilled when the redeemed out of Mount Zion (that is, the believers in Christ from Judea, of whom the apostles are chiefly to be acknowledged) went up to defend Mount Esau. How could they defend it except by making safe through the preaching of the gospel those who believed that they might be “delivered fro...
At this place in the text, the migration of Israel back to the land is mentioned, more specifically, from those Jews taken away into Babylon…. Perhaps here he is saying that everything that is to the south and to the north and to the east and to the west will be fully occupied by Israel as they will easily possess the whole region around them. And people will ascend, gathered on top of Zion, which sums up the goal of the prophecy. For the inhabitants of Zion, he says, are saved by God, who will burst through their chains of servitude. At that time he will ascend and take vengeance against Mount Esau. For they will fight, as I have said, against Edom after the time of captivity, and God will rule over all, although God rejected Esau long ago and withdrew from Judah because of apostasy. For they served Baal and the golden calf. But now in mercy and reconciliation he will reign again over them. .
Here he indicates the prisoners of both the kingdoms of Samaria and Jerusalem, and also those who had gone to very far regions. Therefore he recalls the transmigration to Spain, because this is the name of a province, which is extremely distant from Judea, in order to show that this is the great gathering, which God had promised to bring together again from the four corners of the world. Those who have been saved shall go up to Mount Zion to rule Mount Esau, in order to defeat and destroy the nation of the Edomites. And the kingdom shall be the Lord’s. All the nations will be subjugated and subjected to the people of God, that is, to the people that God shall make. .
Sarepta. This was accomplished after the persecution of Epiphanes.
Bosphorus. So St. Jerome's master interpreted Bispharad. But it seems rather to mean a part of Mesopotamia. Sippara stands above, where the Euphrates divides its streams.
The Jewish interpreters explained this similarly that the Lord sent a Savior who would save the people from captivity and they would ascend and go to Mount Zion in order to judge and decide regarding the Mountain of Esau. And when everything is subjugated, there will be a kingdom to the Lord. .
