Obadiah 1:4

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Edomite Cherub-Sphinx from Qitmit, ca. 7th-6th centuries BCE (click here)

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Edom’s lofty nest parallels not only Isa 14’s “heights of Zaphon,” but also the mountain-high home of the rebel cherub of Ezek 28:14, 16, the towering height of Assyria as a cosmic tree, “its top among the clouds,” in Ezek 31:3, and the Babylonian “tower with its top in the heavens” of Gen 11:1–9. Thus, at the level of the canon, we perceive a recurring theological theme transcending the historical particularities surrounding Edom’s shameless conduct in 586 BCE. All human beings, like Edom, are susceptible to hubristic tendencies, which bear the seeds of downfall. These tendencies isolate and estrange, foster recklessness and contempt for others, and even impair the mind. The end of v. 7, according to the NJB, states that Edom “has quite lost his wits.” Henry Adams aptly described power as a "sort of tumor that ends by killing the victim's sympathies."