Hell on Earth

“For the day of the Lord is near for all the nations. Just as you have done, it will be done to you.  Your dealings will return on your own head.”  Obadiah 1:15  NASB

Done to you – Obadiah is a very tiny book of the Tanakh.  Most people probably don’t know anything about it other than the name.  Furthermore, because it is only a few verses long, it is routinely overlooked as just one of those “extra” minor prophets.  We have done a few investigations of this material, and of this particular verse (you can see a previous one here.  However, as we approach the end of the annual Julian cycle in a year that was anything but normal, I thought it useful to pay particular attention to the implications of a few Hebrew words and phrases in this one verse.  Obadiah might be tiny, but the implications of this statement are cosmic.

Here are the phrases we will investigate, highlighted in the Hebrew text:

כִּי-קָרוֹב יוֹם-יְהוָה עַל-כָּל-הַגּוֹיִם:  כַּאֲשֶׁר עָשִׂיתָ יֵעָשֶׂה לָּךְ גְּמֻלְךָ יָשׁוּב בְּרֹאשֶׁךָ

 Now some explanation:

יוֹם-יְהוָה yom YHVH.  You’ll recognize this as “the day of the Lord” in English.  This is the Hebrew circumlocution of Judgment Day.  In biblical texts it does not always mean the final Day of Judgment (the end of the world kind of day).  It can mean simply the day that God brings judgment upon a nation or nations.  In this case, Edom is being judged.  But the same phrase is used for the great judgment against all nations.  What the verse establishes is God’s ultimate control of the world.  He is the final authority—and the final executioner.  Ultimate judgment is in His hands, whenever He decides to execute it.

כָּל-הַגּוֹיִם “all nations.”  al-kol hag-goyim.  Both terms are important.  Not just any particular nation is in the crosshairs.  “All” the nations that reject God’s revealed path of righteousness are going to be brought to justice.  There are no exceptions and no escape.  The second term, gôyim, is the plural of gôy.  “The term gôy is used especially to refer to specifically defined political, ethnic or territorial groups of people without intending to ascribe a specific religious or moral connotation.”^[1]  Typically, “once the descendants of Abraham had become a distinct, recognized, political, and ethnic group of people who were in a specific covenant relationship with Yahweh, the term goy and gôyim increasingly takes the meaning of ‘gentiles’ or ‘heathen,’ in reference to the non-covenant, non-believing peoples considered as national groups.”^[2]

Obadiah’s announcement includes us!   When the Day of the Lord arrives in judgment over the nations of the world that acted against Torah, they will all be found guilty and punished.  The only thing left in this thought is the answer to the question, “What will be the punishment?”  And for that answer, Obadiah provides us with a chilling response.

יֵעָשֶׂה לָּךְ “done unto you.”  ye-a-se(h) lak.  From the common verb, ʿāśâ, this response suggests that the same atrocities perpetrated upon God’s children will be executed upon those found guilty.  In fact, Obadiah specifically mentions robbers being robbed, exterminators being exterminated, wanton consumers being consumed.  In Hebrew jurisprudence, this is “measure for measure.”  Don’t rush over this phrase as if you’ve really thought about it!  Consider what kind of retribution it really means.  List all the ways rebellious humanity has flaunted Torah.  Every one of those will come back to roost on the heads of the rebels.  Every horror.  Every tragedy.  Every act of malfeasance, malice, intimidation, exploitation, abuse.  For the rebels against the Lord, life will become a living hell—a hell of their own making.

The Bible doesn’t need paintings of tortures in the next life on the walls of churches.  It doesn’t need a giant-sized Satan tearing bodies apart in the underworld to come.  No, the Bible fixes its attention on the world right here.  This is where punishment will happen—whenever God decides.  It’s enough to scare you to death.  Or in my case, to feel relief that the evil ones won’t always get away with it.  Heaven is coming.  So is Hell.

Topical Index:  Day of the Lord, nations, done to you, justice, judgment, Obadiah 1:15

^[1] (1999). 326 גוה. R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer Jr., & B. K. Waltke (Eds.), Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (electronic ed., p. 154). Chicago: Moody Press.

^[2] Ibid.