Obadiah 1:4

Here the figure of an eagle that was also in view in the previous verse becomes explicit. Even if the Edomites would build their nest as high as the stars (hyperbole), God would bring them down. Hyperbole is overstatement for the sake of emphasis. King Sennacherib of Assyria and King Assurnassirpal II of Assyria both used the same figure to boast of their security in their respective annals. [Note: See Daniel D. Luckenbill, The Annals of Sennacherib, p. 36; and Albert K. Grayson, Assyrian Royal Inscriptions, 2:122.] The Edomites might have been humanly unassailable, but they were not divinely unassailable. They had proudly boasted, "Who will bring me down to the earth?" (Obadiah 1:3), but Yahweh replied, "I will bring you down" (Obadiah 1:4). He would burst their bubble. He Himself declared that He would.

Malachi, who wrote some 400 years later, mentioned that the Edomites were still in existence then (Malachi 1:3-4). By 312 B.C. the capital of Edom was in Nabatean hands, and Edom had ceased to exist as a nation, though Edomites continued to live. They became known as Idumeans. Herod the Great was an Idumean.