Visio Abdiæ. Hæc dicit Dominus Deus ad Edom: Auditum audivimus a Domino, et legatum ad gentes misit: surgite, et consurgamus adversus eum in prælium.

The vision of Abdias. Thus saith the Lord God to Edom: We have heard a rumour from the Lord, and he hath sent an ambassador to the nations: Arise, and let us rise up to battle against him.

Here follows the vision of Abdias. What doom does the Lord God pronounce on Edom? What bruit is this has reached our ears, what embassage has been sent abroad among the nations? Up, march we out to engage him in battle!

Ecce parvulum dedi te in gentibus: contemptibilis tu es valde.

Behold I have made thee small among the nations: thou art exceeding contemptible.

Sorry the lot I have given thee among the peoples of the world, no better than a thing of contempt;

Superbia cordis tui extulit te, habitantem in scissuris petrarum, exaltantem solium tuum; qui dicis in corde tuo: Quis detrahet me in terram?

The pride of thy heart hath lifted thee up, who dwellest in the clefts of the rocks, and settest up thy throne on high: who sayest in thy heart: Who shall bring me down to the ground?

yet, dwelling where thou dost in the clefts of the rocks, thou art puffed up with pride; high thou hast built thy throne, and thinkest there is none can drag thee down to earth.

Si exaltatus fueris ut aquila, et si inter sidera posueris nidum tuum, inde detraham te, dicit Dominus.

Though thou be exalted as an eagle, and though thou set thy nest among the stars: thence will I bring thee down, saith the Lord.

Build thy eyrie high as the eagle, nest, if thou wilt, among the stars, I will yet drag thee down thence, the Lord says.

Si fures introissent ad te, si latrones per noctem, quomodo conticuisses? nonne furati essent sufficientia sibi? Si vindemiatores introissent ad te, numquid saltem racemum reliquissent tibi?

If thieves had gone in to thee, if robbers by night, how wouldst thou have held thy peace? would they not have stolen till they had enough? if the grapegatherers had come in to thee, would they not have left thee at the least a cluster?

Strange, the silence that has fallen upon Edom! Thieves were they, midnight robbers, that had assailed thee, at least they had been content to carry off what they had need of; some gleanings at least those vintagers would have left thee!

Quomodo scrutati sunt Esau; investigaverunt abscondita ejus?

How have they searched Esau, how have they sought out his hidden things?

But now, see how Esau is ransacked, how all his treasury is rifled!

Usque ad terminum emiserunt te: omnes viri fœderis tui illuserunt tibi: invaluerunt adversum te viri pacis tuæ, qui comedunt tecum, ponent insidias subter te; non est prudentia in eo.

They have sent thee out even to the border: all the men of thy confederacy have deceived thee: the men of thy peace have prevailed against thee: they that eat with thee shall lay snares under thee: there is no wisdom in him.

See how the very folk that are in league with thee drive thee back to thy own frontier, thy own confederates playing thee false, pressing thee hard! Stabbed from beneath by boon companions of thy own? Thou art a fool for thy pains.

Numquid non in die illa, dicit Dominus, perdam sapientes de Idumæa, et prudentiam de monte Esau?

Shall not I in that day, saith the Lord, destroy the wise out of Edom, and understanding out of the mount of Esau?

Day of doom, the Lord says, when wise man shall be none in Edom, nor any prudent counsellor on all Esau’s hill-side;

Et timebunt fortes tui a meridie, ut intereat vir de monte Esau.

And thy valiant men of the south shall be afraid, that man may be cut off from the mount of Esau.

dismayed the warriors of Teman shall be, till slaughter leaves all the mountains of Esau desolate.

Propter interfectionem, et propter iniquitatem in fratrem tuum Jacob, operiet te confusio, et peribis in æternum.

For the slaughter, and for the iniquity against thy brother Jacob, confusion shall cover thee, and thou shalt perish for ever.

What wonder if hopes of thine come to nothing, name of thine perish eternally, that didst assail thy own brother, with murderous wrong?

In die cum stares adversus eum, quando capiebant alieni exercitum ejus, et extranei ingrediebantur portas ejus, et super Jerusalem mittebant sortem, tu quoque eras quasi unus ex eis.

In the day when thou stoodest against him, when strangers carried away his army captive, and foreigners entered into his gates, and cast lots upon Jerusalem: thou also wast as one of them.

Hast thou forgotten the day when thou stoodest aloof, while the enemy disarmed his ranks, while aliens thronged through yonder gates, and parcelled out Jerusalem by lot, thyself making common cause with them?

Et non despicies in die fratris tui, in die peregrinationis ejus: et non lætaberis super filios Juda in die perditionis eorum: et non magnificabis os tuum in die angustiæ.

But thou shalt not look on in the day of thy brother, in the day of his leaving his country: and thou shalt not rejoice over the children of Juda, in the day of their destruction: and thou shalt not magnify thy mouth in the day of distress.

What, look on idly, when fortune turns against that brother of thine; nay, triumph over Juda’s fall, boast of his calamity?

Neque ingredieris portam populi mei in die ruinæ eorum; neque despicies et tu in malis ejus in die vastitatis illius. Et non emitteris adversus exercitum ejus in die vastitatis illius,

Neither shalt thou enter into the gate of my people in the day of their ruin: neither shalt thou also look on in his evils in the day of his calamity: and thou shalt not be sent out against his army in the day of his desolation.

He overthrown, and thou wouldst find thy way in at the gates of my own city; he overthrown, and thou wouldst rejoice at his discomfiture; he overthrown, and thou wouldst offer him battle?

neque stabis in exitibus ut interficias eos qui fugerint, et non concludes reliquos ejus in die tribulationis.

Neither shalt thou stand in the crossways to kill them that flee: and thou shalt not shut up them that remain of him in the day of tribulation.

Thou wouldst take up thy post in the breach, and cut off the fugitive, bar the way to the straggler, when all is lost?

Quoniam juxta est dies Domini super omnes gentes: sicut fecisti, fiet tibi; retributionem tuam convertet in caput tuum.

For the day of the Lord is at hand upon all nations: as thou hast done, so shall it be done to thee: he will turn thy reward upon thy own head.

Be sure of this, a time is soon coming when the Lord will summon all the nations to their account; then, as thou didst, it shall be done to thee, in thy own coin thou shalt be paid.

Quomodo enim bibistis super montem sanctum meum, bibent omnes gentes jugiter: et bibent, et absorbebunt, et erunt quasi non sint.

For as you have drunk upon my holy mountain, so all nations shall drink continually: and they shall drink, and sup up, and they shall be as though they were not.

The cup of vengeance you, my people, have drunk, there on that mountain which is my sanctuary, all the heathen shall drink henceforward; drink, ay, drink deep, and fall into forgetfulness, as if they had never been.

Et in monte Sion erit salvatio, et erit sanctus; et possidebit domus Jacob eos qui se possederant.

And in mount Sion shall be salvation, and it shall be holy, and the house of Jacob shall possess those that possessed them.

But here, on mount Sion, all shall be deliverance, all shall be holiness, and their spoilers the men of Jacob shall despoil.

Et erit domus Jacob ignis, et domus Joseph flamma, et domus Esau stipula: et succendentur in eis, et devorabunt eos, et non erunt reliquiæ domus Esau, quia Dominus locutus est.

And the house of Jacob shall be a fire, and the house of Joseph a flame, and the house of Esau stubble: and they shall be kindled in them, and shall devour them: and there shall be no remains of the house of Esau, for the Lord hath spoken it.

A fire Jacob shall be, a living flame the sons of Joseph, and Esau’s race stubble before their onset; the spark once kindled, all shall be consumed, and of Esau’s race no memory be left; the Lord decrees it.

Et hæreditabunt hi, qui ad austrum sunt, montem Esau, et qui in campestribus, Philisthiim: et possidebunt regionem Ephraim et regionem Samariæ, et Benjamin possidebit Galaad.

And they that are toward the south, shall inherit the mount of Esau, and they that are in the plains, the Philistines: and they shall possess the country of Ephraim, and the country of Samaria: and Benjamin shall possess Galaad.

Hill-country of Esau shall fall to the southern folk, and Philistia to the men of the plain; all that is Ephraim and Samaria now shall be theirs, and Galaad shall be made over to Benjamin.

Et transmigratio exercitus hujus filiorum Israël, omnia loca Chananæorum usque ad Sareptam: et transmigratio Jerusalem, quæ in Bosphoro est, possidebit civitates austri.

And the captivity of this host of the children of Israel, all the places of the Chanaanites even to Sarepta: and the captivity of Jerusalem that is in Bosphorus, shall possess the cities of the south.

Warriors of Israel, banished far away, shall hold all the Chanaanite lands, Sarepta their northern frontier; men of Jerusalem, come back from the shores of Bosphorus to claim the cities of the south.

Et ascendent salvatores in montem Sion judicare montem Esau, et erit Domino regnum.

And saviours shall come up into mount Sion to judge the mount of Esau: and the kingdom shall be for the Lord.

No lack of champions Sion shall have, to do justice on the mountains of Edom; and of that empire the Lord himself shall be sovereign ruler.