Obadiah 1:10

Edom’s Treachery Against Judah

1:10 “Because ¹  you violently slaughtered ²  your relatives, ³  the people of Jacob, ⁴ 

shame will cover you, and you will be destroyed ⁵  forever.

Obadiah 1:17-18

1:17 But on Mount Zion there will be a remnant of those who escape, ⁶ 

and it will be a holy place once again.

The descendants ⁷  of Jacob will conquer ⁸ 

those who had conquered them. ⁹ 

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 ¹⁰  of the descendants of Esau!”

Indeed, the Lord has spoken it.

[1:10]  ¹ tn Heb “from.” The preposition is used here with a causal sense.

[1:10]  ² 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]  ³ 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]  ⁴ tn Heb “your brother Jacob” (so NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV); NCV “your relatives, the Israelites.”

[1:10]  ⁵ tn Heb “be cut off” (so KJV, NASB, NRSV).

[1:17]  ⁶ tn Heb “will be a fugitive.” This is a collective singular. Cf. NCV “some will escape the judgment.”

[1:17]  ⁷ tn Heb “house” (so most English versions); NCV, TEV “the people of Jacob.” The word “house” also occurs four times in v. 18.

[1:17]  ⁸ tn Heb “dispossess.” This root is repeated in the following line to emphasize poetic justice: The punishment will fit the crime.

[1:17]  ⁹ tc The present translation follows the reading מוֹרִשֵׁיהֶם (morishehem; literally, “those dispossessing them”; cf. NAB, NRSV, CEV) rather than מוֹרָשֵׁיהֶם (morashehem, “their possessions”) of the MT (cf. LXX, Syriac, and Vg, followed by KJV, ASV, NASB).

[1:18]  ¹¹ tn Heb “will be no survivor”; NAB “none shall survive.”