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| THIS is the shortest of all the books of the Old Testament, the least of those tribes, and yet is not to be passed by, or thought meanly of, for this penny has C?sar's image and superscription upon it: it is stamped with a divine authority. There may appear much of God in a short sermon, in a little book: and much good may be done by it, multum in parvo--much in a little. Mr. Norris says, ''If angels were to write books, we should have few folios.'' That may be very precious which is not voluminous. This book is entitled, The Vision of Obadiah. Who this Obadiah was does not appear from any other scripture. Some of the ancients imagined him to be the same with that Obadiah that was steward to Ahab's household (1 Kings xviii. 3): and, if so, he that hid and fed the prophets had indeed a prophet's reward, when he was himself made a prophet. But that is a conjecture which has no ground. This Obadiah, it is probable, was of a later date, some think contemporary with Hosea, Joel, and Amos: others think he lived about the time of the destruction of Jerusalem, when the children of Edom so barbarously triumphed in that destruction. However, what he wrote was what he saw: it is his vision. Probably there was much more which he was divinely inspired to speak, but this is all he was inspired to write: and all he writes is concerning Edom. It is a foolish fancy of some of the Jews that because he prophesies only concerning Edom he was himself an Edomite by birth, but a proselyte to the Jewish religion. Other prophets prophesied against Edom, and some of them seem to have borrowed from him in their predictions against Edom, as Jer. xlix. 7, &c.: Ezek. xxv. 12, &c. Out of the mouth of these two or three witnesses every word will be established. |
The Book of GenesisMain PageChapter 481: And it came to pass after these things, that one told Joseph, Behold, thy father is sick: and he took with him his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim. 2: And one told Jacob, and said, Behold, thy son Joseph cometh unto thee: and Israel strengthened himself, and sat uponthe bed. 3: And Jacob said unto Joseph, God Almighty appeared unto me at Luz in the land of Canaan, and blessed me, 4: And said unto me, Behold, I will make thee fruitful, and multiply thee, and I will makeof thee a multitude of people; and will give this land to thy seed after thee for an everlasting possession. 5: And now thy two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, which were born unto thee in the land of Egypt before I came unto thee into Egypt, are mine; as Reubenand Simeon, they shall be mine. 6: And thy issue, which thou begettest after them, shall be thine, and shall be called after the name of their brethren in their inheritance. 7: And as for me, when I came from Padan, Rachel died by me in the land of Canaan in the way, when yet there was but a little way to come unto Ephrath: and I buried her there in the way of Ephrath; the same is Bethlehem. 8: And Israel beheld Joseph's sons, and said, Who are these? 9: And Joseph said unto his father, They are my sons, whom God hath given me in this place. And he said, Bringthem, I pray thee, unto me, and I will bless them. 10: Now the eyes of Israel were dim for age, so that he could not see. And he brought them near unto him; and he kissed them, andembraced them. 11: And Israel said unto Joseph, I had not thought to see thy face: and, lo, God hath showed me also thy seed. 12: And Joseph brought them out from between his knees, and he bowed himself with his face to the earth. 13: And Joseph took them both, Ephraim in his right hand toward Israel's left hand, and Manasseh in his left hand toward Israel's right hand, and brought them near unto him. 14: And Israel stretched out his right hand, and laid it upon Ephraim's head, who was the younger, and his left hand upon Manasseh's head, guiding hishands wittingly; for Manasseh was the firstborn. 15: And he blessed Joseph, and said, God, before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac did walk, the God which fed me all my life long unto this day, 16: The Angel which redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads; and let my name be named on them, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac; and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth. 17: And when Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand upon the head of Ephraim, it displeased him: and he held up his father's hand, to remove it from Ephraim's head unto Manasseh's head. 18: And Joseph said unto his father, Not so, my father: for this is the firstborn; put thy right hand upon his head. 19: And his father refused, and said, I know it, my son, I know it: he also shall become a people, and he also shall be great: but truly his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his seed shall become a multitude of nations. 20: And he blessed them that day, saying, In thee shall Israel bless, saying, God make thee as Ephraim and as Manasseh: and he set Ephraim before Manasseh. 21: And Israel said unto Joseph, Behold, I die: but God shall be with you, and bringyou again unto the land of your fathers. 22: Moreover I have given to thee one portion above thy brethren, which I took out of the hand of the Amorite with my sword and with my bow. Genesis 49 d | chemiczne | cmentarze.info | e-weblink |