Obadiah 1:10-14

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.

1:11 You stood aloof ⁶  while strangers took his army ⁷  captive,

and foreigners advanced to his gates. ⁸ 

When they cast lots ⁹  over Jerusalem, ¹⁰ 

you behaved as though you were in league ¹¹  with them.

1:12 You should not ¹²  have gloated ¹³  when your relatives ¹⁴  suffered calamity. ¹⁵ 

You should not have rejoiced over the people of Judah when they were destroyed. ¹⁶ 

You should not have boasted ¹⁷  when they suffered adversity. ¹⁸ 

1:13 You should not have entered the city ¹⁹  of my people when they experienced distress. ²⁰ 

You should not have joined ²¹  in gloating over their misfortune when they suffered distress. ²² 

You should not have looted ²³  their wealth when they endured distress. ²⁴ 

1:14 You should not have stood at the fork in the road ²⁵  to slaughter ²⁶  those trying to escape. ²⁷ 

You should not have captured their refugees when they suffered adversity. ²⁸ 

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 ²⁹  of the descendants of Esau!”

Indeed, the Lord has spoken it.

1:19 The people of the Negev ³⁰  will take possession ³¹  of Esau’s mountain,

and the people of the Shephelah ³²  will take

possession ³³  of the land of ³⁴  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 ³⁵  of Gilead. ³⁶ 

1:20 The exiles of this fortress ³⁷  of the people of Israel

will take possession ³⁸  of what belongs to

the people of Canaan, as far as Zarephath, ³⁹ 

and the exiles of Jerusalem ⁴⁰  who are in Sepharad ⁴¹ 

will take possession of the towns of the Negev.

1:21 Those who have been delivered ⁴²  will go up on Mount Zion

in order to rule over ⁴³  Esau’s mountain.

Then the Lord will reign as King! ⁴⁴ 

[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).

[1:11]  ⁶ tn Heb “in the day of your standing”; NAB “On the day when you stood by.”

[1:11]  ⁷ 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]  ⁸ tc The present translation follows the Qere which reads the plural (“gates”) rather than the singular.

[1:11]  ⁹ 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]  ¹⁰ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[1:11]  ¹¹ tn Heb “like one from them”; NASB “You too were as one of them.”

[1:12]  ¹² 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]  ¹³ 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]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “your brother” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV); NCV “your brother Israel.”

[1:12]  ¹⁵ 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]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “in the day of their destruction” (so KJV, NASB, NIV); NAB, NRSV “on the day of their ruin.”

[1:12]  ¹⁷ 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]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “in the day of adversity”; NASB “in the day of their distress.”

[1:13]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “the gate.” The term “gate” here functions as a synecdoche for the city as a whole, which the Edomites plundered.

[1:13]  ²⁰ 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]  ²¹ tn Heb “you, also you.”

[1:13]  ²² 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]  ²³ 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]  ²⁴ tn See the note on the phrase “suffered distress” in the previous line.

[1:14]  ²⁵ 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.”

[1:14]  ²⁶ tn Heb “to cut off” (so KJV, NRSV); NASB, NIV “to cut down.”

[1:14]  ²⁷ tn Heb “his fugitives”; NAB, CEV “refugees.”

[1:14]  ²⁸ tn Heb “in the day of distress” (so KJV, ASV).

[1:18]  ²⁹ tn Heb “will be no survivor”; NAB “none shall survive.”

[1:19]  ³⁰ 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]  ³¹ 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]  ³² 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]  ³³ 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]  ³⁴ tn The words “the land of” are not present in the Hebrew text. They are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[1:19]  ³⁵ 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]  ³⁶ sn Gilead is a mountainous region on the eastern side of the Jordan River in what is today the country of Jordan.

[1:20]  ³⁷ 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]  ³⁸ tn The Hebrew text has no verb here. The words “will possess” have been supplied from the context.

[1:20]  ³⁹ sn Zarephath was a Phoenician coastal city located some ten miles south of Sidon.

[1:20]  ⁴⁰ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[1:20]  ⁴¹ 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]  ⁴² 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]  ⁴³ 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]  ⁴⁴ tn Heb “then the kingdom will belong to the Lord.”