Lesson 2 Ch1 cont

THE BOOK OF OBADIAH

Lesson 2, Chapter 1 Continued

Last time we were together we had an introduction to Obadiah, the smallest book in the Old Testament. Its one-chapter, 21 verse prophecy might seem to be insignificant in the face of a massive book of prophecy like Ezekiel, or Jeremiah, or Isaiah with its 66 chapters and scores of thousands of words. I hope to show you that the Minor Prophet Obadiah has much value, and brings needed information about what is just over the horizon in world history. This is because its subject matter directly concerns the period of time we have likely entered as we stand upon, or have taken the first step over, the threshold into the End Times.

The entire subject matter of Obadiah is Edom; but Obadiah is hardly the only prophetic book to deal with Edom and what God has in store for these descendants of Jacob’s twin brother Esau. We’ll bring some of those other prophetic books into play as we go along.

We left off in the 1st verse of Obadiah, and I want to return to it. So, to begin Obadiah we have the sentence: hazon oved-yah koh amar adonai Yehoveh le edom. “Obadiah’s vision; thus spoke the Lord Yehoveh to Edom”. Consider this carefully. God did NOT speak this to Obadiah, nor did He give Obadiah an instruction to take this message to Edom or to the nations. Rather, we are told that Yehoveh spoke this to Edom and the nations. How are we to understand this?

The second half of verse 1 says:

CJB Obadiah 1:1 ...As a messenger was being sent among the nations saying, "Come on, let's attack her," we heard a message from ADONAI:

So, while the entirety of verse 1 is kind of a riddle to unpack, it’s this last half of verse 1 that is the real issue. Who is this “messenger” being sent among the nations that says, “Come on, let’s attack her” (meaning Edom)? Then, who is the “we” that is listening to this message from God? I will say right up front that there are a least 2 or 3 reasonable interpretations, and while I lean towards one of them, by no means am I rigid about it because these words are just too cryptic to be certain. But before I address this, here is what can be noticed. Obadiah is not being spoken to by God. God is also not giving Obadiah an oracle to deliver to the leadership of Israel as happens with some Prophets. Rather, Obadiah is given a vision that clearly is meant for him to write down for posterity. That is, Obadiah is being allowed to see and hear something that is going on, but it doesn’t really involve him. For lack of a better illustration, think of a court reporter. A court reporter is in no way part of the proceedings. Nothing about what is going on involves her. That person’s only job is to be silent, a good listener… almost invisible… and to faithfully record what all parties say in order that an accurate record of it can be made for future reference.

So, Obadiah is but a witness to God speaking, but to whom is God talking? Or is this speech a kind of grandiose God-speak that is merely revealing His mind about something and is only speaking rather theatrically to no one in particular? For me, it certainly seems as though someone else must be present…maybe even more than one someone. It also seems that since God dwells in Heaven, these words He is speaking are being directed to someone there and not on earth. So, if He actually is speaking to someone, then unless this is kind of a fantasy speech or rhetorical then this someone can only be a spiritual being. I know I’m using words that are a bit elastic, but that’s the best we can do with the information we have been given. It is my leaning that God is likely talking to His Divine Council of elohim spiritual beings that lives in Heaven with Him. Perhaps it is with some high-ranking angels, instead. So that you know what I mean by Divine Council of elohim I’ll take just a moment to explain it. Go to Psalm 82 in your Bibles and follow along with me.

CJB Psalm 82:1-8 A psalm of Asaf: Elohim [God] stands in the divine assembly; there with the elohim [judges], he judges: 2 "How long will you go on judging unfairly, favoring the wicked? (Selah) 3 Give justice to the weak and fatherless! Uphold the rights of the wretched and poor! 4 Rescue the destitute and needy; deliver them from the power of the wicked!" 5 They don't know, they don't understand, they wander about in darkness; meanwhile, all the foundations of the earth are being undermined. 6 "My decree is: 'You are elohim [gods, judges], sons of the Most High all of you. 7 Nevertheless, you will die like mortals; like any prince, you will fall.'" 8 Rise up, Elohim, and judge the earth; for all the nations are yours.

This Psalm tells us something that can be a little unsettling, because only rarely is it ever talked about except in theological academic circles. It is that the Scriptures claim that in Heaven there is a divine assembly or divine council of high-category spirit beings that God instructs or in some ways collaborates. They clearly are there to deal with the nations of the earth (as well as to be sort of the administrative class of beings over Heaven). And, in this Psalm, God is giving them a good dressing-down because some are not doing right. Some have become corrupted, and they are going to pay the price for their evil, for willfully defying God’s will, by dying like mortals instead of living eternally.

Let’s take this another step. In Genesis, we get this strange verse.

CJB Genesis 1:26 26 Then God said, "Let us make humankind in our image, in the likeness of ourselves; and let them rule over the fish in the sea, the birds in the air, the animals, and over all the earth, and over every crawling creature that crawls on the earth."

I call it strange because clearly God is talking to somebody about making humankind. The Church has for centuries claimed that this is God speaking to the Trinity… that is, one attribute or person of God is talking to another attribute or person of God. But, this is an idea that is nowhere present in the Old Testament. In other words, the accepted tradition in Christianity is that God is essentially talking to His plural self. I challenge this notion because nowhere else in the Bible do we have a conversation between God and another self in Heaven. Rather, a much better alternative is that He was speaking to His Divine Council of elohim in Heaven, which we are told exists there. So, back to Obadiah verse 1. I think the “we” that we find here is the same as the “us” of Genesis 1:26. And, why would we expect otherwise? It is God again speaking to His Divine Council and this time He’s telling them what He wants done to Edom and the nations and why. Think of it this way: who is going to tell the government leaders of the many individual nations of the earth to “come, let’s attack Edom”? Obadiah? Certainly not, because Obadiah won’t be living in the End Times, and besides, he isn’t being asked to do that because he isn’t even part of the conversation in Heaven. Not only that, it is hard to picture a couple of hundred humans in the leadership of the world’s nations all spontaneously, and each of their own accord, having the same idea, adopting the same mindset, at the same time. Rather, the only way this can happen is with an outside spiritual influence. Since we are told in the Bible that there is a divine being assigned to each nation (and how exactly a divine being deals with his assigned nation I don’t know), and with a very good example of this recorded in Daniel, then it is logical that what we are reading about in verse 1 (according to what Obadiah is hearing and recording) are those divine beings of the Divine Council being assigned the duty to foment the world leaders to act in concert to attack Edom. But, not until a certain time (or times) in history arrives. Let’s move on.

To preface what comes next, let’s put some things in perspective. Esau, the founder of the nation of Edom, and Edom itself, were at first not spoken of in the Bible as inherently negative or wicked. Early on in Genesis, although Esau was deceptively disinherited by Jacob as the firstborn of Isaac, nonetheless Esau was not cursed. While it is true that the land Esau was destined to settle in was largely arid (located mostly south of the Dead Sea, both to the east and west sides of it), there was wealth to be had in it (copper at first), and it had sufficient arable land, water, and grazing areas for Esau and his descendants to grow and prosper. And, let’s also be clear that even very early on not all the people who formed the nation of Edom were descendants of its founder (which can be said for any nation and people). The issue about Edom is that beginning with Esau there was this prickly relationship between the twin brothers Jacob and Esau. Jacob feared that Esau would retaliate for the birthright matter and be his enemy, but Esau comforted Jacob and they reconciled to a degree such that while they were certainly not close as brothers, neither were they violent adversaries. However, as time went on, the adversarial nature of their personal relationship, and then that of the two nations they spawned, increased to the point that when Jacob’s descendants fled Egypt, Edom refused to even allow them to pass through their land to get to Canaan.

As time passed, and the era of the Prophets began, we find them talking about Edom and the talk moves from merely prickly to negative. That is, the issue of Edom not being part of the covenant people… a status that was handed down from Abraham to Isaac, and then from Isaac to Jacob… it creates a definite division and distinction and so the Prophets begin to portray the relationship between Israel and Edom as us versus them. This negative view the Prophets present in their writings escalates severely when Edom makes the unwise and fateful decision to aid and assist Babylon against Judah. This, now, turns Edom into a downright enemy and it puts them in the same category as Babylon. That is, Edom and Babylon become not only wicked adversaries of Israel, and therefore of God, but they also begin to be portrayed as types; they are sometimes depicted as representative types of all gentile nations in general.

Therefore, because of what Edom did in helping Babylon against Judah, Edom has written its own epitaph of doom and destruction. And, in Obadiah and in other Prophets such as Jeremiah, this issue of the Edom/Babylon connection is used as the rationale for God’s wrath being unleashed upon Edom. Then the issue becomes when will this wrath come upon Edom? And as is typical of prophecy, often the prophetic action happens, and then it happens again far later into the future. In a bit of a spoiler, I will tell you now that what we read in Obadiah is ultimately about the End Times and when we get to it I’ll tell you why we can know this.

So, in verse 2 we have God pronounce His judgment of doom over Edom.

CJB Obadiah 1:2 "I am making you the least of all nations, you will be beneath contempt.

Unfortunately, the CJB leaves out the opening word of this verse as we find it in the Hebrew Scriptures: hinneh, which means “behold!”. It is a word that says “listen up!”. It means that something unexpected and even world changing is about to be announced. The event is that Edom is going to transform from significant to insignificant. So, it’s not that the nations are going to attack Edom in order that it become insignificant, it is that because Edom is already insignificant she is weak, and vulnerable, and not respected, and so is worthy of attack. In fact, the final words of verse 2 say that God will make Edom beneath contempt… or perhaps, despised among nations. How, exactly, Edom becomes this pariah to the world is not explained. We must always be careful to realize that geopolitics and tangible events in the real world will be what leads everything predicted in the Bible into being. We don’t know what these will be, but the approximate when of it we can know: it is going to be near or at the End Times, and we’ll get a better idea of this a bit later in Obadiah. Just keep one thing in mind as you keep one eye on the world around you: biblical Edom is modern day Jordan. And, already Jordan has descended into a poor and weak nation without much hope of regaining their lost luster; a nation that is not currently highly regarded among the nations of the world. Not despised just yet, but certainly not among the nations with any actual influence. We’ll talk about Jordan again in a few minutes.

What happened to Edom that opened the door to their downfall? Verse 3 says something proverbial:

CJB Obadiah 1:3 Your proud heart has deceived you, you whose homes are caves in the cliffs, who live on the heights and say to yourselves, 'Who can bring me down to the ground?'

Pride. The Proverbs are full of warnings about the eventual result of pride, with one of the outcomes as becoming self-deceived. That is, one attaches more importance to oneself, and has a higher estimation of oneself, than merited. Biblically, it means that rather than giving God the glory for the blessings and abundance He has given to you, you give that glory to yourself. This is deception.

I want to pause just a moment to remind you of something I’ve taught on before. A proud heart means a proud mind. The Hebrew word is lev, and indeed it does properly translate as heart. However, in the ancient world no culture knew of the functions of the brain. Rather, what we today know takes place in the brain, they thought took place in the heart muscle. They thought that intellectual ability, reason and discernment, memory, the human will and more took place in the heart. The Greeks thought that as well. As societies and knowledge have evolved, despite us knowing better, we still tend to ascribe emotions…especially love… as a function of the heart. This has led to the typical Christian view that love is an emotion that lives in the heart… or it is to our heart that the Holy Spirit speaks… and so when the Bible speaks of the heart it is speaking of where love resides and divine spiritual guidance and instruction occur. One of the better things a Bible student can do is to simply cross out the word heart wherever we encounter it in our Bibles, and insert in its place the word mind. So, Edom will develop a proud mind and an overestimation of itself, which is a false reality that will lead to their sudden downfall.

The second half of verse 3 is full of all kinds of hidden implications that shows up when we approach it using the Hebrew study technique called Remez, which means looking beneath the plain meaning of the words. That is, something is hinted at, or there are some vague connections that we would do well to notice.

When one goes to the Dead Sea and looks to the east, we see mountains. These mountains are full of cliffs and caves and crags and so, many people living in Edom lived in these places on the mountains where they were more protected, and it gave them a vantage point where they could see an enemy approaching from far off. And because they feel so protected, they think we “who live on the heights and say to yourselves, 'Who can bring me down to the ground?' (Obad. 1:3 CJB).

The Hebrew word for heights (or, probably better, “lofty”) is maon. This word indeed can mean the heights of mountains but this also is used biblically to refer to the cosmic heights…the place where God lives and the angels roam. Therefore, it is also where the Divine Council resides and administrates the whole of Heaven. There is a connection we need to see, and so very often in the Bible such connections are subtle because a specific Hebrew phrase or word is used in one place, but only rarely anywhere else. So, when we see that rare word or phrase appear, there is some likelihood of an earlier connection.

Edom is depicted as proud of heart, and therefore wicked. So are certain members of the Divine Council depicted as proud of heart, and therefore wicked. Is there someone in the Divine Council that the Bible tells us is judged by God for their pride? And then in verse 3 of Obadiah we see a rhetorical Edom say that since they are dwelling on high, who can bring them down to the ground (the word is eretz, which means earth). Listen to Isaiah 14:13 -20 and then think about what we just read about Edom in Obadiah.

CJB Isaiah 14:13-20 13 You thought to yourself, 'I will scale the heavens, I will raise my throne above God's stars. I will sit on the Mount of Assembly far away in the north. 14 I will rise past the tops of the clouds, I will make myself like the Most High.' 15 "Instead you are brought down to Sh'ol, to the uttermost depths of the pit. 16 Those who see you will stare at you, reflecting on what has become of you: 'Is this the man who shook the earth, who made kingdoms tremble, 17 who made the world a desert, who destroyed its cities, who would not set his prisoners free?' 18 "All other kings of the nations, all of them, lie in glory, each in his tomb. 19 But you are discarded, unburied, like a loathed branch, clothed like the slain who were pierced by the sword, then fall to the stones inside a pit, like a corpse to be trampled underfoot.

20 You will not be joined with those kings in the grave, because you destroyed your own land, you have brought death to your own people. The descendants of evildoers will be utterly forgotten.

Can you hear the same sort of thought pattern in Isaiah as in Obadiah? Often this Isaiah passage is said to be speaking about when Lucifer rebelled in the heights of Heaven and as a consequence was cast to the earth (to the ground, to the eretz). It probably makes more sense (although we can’t be certain of it) if this is not Lucifer (Satan) but rather a member or members of the Divine Council since the Scriptures say that God regarded some of them as having become wicked and corrupt (Psalm 82). In fact, this view that it was Satan that is being described in Isaiah didn’t come until much later in history.

Either way, the point is that the vocabulary and tone used in Obadiah reminds the mindful reader of Isaiah 14…and certainly it would have reminded the Hebrews alive in the Old Testament era. So, we see Edom and this divine but wicked spiritual being in Heaven from Isaiah as but two peas in the same pod (as my grandmother used to say). That is, there is a direct and unmistakable likeness in their character, nature, and desires… and in their fates. This is further proof of a concept I call the Reality of Duality that makes a direct link between what goes on in Heaven with what happens on earth in a kind of mirrored reaction. God dealt with a rebellion in His Heavenly family, and so He will have no hesitation in dealing with a rebellion in His earthly non-covenant family (Isaac’s offspring…Esau).

Thus, God responds to Edom’s arrogance in verse 4.

CJB Obadiah 1:4 4 If you make your nest as high as an eagle's, even if you place it among the stars, I will bring you down from there."

So, says Yehoveh, it doesn’t matter how high up in those mountains you build your villages and your defenses. You certainly can’t build them at the dizzying heights that eagles do, and of course you can’t place them up in the high heavens where the stars reside. But, again, remember the vocabulary and the linkages being made. Stars are of course those luminous objects in the sky, but stars are also a term for angels. There was still a belief floating in the background that those thousands of lights in the night sky were angels. So, God has already shown that He can put down rebels from Heaven; so, doing the same to Edom is, by comparison, child’s play.

Verse 5 sounds a little odd on the surface, but the meaning quickly reveals itself. This speaks of thieves that come in the night, and grape pickers coming at harvest time. This is metaphor. The idea is that when a thief comes in the night, he’ll take what he wants, and stop when he is satisfied he has enough. Normally a grape picker will not pluck every grape at harvest time, but will intentionally leave some clusters. The thieves stop robbing because they can neither use nor carry any more. The grape pickers leave some clusters so that the gleaners can come later and get some grapes for themselves. Both actions, in their own ways, are merciful. However, God will show Edom no such mercy. Edom will be stripped bare and lose everything.

Let’s remember that God is not going to supernaturally attack Edom and supernaturally take their possessions. Rather, the Divine Council members are going to whisper into the souls of the national leaders they have charge over to do the job on God’s behalf. Certainly, these national leaders’ motive to attack Edom is no such thing; they’ll each have their own. But the effect will be the same…the nations are doing God’s will just as Assyria did God’s will in conquering the Northern Kingdom, and Babylon did God’s will in conquering the Southern Kingdom. God was using Assyria and later Babylon to punish His people. He always uses nations and individuals to bring about His will on earth whether to bless or to curse.

Verse 7 continues this thought.

CJB Obadiah 1:7 Your allies went with you only to the border, those at peace with you deceived and defeated you, those who ate your food set a trap for you, and you couldn't discern it.

Edom, even in the time of the Kings, was nowhere near a match militarily for its neighbors. It saw its only hope was to form alliances with stronger countries. Sadly, Edom made an alliance with Babylon. On the one hand, this alliance offered the greatest protection for Edom; but there is always an “on the other hand” in matters like this. Babylon didn’t offer an alliance out of the goodness of their hearts. So, when Babylon began to raid Judah, they demanded that Edom join them due to Edom’s proximity to Judah. This is what happens when you make a deal with the Devil. You may get some early benefit; but in time, you are going to pay a steep price.

As a current example of this, I cannot help but think in our modern times about a good portion of Europe making an energy alliance with their long-time enemy, Russia. Europe, always energy starved, could only see the short-term benefit of such a dangerous step, and their politicians deceived themselves and their citizens into thinking that Russia would become more docile and agreeable over time with this energy alliance that they saw as beneficial to all parties. As history quickly showed, Russia used that reliance as a chess piece to exert control. They attacked Ukraine and set off a war that dragged Europe into a lose-lose situation. Russia’s calculus was that Europe would cave in and look the other way so that they wouldn’t lose their primary energy source. But, Europe ultimately concluded they couldn’t support Russia’s aggression, or Ukraine would be lost along with their enormous grain supplies, as well as providing a huge geographical buffer between a large part of Europe and Russia. They crossed their fingers and hoped that if they supported Ukraine only with money and supplies, then Russia would not cut off that energy supply that Europe had formed all their energy policy around and were now captive to, because Russia, too, was enjoying the benefit of the enormous income that selling that energy produced for them. Caught in a catch-22, Europe had to support Ukraine, but Russia responded angrily by cutting off their oil and gas exports to Europe. This did, and continues to do, the greatest harm to Europe’s economy because the price of energy went way up, even further than it had ever been before (and it was already sky-high compared to the USA and other parts of the world).

Edom found itself in the same impossible position after forming a dangerous alliance with Babylon. They were no doubt reluctant to join Babylon in fighting Judah, but what choice did they have? If they reneged on that alliance, Babylon would surely have turned their fury towards them, and Edom would have become merely a vassal state. It seems that in the near future, this is going to again happen to Edom… to Jordan that is the modern-day name for Edom. Those who they trusted, and probably fought alongside, are now going to see them as easy pickings; they will turn on them and decimate them. I have no idea how that might happen except for one thing; and I admit that this is only based on conditions as they exist today, not knowing how they could change over time.

My speculation is this: Jordan is host to thousands and thousands of Palestinians who moved there decades ago, many of whom still live in camps, some since the 1960’s. These folks who were living in Israel, side by side with the Jews, left at the behest of the Arab League…Jordan included… when they declared they were going to use their combined militaries to attack Israel and wipe them off the map. The League wanted the Israeli Arabs to be safe, and so enticed them to leave by promising them that the war would be short, and once over they could return to their homes in Israel or to any formerly Jewish home they liked. At that time, Jordan’s territory extended to well past the Jordan River to the West. Many of the Arab evacuees went to this part of Jordan, but many others relocated to the east side of the river in Jordan proper. The long and short of it is that the Arab League lost their war with Israel, and Jordan wound up with hundreds of thousands of refugees. Further, Jordan lost its territory on the west side of the river to Israel (now famously known as The West Bank). In a relatively short time, an Islamic faction called the PLO led by the infamous terrorist Yasser Arafat took over the West Bank refugee camp as a gangster takes over a neighborhood. But, when Arafat was forced out of the West Bank, he naturally went to the remaining part of Jordan to the east and tried to take over the giant encampments there. He fomented trouble, and then along with thousands of those people now called Palestinians, tried in 1970 to overthrow Jordan’s government in a bloodbath that became known as Black September. He lost, was arrested, and then expelled back to the West Bank, where he harassed Israel.

Jordan is now a poorer nation, their military adventurism having cost them dearly, and within their ancient Edomite territorial heritage they have few natural resources. The Palestinians living in Jordan are mostly poverty stricken and the Jordanians really don’t want them there, but no one else will take them in. There are far too few jobs in Jordan for the native Jordanians, and Jordan has to provide much support and free services to these thousands of Palestinians who live permanently as a people without a country. I suspect that the now much weaker Jordan, who isn’t particularly liked by other Muslim nations, is soon going to find itself under attack by these Palestinian refugees who have no hope, but who might become desperate enough to want to try to turn Jordan into a Palestinian State run either by Fatah or Hamas, whom they most identify with. I readily admit this is speculation and it might not be this situation that is the catalyst for Jordan’s downfall; but it will be some type of real-world circumstance like the one I just described that festers until it finally boils over.

Verse 8 says:

CJB Obadiah 1:8 "When that Day comes," says ADONAI, "won't I destroy all the wise men of Edom and leave no discernment on Mount 'Esav?

This is the scenario I was just speaking about. Jordan (Edom) is going to (probably already has) back itself into a corner, and has no idea how to extricate itself from their predicament. They are a Kingdom, ruled by a king. And, like most kings, he unilaterally decides on his nation’s policies and cannot allow too much dissent in his government, so the wisest of his men aren’t heeded. So, Jordan is not well regarded by either the West or the East. Even a few years ago when the king realized that, ironically enough, making Israel a friend rather than an enemy would be the best course of action, his Arab neighbors warned him against it, and it also set off a number of Palestinian terrorist actions in his own nation. So, he had to abandon that strategy and now he gets no help from his Arab neighbors, and he also has an unneeded adversarial relationship with Israel (that he really doesn’t want) in order to placate the Muslim world.

This verse also points up that ancient Edom went by a number of different names with Mount Esau (or perhaps it’s “the mountains of Esau”) as one. Edom was also known by the names Esau and Mt. Seir, as well as just Seir. So, don’t get confused by all these different names we find in the Bible concerning Edom, they all mean the same place.

Please also notice the opening words: “When that Day comes”. Most Bible translators will correctly capitalize the word Day, because it is but an abbreviation for the Day of the Lord. The Day of the Lord is a time of God’s wrath. There have been a few Days of the Lord in Bible history, but the next one seems to be an End Times event, and it is in the context of God’s wrath being poured out upon the gentile nations of the earth, with Edom included. And, here in Obadiah we need to take Edom as indicating not only the specific nation of Edom (Jordan), but also as more or less representative of all the nations of the world (the only nation on earth that is not a gentile nation is Israel) similarly as Babylon is used to represent all nations in the New Testament.

Let me sum up what we know so far. The book begins with Obadiah as a witness to what God is saying to someone in Heaven, probably to the Divine Council. The message is an oracle and an instruction about Edom, but also (to a degree) it’s about Edom as a collective whole that represents the condition and fate of all the nations of the earth except for Israel. Yehoveh is going to send this word to the world leaders to attack Edom through His divine beings that populate His Divine Council.

Edom will already be as little or nothing of importance to the world, so the nations will have some other motivation to attack her that is not yet apparent. Edom doesn’t believe it. They believe they are invulnerable and strong. God says that it is Edom’s deceived mind that makes them think this way. Doesn’t matter; God Himself is going to bring them down using the world’s nations to do so, so what Edom thinks of itself is irrelevant.

Yehoveh uses vocabulary to bring to mind the corruption of His Divine Council in Heaven, and then correlates it with the corruption that has eaten away the mind of Edom (and of all nations for that matter). The Divine Council is part of God’s Heavenly family, and Edom is part of His earthly family as descended from Abraham and Isaac…just not the part that is the covenant people. First it seems that Edom is going to either be attacked from an internal enemy that they are too unwise to suspect, or from an ally that they foolishly trust. Later more nations will join in. The result will be complete decimation, even worse than if a robber broke into a house and stole everything, or as though grape harvesters harvested so thoroughly that they left nothing for the poor to glean.

While this no doubt happened in some form in prior history (probably around the time of the Kings, and maybe again later), the final and most savage attack that ends Edom as a viable nation will be at the End Times Day of the Lord. We’ll continue with Obadiah next week.