The LORD says to Edom the words of the Lord himself to Edom begin here, and the Good News Translation punctuation has them continue to the end of the prophecy. Good News Translation has brought the words The LORD says from the end of verse 4 to the beginning of the paragraph to make the speaker clear at the outset. Revised Standard Version follows the Hebrew form closely by putting “says the LORD” at the end of the paragraph in verse 4 and again in verse 8. Most translators will find it helpful to follow the example of Good News Translation here. Good News Translation also makes the addressees explicit by supplying to Edom from the general context, and in most other languages it will also be helpful to do this.
The translator should remember, however, that the people actually hearing these words were the people of Israel and not the people of Edom. The form of the message is a prophecy spoken directly to the Edomites, but the purpose of the message is to let the people of Israel know that God is about to punish their traditional enemies. This distinction may not be important for translators in many languages, but there will probably be some languages where it will make a difference in the wording. Edom here is addressed with a singular you, as we see from the expression “you say to yourself” in verse 3. It is actually the people of Edom who are being spoken to, of course, and in many languages it will be necessary to have a plural “you” throughout the prophecy.
The verb translated I will make in both Good News Translation and Revised Standard Version actually has a perfect tense in Hebrew, and that tense would usually carry a past meaning. However, in prophetic writing such forms are often used to refer to the future, so that the prophet writes of future events as though they had already happened. This usage is called the “prophetic perfect.” It is not always easy to know when perfect tenses are prophetic and when they really refer to past events, and this question arises several times in verses 2-7. On the whole it seems likely that the verbs affected are indeed prophetic perfects and are best translated with future tense in English and in many other languages. The reason for this decision is that verse 1 speaks of enemies about to attack Edom, and it therefore seems best to regard her defeat and destruction as about to happen but not yet accomplished. Also there are other verbs in these verses which are plain futures, and the perfects verbs fit better with them if treated as prophetic perfects. See also the comments on verses 5-7.
The word “small” (Revised Standard Version) is partly figurative and refers to strength rather than size, though of course the two are related. Good News Translation puts the meaning plainly with its weak, meaning Edom will lack military power.
“Among the nations” (Revised Standard Version) is left implicit in Good News Translation. In languages where this needs to be brought out, it may be necessary to expand slightly and say “weak in comparison with other nations” or “weaker than other nations.”
Good News Translation also changes the passive construction, “you shall be utterly despised” (Revised Standard Version), to an active one, everyone will despise you. In many other languages, translators will need to follow this example.
Despise here means to think that Edom is unimportant, of no value, and not worth thinking about; it therefore means to dislike her and to be disgusted by her. It may not be possible to find a word that means all of this, but this information should help a translator to choose the best word in his language. The word can also be emphasized, as with Revised Standard Version‘s “utterly despised.”
Quoted with permission from Clark, David J. et al. A Handbook on the Book of Obadiah. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1978, 1982, 1993. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .