Isaiah 11:14

11:14 They will swoop down ¹  on the Philistine hills to the west; ² 

together they will loot the people of the east.

They will take over Edom and Moab, ³ 

and the Ammonites will be their subjects.

Isaiah 14:1-2

14:1 The Lord will certainly have compassion on Jacob; ⁴  he will again choose Israel as his special people ⁵  and restore ⁶  them to their land. Resident foreigners will join them and unite with the family ⁷  of Jacob. 14:2 Nations will take them and bring them back to their own place. Then the family of Jacob will make foreigners their servants as they settle in the Lord’s land. ⁸  They will make their captors captives and rule over the ones who oppressed them.

Joel 3:8

3:8 I will sell your sons and daughters to ⁹  the people of Judah. ¹⁰ 

They will sell them to the Sabeans, ¹¹  a nation far away.

Indeed, the Lord has spoken!

Obadiah 1:18-21

1:18 The descendants of Jacob will be a fire,

and the descendants of Joseph a flame.

The descendants of Esau will be like stubble.

They will burn them up and devour them.

There will not be a single survivor ¹²  of the descendants of Esau!”

Indeed, the Lord has spoken it.

1:19 The people of the Negev ¹³  will take possession ¹⁴  of Esau’s mountain,

and the people of the Shephelah ¹⁵  will take

possession ¹⁶  of the land of ¹⁷  the Philistines.

They will also take possession of the territory of Ephraim and the territory of Samaria,

and the people of Benjamin will take possession ¹⁸  of Gilead. ¹⁹ 

1:20 The exiles of this fortress ²⁰  of the people of Israel

will take possession ²¹  of what belongs to

the people of Canaan, as far as Zarephath, ²² 

and the exiles of Jerusalem ²³  who are in Sepharad ²⁴ 

will take possession of the towns of the Negev.

1:21 Those who have been delivered ²⁵  will go up on Mount Zion

in order to rule over ²⁶  Esau’s mountain.

Then the Lord will reign as King! ²⁷ 

[11:14]  ¹ tn Heb “fly.” Ephraim/Judah are compared to a bird of prey.

[11:14]  ² tn Heb “on the shoulder of Philistia toward the sea.” This refers to the slopes of the hill country west of Judah. See HALOT 506 s.v. כָּתֵף.

[11:14]  ³ tn Heb “Edom and Moab [will be the place of] the outstretching of their hand,” i.e., included in their area of jurisdiction (see HALOT 648 s.v. ח(וֹ)מִשְׁלֹ).

[14:1]  ⁴ tn The sentence begins with כִּי (ki), which is understood as asseverative (“certainly”) in the translation. Another option is to translate, “For the Lord will have compassion.” In this case one of the reasons for Babylon’s coming demise (13:22b) is the Lord’s desire to restore his people.

[14:1]  ⁵ tn The words “as his special people” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[14:1]  ⁶ tn Or “settle” (NASB, NIV, NCV, NLT).

[14:1]  ⁷ tn Heb “house.”

[14:2]  ⁸ tn Heb “and the house of Jacob will take possession of them [i.e., the nations], on the land of the Lord, as male servants and female servants.”

[3:8]  ⁹ tn Heb “into the hand of.”

[3:8]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “the sons of Judah.”

[3:8]  ¹¹ sn The Sabeans were Arabian merchants who were influential along the ancient caravan routes that traveled through Arabia. See also Job 1:15; Isa 43:3; 45:14; Ps 72:10.

[1:18]  ¹² tn Heb “will be no survivor”; NAB “none shall survive.”

[1:19]  ¹³ tn Heb “the Negev”; ASV “the South”; NCV, TEV “southern Judah.” The Hebrew text does not have the words “the people of,” but these words have been supplied in the translation for clarity. The place name “the Negev” functions as a synecdoche (container for contents) for the people living in the Negev.

[1:19]  ¹⁴ sn The verb יָרַשׁ (yarash, “to take possession of [something]”) which is repeated three times in vv. 19-20 for emphasis, often implies a violent means of acquisition, such as through military conquest. Obadiah here pictures a dramatic reversal: Judah’s enemies, who conquered them then looted all her valuable possessions, will soon be conquered by the Judeans who will in turn take possession of their valuables. The punishment will fit the crime.

[1:19]  ¹⁵ tn The Hebrew text does not have the words “the people of,” but they are supplied in the translation since “the Shephelah” functions as a synecdoche referring to residents of this region.

[1:19]  ¹⁶ tn The phrase “will take possession” does not appear in this clause, but is implied from its previous use in this verse. It is supplied in the translation for the sake of smoothness.

[1:19]  ¹⁷ tn The words “the land of” are not present in the Hebrew text. They are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[1:19]  ¹⁸ tn The phrase “will take possession” does not appear in this clause, but is implied from its previous use in this verse. It is supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[1:19]  ¹⁹ sn Gilead is a mountainous region on the eastern side of the Jordan River in what is today the country of Jordan.

[1:20]  ²⁰ tn Or “army” (TEV); KJV, NAB, NASB “host”; NIV “company.” Some text critics suggest revocalizing MT הַחֵל (hakhel, “the fortress”) to the place- name הָלָה (halah, “Halah”; so NRSV), the location to which many of the Israelite exiles were sent in the 8th century (2 Kgs 7:6; 18:11; 1 Chr 5:26). The MT form is from הַיִל (hayil, “strength”), which is used elsewhere to refer to an army (Exod 14:17; 1 Sam 17:20; 2 Sam 8:9), military fortress (2 Sam 20:15; 22:33), leaders (Exod 18:21) and even wealth or possessions (Obad 1:11, 13).

[1:20]  ²¹ tn The Hebrew text has no verb here. The words “will possess” have been supplied from the context.

[1:20]  ²² sn Zarephath was a Phoenician coastal city located some ten miles south of Sidon.

[1:20]  ²³ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[1:20]  ²⁴ sn The exact location of Sepharad is uncertain. Suggestions include a location in Spain, or perhaps Sparta in Greece, or perhaps Sardis in Asia Minor. For inscriptional evidence that bears on this question see E. Lipinski, “Obadiah 20,” VT 23 (1973): 368-70. The reason for mentioning this location in v. 20 seems to be that even though it was far removed from Jerusalem, the Lord will nonetheless enable the Jewish exiles there to return and participate in the restoration of Israel that Obadiah describes.

[1:21]  ²⁵ tc The present translation follows the reading מוּשָׁעִים (musha’im, “those who have been delivered”; cf. NRSV, CEV) rather than מוֹשִׁעִים (moshi’im,“deliverers”; cf. NASB, NIV, NLT) of the MT (cf. LXX, Aquila, Theodotion, and Syriac).

[1:21]  ²⁶ tn Heb “to judge.” In this context the term does not mean “to render judgment on,” but “to rule over” (cf. NAB “to rule”; NIV “to govern”).

[1:21]  ²⁷ tn Heb “then the kingdom will belong to the Lord.”