There are a number of problems in this verse. The first is to decide to whom it is addressed. The Hebrew simply has “you” (Revised Standard Version), but here the “you” is plural. In the preceding verses Edom has been consistently addressed in the singular, and it would be odd to change suddenly to the plural if Edom were still in mind. The majority of modern scholars therefore agree that the “you” refers to the people of Judah. This is the understanding of Jerusalem Bible, as shown in its footnote. It is also the understanding of Good News Translation, which makes it explicit by including My people in the text.
If a translator decides that the Lord is addressing the people of Judah in this verse, he may want to make this clear in the translation, and perhaps let the Lord address the people of Judah for the rest of the book. The Lord has been speaking to the people of Edom early in the book (Good News Translation begins this speech in verse 2), and the Lord remains the speaker for the rest of the book, even if we assume that he now begins to speaks directly to the people of Israel. Translators need to consider how this change will best be handled in their own languages. It may be possible to treat verses 2-21 as one long speech in which the Lord first talks to the people of Edom, then turns to the people of Israel and begins to talk to them. If a long speech like this is natural in a language, there may be various ways of showing when the speaker stops talking to one audience and starts talking to another. Many languages will need to begin verse 16 with words like “My people, I have made you drink a bitter cup.”
On the other hand, it may sound strange in other languages to address different groups of people within the same speech. In that case it may be necessary to begin a new speech at verse 16, using words something like “The Lord says to you people of Judah, ‘Just as you have drunk….’ ”
A bitter cup of punishment: this is a picture of the Lord being angry with this people and punishing them, especially when he allowed Jerusalem and its Temple (my sacred hill) to be captured by the Babylonians.
The use of a cup of wine as a picture of the anger of the Lord is one that is quite frequent in the Bible. It is developed most extensively in Jer 25.15-29 and occurs also, for example, in Psa 75.8; Jer 49.12; and Hab 2.16. In the New Testament the figure is used both of Christ’s suffering (Mark 14.36; John 18.11) and of God’s anger (Rev 14.10; 16.19). It is, then, a common picture in the Scriptures and is related to one of the central features of Palestinian culture, namely, wine. It is therefore desirable to retain the picture in translation if at all possible, even in situations where wine is not known and where a cup has not previously been used with this figurative meaning. Translators must decide to what extent new figures of speech will be acceptable and meaningful in any language.
In many languages it is possible to speak only about drinking what a cup contains, and not about drinking the cup itself. Therefore, even if the figurative language is to the kept, it will have to be expressed as something like “drinking wine from a cup.” Many translators may also want to make the point of the comparison clearer and say “I will punish them so severely that they will not be able to stand up, just as men who are drunk cannot stand up.” In some cultures, of course, this will not be regarded as a terrible thing, and in these cultures it might not be possible to use this picture effectively. Good News Translation has tried to show that the drink is not pleasant by using the word bitter in the expression a bitter cup, and other translators may be able to do something similar. However, the main point of the Hebrew picture is the effect of the drink, not the taste. Drunken men sometimes stagger like men who have been hit very hard, while people who are completely drunk may lie down as though they were dead. The picture seems to be based on these facts.
Scholars who believe that this part of the verse refers to Edom, in spite of the change from singular to plural, have to interpret the cup of wine literally. They see it as referring to the drunken celebrations in which the Edomites took part at the time of the fall of Jerusalem. Such drinking was not only an insult to the Lord’s people but also to the Lord himself, since it took place on my sacred hill, that is, on the site of the Temple. This seems to be the view underlying New English Bible.
As the Good News Translation footnote shows, my sacred hill is a reference to Mount Zion, which is mentioned by name in the next verse. Mount Zion technically refers to the part of Jerusalem that included the Temple area. It is often used to refer to the whole city of Jerusalem, especially when its importance as a religious center is in focus, and that is the case here. Sacred or “holy” (Revised Standard Version) in this verse means “connected with God in a special way.” Many languages will have a good word for “holy” that can be used here. If there is none, then my sacred hill can be translated as “the hill (or, mountain) where my own house is” or “Jerusalem, the hill where my Temple is.”
But all the surrounding nations will drink a still more bitter cup of punishment: as discussed above, the first part of this verse probably referred to something that had happened to the people of Judah. This second part then says that the same sort of thing will happen to all the surrounding nations. There are a number of ways in which languages can show the relationship between the two parts. One way would be to start the first line with “Just as” and the second line with “so,” showing that two similar ideas are being compared. This is the meaning intended by the Revised Standard Version “as.”
Good News Translation, however, has made the first part of the verse into a full sentence and then begins a second sentence with But. This suggests a strong contrast: a bad thing had happened to God’s people, But all the surrounding nations will suffer even worse. This is conveyed by the words will drink a still more bitter cup. This statement further explains the words addressed to the Edomites in the last part of verse 15.
The Hebrew word translated surrounding (Revised Standard Version “round about”) is found in only a minority of the Hebrew manuscripts. Most have a different word that is translated “continually” (King James Version, New English Bible) or “unsparingly” (Jerusalem Bible). Both ideas (surrounding and “continually”) can be roughly paralleled elsewhere in the Old Testament. Zech 12.2 speaks of “all the peoples round about” (Revised Standard Version) in a context that includes a reference to drunkenness. Isa 51.22-23, in a passage with an extended picture of the cup of God’s anger, speaks of the cup passing from his people, never to return. It is “put … into the hand of your tormentors” (Revised Standard Version), with the implication that it will remain there. If the translation “continually” is preferred, then in some languages it may appear to clash with the vanish away at the end of the verse. This can be overcome by saying “the nations shall drink continually … until they vanish away.”
They will drink it all and vanish away: there is some uncertainty about the Hebrew word translated drink it all in Good News Translation and “stagger” in Revised Standard Version. Staggering is of course a natural result of drinking too much wine, and is associated with it, for example, in Psa 60.3; Isa 51.22; Jer 25.16; and Zech 12.2. But here “stagger” is based on a change in the Hebrew text, which actually has the word for “swallow,” as noted in the Revised Standard Version footnote. Moffatt also accepts the change to “stagger,” but other modern English versions do not, since “swallow” makes perfectly good sense in the context. Thus Good News Translation has drink it all, Jerusalem Bible “drink deep,” and New English Bible “gulp down,” all of which help to convey something of the emotional intensity of the passage.
The final clause “they … shall be as though they had not been” (Revised Standard Version) is generally taken to mean that the nations that undergo the extremes of divine punishment will disappear entirely, and Good News Translation translates this plainly by they will … vanish away. The literal meaning of this picture is “when I have finished punishing them, not one of them will be left” or “the whole nation will be destroyed.”
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 .