What Does Obadiah 1:16 Mean?
For as you drank upon my set-apart mountain, so all the nations will drink continually. They will drink, and they will gulp down, and they will be as though they had not been.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
For as ye have drunk upon my holy mountain, so shall all the heathen drink continually, yea, they shall drink, and they shall swallow down, and they shall be as though they had not been.THE KEY
The same Hebrew verb turns drinking upon what is set apart into the nations’ repeated drinking, ending with their becoming as though they had not been.
THE MEANING
The verse meets you with a present pattern: what is drunk upon the set-apart returns as repeated drinking. The outcome stays severe; those who drink become as though they had not been.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that what is taken upon what is set apart can be consumed without consequence.
THE ROOT
שְׁתִיתֶם
shethitem from shatah
GROWS FROM
שתה
To drink.
“drank” in this verse is shethitem from shatah. The opening “ye have drunk” and the nations’ “drink” use the same root, so the verse turns one act back upon the drinkers. Its repetition builds toward the final phrase, where the drinkers are as though they had not been.
ALSO GROWS
mishteh: A drinking feast or banquet.
מִשְׁתֶּה
This branch shows that drinking can be a shared, celebratory act; here, the repeated drinking becomes a sentence.
shatui: Drunk or intoxicated.
שָׁתוּי
This branch names the state of one who has drunk, echoing how the verse moves from a completed act to its returning consequence.
קָדְשִׁי
qodshi
GROWS FROM
קדשׁ
To set apart as distinct or sacred.
“set-apart mountain” in this verse is qodshi. Qodesh points to what is set apart, so the mountain is more than a location: it bears a claim of belonging. That makes the setting part of the verse’s reversal, the drinking happens upon what is set apart, and the response returns upon the drinkers.
ALSO GROWS
qadosh: Set apart; sacred.
קָדוֹשׁ
This adjective shares the root and names the mountain’s set-apart character.
miqdash: Sanctuary; a set-apart place.
מִקְדָּשׁ
The sanctuary grows from the same root, linking the mountain’s holiness with a place marked as belonging to God.
THE PATTERN
What is done to others returns in its own measure, becoming the doer’s portion.
For near is the day of the LORD upon all the nations. As you have done, so will it be done to you. Your repayment turns back upon your own head.For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged, and with what measure you measure, it will be measured to you.Give back to her as she gave, and double to her double according to her works; in the cup she mixed, mix her a double.THE THREAD
For thus says the LORD God of Israel to me, Take this cup of burning wine from my hand, and make all the nations, to whom I send you, drink it.The Hebrew root שׁתה (shatah, to drink) joins the two verses: in each, the nations drink what is placed before them. Obadiah carries that drinking to its stark end, where they are as though they had not been.
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