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intro to Ovadiah

Written by Anonymous

INTRO TO OVADIAH

Ovadiah was a convert who was a student of Eliyahu HaNavi. He prophesised during the era of Yehoshafat king of Yehudah and Achav king of Israel (only 60 years after the division of the kingdom, and 300 years before the destruction of the first beis hamikdash). Ovadiah was a contemporary of Elisha, Yona, and Michiyahu. He lived in the kingdom of Israel under the reign of king Achav and his wife Izevel. The gemarra says (Sanhedrin 39b) that even though converts tend not to be prophets, Ovadiah merited to receive prophecy as a result of his messiras nefesh and putting his life in danger for the sake of klal yisrael. What did he do? He hid one hundred prophets in a cave to save them from king Achav (who was on a killing spree against the prophets), and Ovadiah personally provided them with food. Ovadiah was very wealthy and was in charge of Achav’s household. Chazal say that it was his wife who was the woman in the story with Elisha and the oil which did not stop flowing; the woman’s poverty was cured by Elisha’s miracle, and this allowed her to be able to pay off all her (late) husband’s debts (later in life Ovadiah lost all his wealth). Ovadiah’s prophecies are about Edom, his own nation before he converted.

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