Obadiah 1:20,21 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

And the captivity of this host, &c. Those of the ten tribes that were carried away captive by Shalmaneser; shall possess that of the Canaanites That is, all the countries they anciently possessed, with this addition, that what the Canaanites held by force, and the Israelites could not take from them, shall now be possessed by these returned captives. Even unto Zarephath Or Sarepta, a city near Sidon, in the northern borders of Judea, 1 Kings 17:9. The Canaanites, properly so called, were the ancient inhabitants of that district: see Judges 1:32; Matthew 15:21-22. And the captivity of Jerusalem The two tribes of Judah and Benjamin, carried captive from Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar; which is in Sepharad That is, as some suppose, a province of Babylon, in which the Jews resided during their captivity. Shall possess the cities of the south All the cities which were once their own. And saviours shall come upon mount Zion, &c. That is, deliverers. Taken literally, the expression may mean, the leaders of those captive troops who were to return from Babylon, such as Zerubbabel, Ezra, and Nehemiah. If understood mystically, these saviours are Christ, his apostles, and the other preachers of the gospel. To judge the mount of Esau To avenge Israel upon the Edomites, or, figuratively speaking, the church of Christ upon all its enemies, here represented by Edom. Instead of saviours, the LXX., with a small alteration of the Hebrew points, read ανασωζομενοι, those that are saved, or escape: namely, the same with the remnant often mentioned in the prophets, and particularly Joel 2:32, where see the note. And the kingdom shall be the Lord's This will be fulfilled when the last of the four monarchies, foretold Daniel 2:7, are destroyed, and the stone which smote the image becomes a great mountain, and fills the whole earth; when the God of Israel shall be honoured, obeyed, and worshipped by all mankind.