Attributed commentary excerpt
Barnes' Notes on Obadiah 1:21
A historical reference excerpt for this verse. Read it alongside the biblical text and other available sources.
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Albert Barnes (1798–1870) · 19th-century historical commentary
Source: BibleWord.ai's local reference edition of this named work.
And saviors shall ascend on Mount Zion - The body should not be without its head; saviours there should be, and those, successively. The title was familiar to them of old Judges 3:9, Judges 3:15. “The children of Israel cried unto the Lord, Who raised them up a savior, and he saved them. And the Lord gave unto Israel a savior” 2 Kings 13:5, in the time of Jehoahaz. Nehemiah says to God, Nehemiah 9:27. “According to Thy manifold mercies, Thou gavest them saviours, who should save them from the hands of their enemies.” So there should be thereafter. Such were Judas Maccabeus and his brothers, and Hyrcanus, Alexander, Aristobulus. They are said to “ascend” as to a place of dignity, to “ascend on Mount Zion;” not to go up thither “ward,” but to dwell and abide “in” it, which aforetime was defiled, which now was to be holy. He ends, as he began, with Mount Zion, the “holy hill,” where God was pleased to dwell Psalms 2:6; Psalms 68:16, to reveal Himself. In both, is the judgment of Esau. Mount Zion stands over against Mount Esau, God’s holy mount against the mountains of human pride, the Church against the world. And with this agrees the office assigned, which is almost more than that of man. He began his prophecy of the deliverance of God’s people, “In Mount Zion shall be an escaped remnant;” he ends, “saviors shall ascend on Mount Zion:” he began, “it shall be” holiness;” he closes, “and the kingdom shall be the Lord’s. To judge the mount of Esau.” Judges, appointed by God, judge His people; saviours, raised up by God, deliver them. But once only does Ezekiel speak of man’s judging another nation, as the instrument of God Ezekiel 24:14. “I, the Lord, have spoken it - and I will do it; I will not go back, neither will I spare, neither will I repent; according to thy ways and according to thy doings shall they judge thee, saith the Lord God.” But it is the prerogative of God. And so, while the word “saviours” includes those who, before and afterward, were the instruments of God in saving His Church and people, yet, all saviours shadowed forth or back the one Saviour, who alone has the office of Judge, in whose kingdom, and associated by Him with Him 1 Corinthians 6:2, “the saints shall judge the world,” as He said to His Apostles Matthew 19:28, “ye which have followed Me, in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of His glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.” And the last words must at all times have recalled that great prophecy of the Passion, and of its fruits in the conversion of the Pagan, from which it is taken - Psalms 22:0. The outward incorporation of Edom in Judah through Hyrcanus was but a shadow of that inward union, when the kingdom of God was established upon earth, and Edom was enfolded in the one kingdom of Christ, and its cities, from where had issued the wasters and deadly foes of Judah, became the sees of Christian Bishops. And in this way too Edom was but the representative of others, aliens from and enemies to God, to whom His kingdom came, in whom He reigns and will reign, glorified forever in His saints, whom He has redeemed with His most precious Blood. And the kingdom shall be the Lord’s - Majestic, comprehensive simplicity of prophecy! All time and eternity, the struggles of time and the rest of eternity, are summed up in those three words ; Zion and Edom retire from sight; both are comprehended in that one kingdom, and God is “all in all” 1 Corinthi…
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