And the house of Jacob shall be a fire, and the house of Joseph a flame, and the house of Esau for stubble, and they shall kindle in them, and devour them; and there shall not be any remaining of the house of Esau; for the LORD hath spoken it.
The house of Jacob shall be a fire. See the same figure, Numbers 21:28; Isaiah 5:24; Isaiah 10:17.
House of Jacob ... Joseph - i:e., the two kingdoms, Judah and Ephraim or Israel (Jerome). The two shall form one kingdom, their former feuds being laid aside (Isaiah 11:12-13, "He shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah ... The envy also of Ephraim shall depart, and the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off: Ephraim shall not envy Judah, and Judah shall not vex Ephraim;" Ezekiel 37:16-17; Ezekiel 37:19; Ezekiel 37:22, "I will make them one nation ... and one king shall be king to them all: and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms anymore at all;" Jeremiah 3:18; Hosea 1:11). The Jews returned with some of the Israelites from Babylon, and, under John Hyrcanus, so subdued and, compelling them to be circumcised, incorporated the Idumeans with themselves, that they formed part of the nation (Josephus, 13: 17, and 12: 11; who mentions that the idol which the Edomites, even in his day, accounted a god, was named Koze). This was but an earnest of the future union of Israel and Judah in the possession of the enlarged land as one kingdom, (Ezekiel 37:16, etc.)
And the house of Esau for stubble - (Malachi 4:1). About a century after Malachi the Nabatheans, a wholly different race from the Edomites, were in possession of Petra, the Edomite stronghold. The Nabatheans were of Aramaic origin, and were probably planted in Idumea by Nebuchadnezzar, to keep down the Edomites. Subsequently the Nabatheans expelled them; fulfilling Obadiah 1:7, "The men of thy confederacy have brought thee even to the border."