For the Day of the LORD is near for all the nations. As you have done, it will be done to you; your recompense will return upon your own head.
Parallel translations
- WEB For the day of Yahweh is near all the nations! As you have done, it will be done to you. Your deeds will return upon your own head.
- KJV For the day of the LORD is near upon all the heathen: as thou hast done, it shall be done unto thee: thy reward shall return upon thine own head.
- NKJV “Forthe day of the Lord upon all the nations is near; As you have done, it shall be done to you; Your reprisal shall return upon your own head.
- NASB ¶“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.
- NLT “The day is near when I, the Lord, will judge all godless nations! As you have done to Israel, so it will be done to you. All your evil deeds will fall back on your own heads.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
The day of Yahweh is near for all nations, and Edom's own deeds will return upon her own head.
Overview
The oracle widens from Edom to 'all the nations,' announcing the day of the Lord, his decisive intervention to judge the world. The principle of just recompense is stated plainly: 'As you have done, it will be done to you.' This day looks ahead to the final judgment in which Christ will render to all according to their deeds.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 18
- Jas 2:13For judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment.
- Hab 2:8Because you have plundered many nations, the remnant of the people will plunder you—because of your bloodshed against man and your violence against the land, the city, and all their dwellers.
- Ezek 30:3For the day is near, the Day of the LORD is near. It will be a day of clouds, a time of doom for the nations.
- Matt 7:2For with the same judgment you pronounce, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.
- Mic 5:15I will take vengeance in anger and wrath upon the nations that have not obeyed Me.”
- Ps 137:8O Daughter of Babylon, doomed to destruction, blessed is he who repays you as you have done to us.
- Jer 50:29Summon the archers against Babylon, all who string the bow. Encamp all around her; let no one escape. Repay her according to her deeds; do to her as she has done. For she has defied the LORD, the Holy One of Israel.
- Joel 3:11–14Come quickly, all you surrounding nations, and gather yourselves. Bring down Your mighty ones, O LORD.
- Joel 1:15Alas for the day! For the Day of the LORD is near, and it will come as destruction from the Almighty.
- Jer 49:12For this is what the LORD says: “If those who do not deserve to drink the cup must drink it, can you possibly remain unpunished? You will not go unpunished, for you must drink it too.
- Ezek 35:15As you rejoiced when the inheritance of the house of Israel became desolate, so will I do to you. You will become a desolation, O Mount Seir, and so will all of Edom. Then they will know that I am the LORD.
- Judg 1:7Then Adoni-bezek said, “Seventy kings with their thumbs and big toes cut off have gathered the scraps under my table. As I have done to them, so God has repaid me.” And they brought him to Jerusalem, where he died.
- Joel 3:7–8Behold, I will rouse them from the places to which you sold them; I will return your recompense upon your heads.
- Jer 9:25–26“Behold, the days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will punish all who are circumcised yet uncircumcised:
- Zech 14:14–18Judah will also fight at Jerusalem, and the wealth of all the surrounding nations will be collected—gold, silver, and apparel in great abundance.
- Jer 25:15–29This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, said to me: “Take from My hand this cup of the wine of wrath, and make all the nations to whom I send you drink from it.
- Lam 4:21–22So rejoice and be glad, O Daughter of Edom, you who dwell in the land of Uz. Yet the cup will pass to you as well; you will get drunk and expose yourself.
- Ps 110:5–6The Lord is at Your right hand; He will crush kings in the day of His wrath.
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Christ at the center
The day of the LORD against proud Edom and the promise that 'the kingdom shall be the LORD's' anticipate the final reign of Christ over every hostile power.
How Obadiah 1:15 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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