16:4 Please let the Moabite fugitives live 3 among you.
Hide them 4 from the destroyer!”
Certainly 5 the one who applies pressure will cease, 6
the destroyer will come to an end,
those who trample will disappear 7 from the earth.
25:8 “This is what the sovereign Lord says: ‘Moab 15 and Seir say, “Look, the house of Judah is like all the other nations.”
25:12 “This is what the sovereign Lord says: ‘Edom 16 has taken vengeance against the house of Judah; they have made themselves fully culpable 17 by taking vengeance 18 on them. 19
35:5 “‘You have shown unrelenting hostility and poured the people of Israel onto the blades of a sword 20 at the time of their calamity, at the time of their final punishment.
1:11 You stood aloof 21 while strangers took his army 22 captive,
and foreigners advanced to his gates. 23
When they cast lots 24 over Jerusalem, 25
you behaved as though you were in league 26 with them.
1:12 You should not 27 have gloated 28 when your relatives 29 suffered calamity. 30
You should not have rejoiced over the people of Judah when they were destroyed. 31
You should not have boasted 32 when they suffered adversity. 33
1:13 You should not have entered the city 34 of my people when they experienced distress. 35
You should not have joined 36 in gloating over their misfortune when they suffered distress. 37
You should not have looted 38 their wealth when they endured distress. 39
1:14 You should not have stood at the fork in the road 40 to slaughter 41 those trying to escape. 42
You should not have captured their refugees when they suffered adversity. 43
1 tn Or “an object of reproach in peoples’ proverbs…an object of ridicule in people’s curses.” The alternate translation treats the two pairs which are introduced without vavs (ו) but are joined by vavs as examples of hendiadys. This is very possible here but the chain does not contain this pairing in 25:18; 29:18.
2 tn Heb “I will make them for a terror for disaster to all the kingdoms of the earth, for a reproach and for a proverb, for a taunt and a curse in all the places which I banish them there.” The complex Hebrew sentence has been broken down into equivalent shorter sentences to conform more with contemporary English style.
3 tn That is, “live as resident foreigners.”
4 tn Heb “Be a hiding place for them.”
5 tn The present translation understands כִּי (ki) as asseverative, but one could take it as explanatory (“for,” KJV, NASB) or temporal (“when,” NAB, NRSV). In the latter case, v. 4b would be logically connected to v. 5.
6 tn A perfect verbal form is used here and in the next two lines for rhetorical effect; the demise of the oppressor(s) is described as if it had already occurred.
7 tc The Hebrew text has, “they will be finished, the one who tramples, from the earth.” The plural verb form תַּמּוּ, (tammu, “disappear”) could be emended to agree with the singular subject רֹמֵס (romes, “the one who tramples”) or the participle can be emended to a plural (רֹמֵסִם, romesim) to agree with the verb. The translation assumes the latter. Haplography of mem (ם) seems likely; note that the word after רֹמֵס begins with a mem.
8 tn Heb “from there a few in number.” The word “strands” has been supplied in the translation for clarification.
9 sn Objects could be carried in the end of a garment (Hag 2:12).
10 sn The judgment of plague and famine comes from the covenant curse (Lev 26:25-26). As in v. 10, the city of Jerusalem is figuratively addressed here.
11 sn Judgment by plague, famine, and sword occurs in Jer 21:9; 27:13; Ezek 6:11, 12; 7:15.
12 tn Heb “set your face toward.”
13 tn Heb “the sons of Ammon.” Ammon was located to the east of Israel.
14 tn Heb “with all your scorn in (the) soul.”
15 sn Moab was located immediately south of Ammon.
16 sn Edom was located south of Moab.
17 tn Heb “and they have become guilty, becoming guilty.” The infinitive absolute following the finite verb makes the statement emphatic and draws attention to the degree of guilt incurred by Edom due to its actions.
18 tn Heb “and they have taken vengeance.”
19 sn Edom apparently in some way assisted in the destruction of Jerusalem in 587/6
20 tn Or “gave over…to the power of the sword.” This phrase also occurs in Jer 18:21 and Ps 63:10.
21 tn Heb “in the day of your standing”; NAB “On the day when you stood by.”
22 tn Or perhaps, “wealth” (so NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT). The Hebrew word is somewhat ambiguous here. This word also appears in v. 13, where it clearly refers to wealth.
23 tc The present translation follows the Qere which reads the plural (“gates”) rather than the singular.
24 sn Casting lots seems to be a way of deciding who would gain control over material possessions and enslaved peoples following a military victory.
25 map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.
26 tn Heb “like one from them”; NASB “You too were as one of them.”
27 tn In vv. 12-14 there are eight prohibitions which summarize the nature of the Lord’s complaint against Edom. Each prohibition alludes to something that Edom did to Judah that should not have been done by one “brother” to another. It is because of these violations that the Lord has initiated judgment against Edom. In the Hebrew text these prohibitions are expressed by אַל (’al, “not”) plus the jussive form of the verb, which is common in negative commands of immediate urgency. Such constructions would normally have the sense of prohibiting something either not yet begun (i.e., “do not start to …”) or something already in process at the time of speaking (i.e., “stop…”). Here, however, it seems more likely that the prohibitions refer to a situation in past rather than future time (i.e., “you should not have …”). If so, the verbs are being used in a rhetorical fashion, as though the prophet were vividly projecting himself back into the events that he is describing and urging the Edomites not to do what in fact they have already done.
28 tn The Hebrew expression “to look upon” often has the sense of “to feast the eyes upon” or “to gloat over” (cf. v. 13).
29 tn Heb “your brother” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV); NCV “your brother Israel.”
30 tn Heb “in the day of your brother, in the day of his calamity.” This expression is probably a hendiadys meaning, “in the day of your brother’s calamity.” The Hebrew word נָכְרוֹ (nokhro, “his calamity”)_is probably a word-play on נָכְרִים (nokherim, “foreigners”) in v. 11.
31 tn Heb “in the day of their destruction” (so KJV, NASB, NIV); NAB, NRSV “on the day of their ruin.”
32 tn Or “boasted with your mouth.” The Hebrew text includes the phrase “with your mouth,” which is redundant in English and has been left untranslated.
33 tn Heb “in the day of adversity”; NASB “in the day of their distress.”
34 tn Heb “the gate.” The term “gate” here functions as a synecdoche for the city as a whole, which the Edomites plundered.
35 tn Heb “in the day of their distress.” The phrase is used three times in this verse; the Hebrew word translated “distress” (אֵידָם, ’edam) is a wordplay on the name Edom. For stylistic reasons and to avoid monotony, in the present translation this phrase is rendered: “when they experienced distress,” “when they suffered distress,” and “when they endured distress.”
36 tn Heb “you, also you.”
37 tn Heb “in the day of his distress.” In this and the following phrase at the end of v. 13 the suffix is 3rd person masculine singular. As collective singulars both occurrences have been translated as plurals (“they suffered distress…endured distress” rather than “he suffered distress…endured distress”).
38 tc In the MT the verb is feminine plural, but the antecedent is unclear. The Hebrew phrase תִּשְׁלַחְנָה (tishlakhnah) here should probably be emended to read תִּשְׁלַח יָד (tishlakh yad), although yad (“hand”) is not absolutely essential to this idiom.
39 tn See the note on the phrase “suffered distress” in the previous line.
40 tn The meaning of the Hebrew word פֶּרֶק (pereq; here translated “fork in the road”) is uncertain. The word is found in the Hebrew Bible only here and in Nah 3:1, where it means “plunder.” In the present context it seems to refer to a strategic intersection or fork in a road where bands of Edomites apprehended Israelites who were fleeing from the attack on Jerusalem. Cf. NAB, NIV, NLT “crossroads”; NRSV “crossings.”
41 tn Heb “to cut off” (so KJV, NRSV); NASB, NIV “to cut down.”
42 tn Heb “his fugitives”; NAB, CEV “refugees.”
43 tn Heb “in the day of distress” (so KJV, ASV).