Obadiah: The Pride and Fall of Esau

This painting illustrates the Prophet Obadiah’s vision of the utter and absolute destruction of Esau’s family line, and the fall of his nation state, Edom, as he and his people are interchangeably called. The Book of Obadiah is the shortest prophetic book being only one chapter long containing twenty one sentences. The prophecy takes place during or shortly after the Babylonian expulsion of the southern Kingdom. Judah’s fresh stinging exilic wound is now vigorously salted by their Brother Esau’s final and most bitter betrayal.

It has been a long and tortuous relationship for Isaac’s twin boys from their initial in -utero battles which continued throughout their lives, and was extended by their descendants, long after they departed, for nearly a millennium. Their sibling rivalry was birthed and forged on the anvil of the competing marital relationship between their parents, Isaac and Rebecca.

This is not only a story of Esau’s end; it is also the story of what appears momentarily to be Jacob’s demise. The northern kingdom composed of ten out of twelve tribes of Jacob has already vanished, antedating Esau’s death. The Southern Kingdom, composed of two remaining tribes of Jacob, is now being expelled by the Babylonians, and it appears to the world, and especially to Esau, that it is the end of them, and hence the absolute destruction of Jacob.

This is a historical experience which the Edomites savor with great relish and celebrate with gusto, finally tasting absolute supremacy and victory over their rival brother Jacob with whom they have competed over land, inheritance, blessings, and power, and most importantly, the biggest prize of all, elusive paternal love. Jacob’s conniving may have gotten him the first-born blessing, but in the end it is Esau who snatches victory from the jaws of defeat by living to witness the death and destruction of his little back-stabbing brother, or so it seems.

In this painting Obadiah is portrayed as the huge cracked mountainous background face (explanation below). The entire book of Obadiah admonishes Edom for their terrible behavior vis-à-vis their brother Jacob, and because of this they will be utterly destroyed. “There will not be a single survivor from the house of Esau” (Written in yellow Hebrew on Obadiah’s bottom lip at the bottom of the painting).

Obadiah and God are particularly irked that when Edom’s brother Judah is in trouble with the Babylonians, not only do they not help; they take part in dividing the spoils. “For the violence done to your brother Jacob, shame will cover you… In the day that you stood aloof when foreigners entered into his gates, and cast lots upon Jerusalem, you were just like them. You should not have rejoiced over the children of Judah in the day of their destruction, neither should you have spoken proudly on the day of their distress. You should not have entered into the gate of my people, and you should not have laid hands on their things. Neither should you have stood in the crossway to cut off those that tried to escape, neither should you have delivered those that did remain in the day of distress”.

The visual inspiration for this painting is based on the analogy drawn by Obadiah between Esau and his children, the nation of Edom, to an eagle and his nest. “The pride of your heart has beguiled you, you that dwell in the clefts of the rock (Obadiah’s face in this painting). My habitation is high, he said in his heart. Who will bring me down to earth?” (Not written in this painting)

“If you make your nest as high as an eagle and if amidst the stars you shall place your nest, from there I will bring you down, says God” (written in blue Hebrew on the upper eagle’s nest in this painting).

In this painting, Esau is the winged central figure with an eagle talon-like left hand. He is falling down, brought down by God, from his heavenly abode which is perched atop a very high mountain, which happens to be Obadiah’s head. The nest, inhabited by the Esau eagle and his eggs, represents the entire nation of Edom. The nest is being violently shaken and stirred by a divinely ordained mountain quake; in this case the shake of Obadiah’s head. As a result, the nest’s entire contents; eagle, eggs and eaglets teeter and fall out of their habitat, and plunge to their certain deaths, spelling the end of their tribe.

The Edomite eaglets are in different stages of gestation. Some lay cocooned and un-hatched inside their eggs. Others are at different hatching stages with some only having their heads piercing their shells. Others also have other hatching appendages including hands, hands and legs, wings, wings and feet, and other permutations of the above. Many of the baby eaglets are born with different varieties of mixed and matched eagle and human appendages. Many are born with an Edomite back-pack filled with arrows .As they are plummeting downward, upside down, their arrows due to gravity fall down separately. All the eggs, no matter what gestational stage they’re at, are cracked. They are all bleeding blood and/ or seeping yolk symbolizing their divine individual and collective breakage. None of them are unbroken, all will die.

Each one falls to their deaths alongside their winged progenitor.

The significance of Esau’s wings is two fold. He is compared to an eagle, hence he has wings. Furthermore, this also symbolizes that he is the angel that Jacob wrestled with (See painting, Labor Day). Hence he is also a falling fallen angel.

The name Obadiah in Hebrew is linguistically linked to one of Esau’s names, and hence the name Obadiah is not merely coincidental. In Hebrew, Obadiah’s name is spelled “EVDYH”, or broken down to its two root components; “EVeD” (slave or servant), of YH (God). This parsed name is written in yellow and red Hebrew on Obadiah’s blue irises of his eyes. The term “EVED” can have quite negative connotations i.e. a slave e.g. a slave in Egypt. Alternatively EVED can have positive spiritual connotations, as in EVED (servant) of God. Thus the word EVED depending on the grammatical context can be either pejorative or complimentary.

Esau in scripture is twice referred to as an EVED. When his mother is pregnant with him and Jacob, she beseeches God who tells her that two nations are struggling within her, and that the elder will serve (YaEVD) the younger.

When Isaac blesses both Jacob and Esau, he tells each of them that Esau will serve (YaEVD) Jacob. Hence Esau is an EVED of Jacob in as much as Obadiah is an EVED of God. In this painting, this appellation of Esau’s is written in red Hebrew on his torso. Hence both Obadiah and Esau are EVEDs. One is an honored servant, and the other is a despised slave. Thus the object of Obadiah’s prophecy is also the root of his name.

The text also has an interesting linguistic play on the name EDOM. It contextually uses the word EYDOM for “destruction”, drawing an analogy between the definition of Edom and his impending destruction. Both these words are written in green Hebrew on the shell of the central white eaglet. EDOM is written downward on the right, and EYDOM is written downward on the left, both words sharing the same first and last letters. One could take the different root definitions of EDOM one step further. The root of the word Edom is also ADAM, i.e. MAN, who is both destructive and destructible.

Written in the black space in-between Obadiah’s upper and lower lips are the words of Obadiah’s admonition to Esau. “You are much despised.” In response, Esau is illustrated with tears welling in his eyes.

Indeed, Esau is probably the greatest tragic figure in the Bible. Jacob finagles both birthright and primo blessing from him, yet when Esau meets up with Jacob many years later, he embraces Jacob, kisses him, forgives and forgets. Truly he is the son of Abraham and Isaac. But Esau’s descendants are not as forgiving as him. They can never forgive Jacob’s multiple slights to their great father, nor can they forgive or forget. Hence they can not and will not extend any semblance of filial assistance or love to their brother’s descendants.

And how exactly did Jacob ever assist Esau? In what way did Jacob ever make up for what was unjustly taken from Esau? How did Jacob ever make amends? What exactly does Edom owe Jacob? Doesn’t filial love go both ways? Esau mightily loved his father; nevertheless it was Esau who was exiled from heart, hearth and home by the alliance forged between Jacob and his mother. A millennium later, Esau is both cursed and doomed by God because he could not bring himself to forgive Jacob for having come between him and his father. Dancing on Jacob’s grave (albeit prematurely) was one of the many jealous acts of vengeance which Esau thought was well deserved. Throughout Esau’s existence he is and always was a sad, noble and tragic figure.