Disaster and deliverance - those two words sum up something of the message of both Joel and Obadiah. Joel opens by announcing a locust invasion that has stripped Judah, but the plague is the pretext for warning of a far greater disaster on the horizon, and even then the prophet holds out the prospect of rescue.

Obadiah turns to Edom, whose pride and long hostility toward the people of God led her to join in an attack on them, and who is therefore threatened with disaster of her own while the people of God are assured of better things. Iwan Rhys Jones handles both prophets in the Focus on the Bible series' accessible style: these are short books that will challenge and reassure anyone with ears to hear.