This verse, together with verses 13 and 14, consists of a series of negative commands. Some modern English versions such as Jerusalem Bible and New English Bible translate with a similar series of commands beginning “Do not….” This construction may be quite vivid in Hebrew, but in English it gives the impression that the actions concerned are still future. Since we understand that this section refers to past actions, actually carried out some years previously, it is clearer in English to translate by a series of statements. Both Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation have done this with repeated occurrences of You should not have…. Most translators will find it best to do something similar, though of course the exact form will depend on the resources of the individual languages. In some languages it will be simpler to give a series of statements beginning “It was not right that you….” In other languages it may be best to state first what the Edomites did, and then say that this was a bad thing to do. Thus the first sentence may become “Your brothers in Judah were in serious trouble, but you gloated about this. That was terrible thing to do.”

You should not have gloated over the misfortune of your brothers in Judah: the word gloated means rejoiced with bad motives or for wrong reasons. The repetition of brothers again underlines the treacherousness of Edomite behavior. The phrase translated in Judah actually occurs in the second sentence of the verse, but Good News Translation has brought it into the first for the sake of clarity, and this position will often be helpful in other languages.

You should not have been glad on the day of their ruin: in some languages the event their ruin will need to be restructured to include a subject, and translators may say “on the day their enemies ruined them,” or “… ruined their city.”

You should not have laughed at them in their distress, compare Lam 4.21; Ezek 35.15. The expression translated laughed in Good News Translation (“boasted” Revised Standard Version) is literally “made your mouth big.” There may be a similar idiom in other languages referring to mockery or boasting, and if so, it can well be used here.

The words translated misfortune, ruin, and distress represent three different Hebrew words. In languages that do not have a variety of synonymous terms like this, it can be fitting to use a single term repeatedly, especially when it is not good style to keep on saying “in the day.” This may help to catch something of the repetitive effect of the Hebrew without distorting the natural style of the vernacular. On the other hand, it is clear that the three parts of this verse are almost completely parallel, since gloated, been glad, and laughed are virtually synonyms here, and so are the different words for the trouble of the people of Judah. In some languages it may therefore be best just to state this idea once.

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 .