"She dwelleth and abideth on the rock, upon the crag of the rock and the
strong place" (ver. 28). It is to this that Obadiah refers when he
takes up his parable against the Edomites. They too were rock-dwellers,
who had made for themselves houses and founded cities in the rocky
fastnesses of Mount Seir. But they are reminded that the impregnable
and inaccessible heights to which they have resorted will be no defence
against Jehovah: "Though thou exalt thyself as the eagle, and though
thou set thy nest among the stars, thence will I bring thee down, saith
the Lord." It is even added that Edom would become utterly desolate:
"As thou hast done, it shall be done unto thee, ... and there shall not
be any remaining of the house of Esau." And if the testimony of modern
travellers may be accepted, the desolation is mournful enough. In 1848
Miss Harriet Martineau visited Petra, the chief of these rock-cities,
and describes it as follows: "Nowhere else is there desolation like that
of Petra, where these rock doorways stand wide--still fit for the
habitation of a multitude, but all empty and silent except for the
multiplied echo of the cry of the eagle, or the bleat of the kid. No;
these excavations never were all tombs. In the morning the sons of Esau
came out in the first sunshine to worship at their doors, before going
forth, proud as their neighbour eagles, to the chase; and at night the
yellow fires lighted up from within, tier above tier, the face of the
precipice" ("Eastern Life," vol. iii. 5).
The Edomite, alas, is gone, though the eagle is still left, and she
fixes her habitation on the dizzy crag.