12. (a) Whom does Jehovah use to bring punishment upon Edom? (b) What does the prophet Obadiah foretell regarding Edom?

¹² God purposes to punish Edom for what has maliciously been done to His earthly organization, called Zion. Says the prophecy: “Jehovah has a day of vengeance, a year of retributions for the legal case over Zion.” (Isaiah 34:8) Not long after the destruction of Jerusalem in 607 B.C.E., Jehovah begins to express his righteous vengeance upon the Edomites by means of the king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar. (Jeremiah 25:15-17, 21) When Babylon’s armies move against Edom, nothing can save the Edomites! It is “a year of retributions” upon that mountainous land. Jehovah foretells through the prophet Obadiah: “Because of the violence to your brother Jacob, shame will cover you, and you will have to be cut off to time indefinite. . . . In the way that you have done, it will be done to you. Your sort of treatment will return upon your own head.”​—Obadiah 10, 15; Ezekiel 25:12-14.

Christendom’s Bleak Future

13. Who today is like Edom, and why?

¹³ In modern times, there exists an organization with a record like that of Edom. What organization? Well, who in modern times has taken the lead in reviling and persecuting Jehovah’s servants? Has it not been Christendom, through its clergy class? Yes! Christendom has elevated herself to mountainlike heights in the affairs of this world. She claims a lofty position in mankind’s system of things, and her religions form the dominant part of Babylon the Great. But Jehovah has decreed “a year of retributions” against this modern-day Edom for outrageous misconduct toward His people, His Witnesses.