God gave Mount Seir to Esau as a possession, and Israel was commanded not to meddle with the Edomites living there, not to take so much as one footstep of their land, and to buy food and water from them as they passed through (Deuteronomy 2:2-6). Israel was to treat Edom as a brother, for the two peoples share the same blood (Deuteronomy 23:7). Obadiah's prophecy against Edom seems written with that fraternal standard in mind. It carries a note of sadness and a faint, imploring hope that some Edomites might turn back, though by every indication the warning will go unheeded. Seir is the mountain homeland of Esau's descendants, and its inhabitants are marked by pride and perpetual hatred of Jacob's descendants. Ezekiel 35 addresses Mount Seir directly. Because Edom held an ancient hatred, shed Israel's blood in the time of its calamity, and claimed Israel's lands as its own, God will make Mount Seir desolate, along with all of Edom. As Edom rejoiced over Israel's desolate inheritance, so the whole earth will rejoice over Seir's desolation, and Edom will know that He is the Lord.

Seir is the mountainous country east of Sinai, between the Dead Sea and the Gulf of Aqaba, to which Esau moved his family and possessions to escape living under Jacob's coming headship in Canaan (Genesis 32:3; 36:6). Esau moved there sometime during Jacob's twenty years away. Seir was the land of the Horites, and Esau essentially went to live with his Horite wife Aholibamah's family, who were aristocrats of the area. Many of the 400 men who followed Esau were probably Horites, her relatives, since Esau could not have raised such a force from his own descendants and servants in so short a time. Later, when the Edomites grew populous and strong, the descendants of Esau dispossessed and destroyed the Horites and dwelt in their place (Deuteronomy 2:12). Because of these blood ties and the later conquest, Esau's descendants came to be identified as Seir, as well as Edom and several other names. This dry, rocky, nearly impregnable land, with fortresses carved from the rock, fed Edom's pride and false sense of invincibility. Obadiah prophesies that God will bring Edom down from there, and in the end time the house of Esau will be stubble before the house of Jacob and Joseph.