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.
For as ye have drunk upon my holy mountain. A periphrasis for 'ye Jews' (Maurer), whom Obadiah now by a sudden apostrophe addresses. The clause, "upon my holy mountain," expresses the reason of the vengeance to be taken on Judah's foes-namely, that Jerusalem is God's holy mountain, the seat of His temple, and Judah His covenant-people. Jeremiah 49:12, which is copied from Obadiah, establishes this view (cf. 1 Peter 4:17).
As ye have drunk ... - namely, as ye Jews, the cup of wrath, being dispossessed of your goods and place as a nation by Edom and all the pagan; so shall all the pagan (Edom included) drink the same cup (Psalms 60:3; Isaiah 51:17; Isaiah 51:22; Jeremiah 13:12-13; Jeremiah 25:15-33; Jeremiah 49:12; Jeremiah 51:7; Lamentations 4:21-22; Nahum 3:11; Habakkuk 2:16). Pusey, not so well, takes it, As ye Edomites have drunk (literal wine) in idolatrous revelry upon my holy mountain, so shall all the pagan drink continually (figurative wine, God's wrath and judgments).
Continually - whereas Judah's calamity shall be temporary (Obadiah 1:17). The foes of Judah shall never regain their former position (Obadiah 1:18-19).
Swallow down - so as not to leave anything in the cup of calamity; not merely "drink" (Psalms 75:8, "In the hand of the Lord there is a cup, and the wine is red; it is full of mixture; and He poureth out of the same: but the dregs thereof, all the wicked of the earth shall wring them out"). 'To swallow up, and to be swallowed up in turn, is the world's history' (Pusey).
And they shall be as though they had not been - not a trace left of their national existence (Job 10:19; Psalms 37:36; Ezekiel 26:21).