1:14 You should not have stood at the fork in the road 1 to slaughter 2 those trying to escape. 3
You should not have captured their refugees when they suffered adversity. 4
1:5 “If thieves came to rob you 5 during the night, 6
they would steal only as much as they wanted! 7
If grape pickers came to harvest your vineyards, 8
they would leave some behind for the poor! 9
But you will be totally destroyed! 10
1:11 You stood aloof 11 while strangers took his army 12 captive,
and foreigners advanced to his gates. 13
When they cast lots 14 over Jerusalem, 15
you behaved as though you were in league 16 with them.
1 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.”
2 tn Heb “to cut off” (so KJV, NRSV); NASB, NIV “to cut down.”
3 tn Heb “his fugitives”; NAB, CEV “refugees.”
4 tn Heb “in the day of distress” (so KJV, ASV).
5 sn Obadiah uses two illustrations to show the totality of Edom’s approaching destruction. Both robbers and harvesters would have left at least something behind. Such will not be the case, however, with the calamity that is about to befall Edom. A virtually identical saying appears in Jer 49:9-10.
6 tn Heb “If thieves came to you, or if plunderers of the night” (NRSV similar). The repetition here adds rhetorical emphasis.
7 tn Heb “Would they not have stolen only their sufficiency?” The rhetorical question is used to make an emphatic assertion, which is perhaps best represented by the indicative form in the translation.
8 tn Heb “If grape pickers came to you.” The phrase “to harvest your vineyards” does not appear in the Hebrew, but is supplied in the translation to clarify the point of the entire simile which is assumed.
9 tn Heb “Would they not have left some gleanings?” The rhetorical question makes an emphatic assertion, which for the sake of clarity is represented by the indicative form in the translation. The implied answer to these rhetorical questions is “yes.” The fact that something would have remained after the imagined acts of theft or harvest stands in stark contrast to the totality of Edom’s destruction as predicted by Obadiah. Edom will be so decimated as a result of God’s judgment that nothing at all will be left
10 tn Heb “O how you will be cut off.” This emotional interjection functions rhetorically as the prophet’s announcement of judgment on Edom. In Hebrew this statement actually appears between the first and second metaphors, that is, in the middle of this verse. As the point of the comparison, one would expect it to follow both of the two metaphors; however, Obadiah interrupts his own sentence to interject his emphatic exclamation that cannot wait until the end of the sentence. This emphatic sentence structure is eloquent in Hebrew but awkward in English. Since this emphatic assertion is the point of his comparison, it appears at the end of the sentence in this translation, where one normally expects to find the concluding point of a metaphorical comparison.
9 tn Heb “in the day of your standing”; NAB “On the day when you stood by.”
10 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.
11 tc The present translation follows the Qere which reads the plural (“gates”) rather than the singular.
12 sn Casting lots seems to be a way of deciding who would gain control over material possessions and enslaved peoples following a military victory.
13 map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.
14 tn Heb “like one from them”; NASB “You too were as one of them.”