The vision of Obadiah — the shortest prophetic book in the Hebrew Bible — is entirely about the punishment of Edom. Rabbi Berachiah asked: why did God choose Obadiah specifically for this prophecy? Because Obadiah was a convert who had lived in the house of Ahab and Jezebel, protected by their power, a righteous man in a wicked household — just as Esau was a wicked man who had come from a righteous household. The parallel is exact: one man maintained virtue surrounded by evil; the other abandoned virtue while surrounded by good. Each received the prophecy appropriate to his life.
Eliphaz, the Temanite, was Esau's firstborn son. He became Job's friend and comforter. The rabbis noted that Eliphaz rebuked Job — only in a vision, only cautiously, only when absolutely necessary (Job 4:1-2). He had learned gentleness from somewhere. The midrash suggests he learned it from watching his grandfather Isaac, from hearing about Abraham's hospitality. Righteousness can pass through even the most unlikely bloodlines.
God repays both the hater and the lover according to their deeds — precisely, without excess. Edom would fall. Obadiah would be vindicated. But the precision of divine justice includes the merit of Esau's descendants who retained some goodness from the patriarchal house. The rabbis were careful: condemning Edom did not mean condemning every person who descended from Esau. The prophecy was about kingdoms, not about every individual life within them.