e house of
Joseph a flame, and the house of Esau stubble, and they kindle them,
and devour them; and there shall not be any remaining to the house of
Esau; for the Lord has spoken._"

Besides the whole of the people, that part of them (the house of
Joseph, the people of the ten tribes) is specially mentioned which one
might have expected to be excluded. That there is none remaining to the
house of Esau (and to all who are like him) agrees with the declaration
uttered by Joel in iii. 5 (ii. 32): "Amongst those who are spared, is
whomsoever the Lord calleth." They, however, whom the Lord calls, are,
according to the same verse, they who call on the name of the Lord.
But the characteristic of Edom is his hatred against the kingdom of
God,--and that excludes both the calling on the Lord, and the being
called by the Lord. The single individual, however, may come out of the
community of his people, and enter into the territory of saving grace,
as is shown by the example of Rahab. In the further description of the
conquering power, which the people of God shall, in future, exercise,
we are, in ver. 19, first met by Judah and Benjamin.

Ver. 19. "_And they of the south possess the Mount of Esau, and they
from the low region, the Philistines; and they_ (_i.e._, they of Judah,
the whole, of whom they of the South and of the low region are parts
only) _possess the fields of Ephraim, and the fields of Samaria, and
Benjamin--Gilead._"

It is obvious that we have here before us only an individualized
representation of the thought already expressed in Gen. xxviii. 14:
"And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt break
forth to the East and to the West, to the North and to the South; and
in thee, and in thy seed, all the families of the earth are blessed;"
compare also Is. liv. 3: "Thou shalt break forth on the right hand and
on the left, and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles."--[Hebrew: ngd]
is the south part of Judea, at the borders of Edom; [Hebrew: wplh] the
low region on the West, at the borders of the Philistines. As,
according to the vision of the prophet, the exaltation of Judah is
preceded by his total overthrow and captivity (compare vers. 11-14, 20,
21), the tribe of Judah, which, before the catastrophe, was settled in
[Pg 405] the South and low region, is here meant. That [Hebrew: at] can
be taken only as the sign of the Accus., and "Mount of Esau,"
accordingly, as the object only, appears from ver.