Obadiah 1:1

The vision of Obadiah—Why is Obadiah different that he was chosen to prophesy concerning Edom and did not prophesy any other prophecy? Our Sages of blessed memory stated: Obadiah was an Edomite proselyte. Said the Holy One, blessed be He: From them and in them will I bring upon them. Let Obadiah, who dwelt between two wicked people, Ahab and Jezebel, and did not learn from their deeds, come and impose retribution upon Esau, who dwelt between two righteous people, Isaac and Rebecca, and did not learn from their deeds. [from Sanhedrin 39b]

The words of the prophet Ovadiah are one single prophecy only, therefore I haven't divided it into separate prophecies. And on it I have six questions.

The first question is whether this prophecy that Ovadiah said about Edom was already fulfilled by Nevuchadnezer after he conquered Eretz Yisrael and destroyed Jerusalem, he then subjugated the kingdoms of the nations surrounding including Egypt, Amon, Moav, Edom and the other nations as it says in the book of Jeremiah. Alternatively, was this prophecy fulfilled afterwards in the days of Hyrcanus, the Hasmonean king who went to the land of Edom and struck Edom and subjugated its pride and made them work and pay taxes and made them do bris milah like it's told in the works of Yosef Ben Gurion. Or, rather, this is a prophecy that hasn't yet been fulfilled and will be in the future.

The second question is "what is Edom and Har Esau?" that the prophet speaks of in this prophecy. Does this refer to the land of Edom that is adjacent to Eretz Yisrael that the Israelites passed alongside before entering the land of Sichon and Oz in the days of Moshe Rabbeinu, which was later conquered by King David and later again by Nevuchadnezer and later by Hyrcanus who was mentioned above. Or is this about the Edom that is Rome and the lands of the Christians that our sages have referred to Rome as the city of Edom and the land of Edom.

The third questions is what does this short prophecy of Ovadiah add to the lengthy prophecies about Edom in the book of Jeremiah. Chazal have already taught us that there is no case where two prophets give nevuah in the same style. So we also need to know which prophet, Ovadiah or Jeremiah came first chronologically. And what was the need for both these prophets to share about the same topic. If Hashem wanted to reveal His secrets to Ovadiah, why did He do so about Edom and not a different nation.

The fourth question, the prophet says "Thus says Hashem Elokim to Edom, we have received tidings from Hashem." Because of the phrase "we have received tidings from Hashem," it is not possible that this was the Word of Hashem, that Hashem said that He received the tidings using a plural language (we received) since Hashem is one. And if the prophet himself, is saying "we have received tidings" why the phrase "Thus says Hashem..."