Discovery BoxDeuteronomy 23:7
Context23:7 You must not hate an Edomite, for he is your relative; 1 you must not hate an Egyptian, for you lived as a foreigner 2 in his land.
Numbers 20:14-21
Context20:14 3 Moses 4 sent messengers from Kadesh to the king of Edom: 5 “Thus says your brother Israel: ‘You know all the hardships we have experienced, 6 20:15 how our ancestors went down into Egypt, and we lived in Egypt a long time, 7 and the Egyptians treated us and our ancestors badly. 8 20:16 So when we cried to the Lord, he heard our voice and sent a messenger, 9 and has brought us up out of Egypt. Now 10 we are here in Kadesh, a town on the edge of your country. 11 20:17 Please let us pass through 12 your country. We will not pass through the fields or through the vineyards, nor will we drink water from any well. We will go by the King’s Highway; 13 we will not turn to the right or the left until we have passed through your region.’” 14
20:18 But Edom said to him, “You will not pass through me, 15 or I will come out against 16 you with the sword.” 20:19 Then the Israelites said to him, “We will go along the highway, and if we 17 or our cattle drink any of your water, we will pay for it. We will only pass through on our feet, without doing anything else.”
20:20 But he said, “You may not pass through.” Then Edom came out against them 18 with a large and powerful force. 19 20:21 So Edom refused to give Israel passage through his border; therefore Israel turned away from him.
Obadiah 1:10-13
Context1:10 “Because 20 you violently slaughtered 21 your relatives, 22 the people of Jacob, 23
shame will cover you, and you will be destroyed 24 forever.
1:11 You stood aloof 25 while strangers took his army 26 captive,
and foreigners advanced to his gates. 27
When they cast lots 28 over Jerusalem, 29
you behaved as though you were in league 30 with them.
1:12 You should not 31 have gloated 32 when your relatives 33 suffered calamity. 34
You should not have rejoiced over the people of Judah when they were destroyed. 35
You should not have boasted 36 when they suffered adversity. 37
1:13 You should not have entered the city 38 of my people when they experienced distress. 39
You should not have joined 40 in gloating over their misfortune when they suffered distress. 41
You should not have looted 42 their wealth when they endured distress. 43
[20:14] 3 sn For this particular section, see W. F. Albright, “From the Patriarchs to Moses: 2. Moses out of Egypt,” BA 36 (1973): 57-58; J. R. Bartlett, “The Land of Seir and the Brotherhood of Edom,” JTS 20 (1969): 1-20, and “The Rise and Fall of the Kingdom of Edom,” PEQ 104 (1972): 22-37, and “The Brotherhood of Edom,” JSOT 4 (1977): 2-7.
[20:14] 4 tn Heb “And Moses sent.”
[20:14] 5 sn Some modern biblical scholars are convinced, largely through arguments from silence, that there were no unified kingdoms in Edom until the 9th century, and no settlements there before the 12th century, and so the story must be late and largely fabricated. The evidence is beginning to point to the contrary. But the cities and residents of the region would largely be Bedouin, and so leave no real remains.
[20:15] 8 tn The verb רָעַע (ra’a’) means “to act or do evil.” Evil here is in the sense of causing pain or trouble. So the causative stem in our passage means “to treat wickedly.”
[20:16] 9 tn The word could be rendered “angel” or “messenger.” Some ambiguity may be intended in this report.
[20:16] 10 tn The Hebrew text uses הִנֵּה (hinneh) to emphasize the “here and now” aspect of the report to Edom.
[20:16] 11 tn Heb “your border.”
[20:17] 12 tn The request is expressed by the use of the cohortative, “let us pass through.” It is the proper way to seek permission.
[20:17] 13 sn This a main highway running from Damascus in the north to the Gulf of Aqaba, along the ridge of the land. Some scholars suggest that the name may have been given by the later Assyrians (see B. Obed, “Observations on Methods of Assyrian Rule in Transjordan after the Palestinian Campaign of Tiglathpileser III,” JNES 29 [1970]: 177-86). Bronze Age fortresses have been discovered along this highway, attesting to its existence in the time of Moses. The original name came from the king who developed the highway, probably as a trading road (see S. Cohen, IDB 3:35-36).
[20:18] 15 tn The imperfect tense here has the nuance of prohibition.
[20:19] 17 tn The Hebrew text uses singular pronouns, “I” and “my,” but it is the people of Israel that are intended, and so it may be rendered in the plural. Similarly, Edom speaks in the first person, probably from the king. But it too could be rendered “we.”
[20:20] 18 tn Heb “to meet him.”
[20:20] 19 tn Heb “with many [heavy] people and with a strong hand.” The translation presented above is interpretive, but that is what the line means. It was a show of force, numbers and weapons, to intimidate the Israelites.
[1:10] 20 tn Heb “from.” The preposition is used here with a causal sense.
[1:10] 21 tn Heb “because of the slaughter and because of the violence.” These two expressions form a hendiadys meaning “because of the violent slaughter.” Traditional understanding connects the first phrase “because of the slaughter” with the end of v. 9 (cf. KJV, NASB, NIV, NLT). It is preferable, however, to regard it as parallel to the reference to violence at the beginning of v. 11. Both the parallel linguistic structure of the two phrases and the metrical structure of the verse favor connecting this phrase with the beginning of v. 10 (cf. NRSV, TEV).
[1:10] 22 tn Heb “the violence of your brother.” The genitive construction is to be understood as an objective genitive. The meaning is not that Jacob has perpetrated violence (= subjective genitive), but that violence has been committed against him (= objective genitive).
[1:10] 23 tn Heb “your brother Jacob” (so NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV); NCV “your relatives, the Israelites.”
[1:10] 24 tn Heb “be cut off” (so KJV, NASB, NRSV).
[1:11] 25 tn Heb “in the day of your standing”; NAB “On the day when you stood by.”
[1:11] 26 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.
[1:11] 27 tc The present translation follows the Qere which reads the plural (“gates”) rather than the singular.
[1:11] 28 sn Casting lots seems to be a way of deciding who would gain control over material possessions and enslaved peoples following a military victory.
[1:11] 29 map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.
[1:11] 30 tn Heb “like one from them”; NASB “You too were as one of them.”
[1:12] 31 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.
[1:12] 32 tn The Hebrew expression “to look upon” often has the sense of “to feast the eyes upon” or “to gloat over” (cf. v. 13).
[1:12] 33 tn Heb “your brother” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV); NCV “your brother Israel.”
[1:12] 34 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.
[1:12] 35 tn Heb “in the day of their destruction” (so KJV, NASB, NIV); NAB, NRSV “on the day of their ruin.”
[1:12] 36 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.
[1:12] 37 tn Heb “in the day of adversity”; NASB “in the day of their distress.”
[1:13] 38 tn Heb “the gate.” The term “gate” here functions as a synecdoche for the city as a whole, which the Edomites plundered.
[1:13] 39 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.”
[1:13] 40 tn Heb “you, also you.”
[1:13] 41 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”).
[1:13] 42 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.
[1:13] 43 tn See the note on the phrase “suffered distress” in the previous line.
