Revised Standard Version here retains the order of the Hebrew clauses. There are four subordinate clauses building up to the final main clause, in which as a climax the accusation is made that “you were like one of them.” That is, Edom was like the foreigners who were capturing Jerusalem. This order is effective in Hebrew but may be rather difficult to follow in other languages. Good News Translation has split the verse into two sentences, with the main accusation at the beginning of the second one: You were as bad as those strangers. Good News Translation has also reordered the other clauses so as to present the events described in the sequence in which they occurred. Thus the clause when enemies broke down their gates comes before the clause carried off Jerusalem’s wealth, since the enemies had to enter the city before they could plunder it.

This reordering certainly makes the description easier to follow, but probably loses something of the poetic force of the passage, and something of the intense emotional involvement of the prophet. Translators do, of course, need to make their translation clear, but they should also try to retain as much of the emotional impact of the original as possible. The devices by which this may be achieved vary widely from one language to another. Translators should try to ensure that the main emphasis of the verse falls on the main accusation, You were as bad as those strangers. Since emphasis is often related to the order of presentation, this clause should be placed in a position that shows its importance as the climax of the verse. Good News Translation is not a helpful model here, but Jerusalem Bible catches the mood of the Hebrew quite well, concluding the verse with the words “you behaved like the rest of them.”

Another aspect of the poetic and emotional force of this passage is the constant repetition of the phrase “on the day” or “in the day” in verses 11-14. Revised Standard Version includes this phrase every time it occurs in the Hebrew. Good News Translation has used a similar phrase only once in each verse, in the interests of English style. Translators will need to consider the effect that repetition will have on the reader in their own language before deciding how often to use the same or similar phrases.

You stood aside implies that the Edomites refused to help the people of Judah.

The expression that day (or “the day,” as it appears in the following verses) does not necessarily mean a single day, but rather a period of time during which something happens. In this case it refers to the enemies’ victory over Jerusalem and to all of the things they did at that time. This use of the word is of course similar to the use of “the day” when referring to the time when God will judge the nations and punish those who have done wrong (see verse 15). It was used in a similar way in verse 8.

Good News Translation says that enemies broke down their gates. This is literally “foreigners entered his gates” (Revised Standard Version). These foreigners are the ones who had come to attack Jerusalem, so Good News Translation is right to call them enemies. However, it may not be so clear why Good News Translation says that they broke down the gates. The Babylonians took Jerusalem only after a long siege, when they finally broke through the walls (Jer 39.2; 52.7; 2 Kgs 25.4). If we say simply that they entered the gates, it may imply that the enemies walked through without a struggle, so Good News Translation has tried to give a more precise picture of what happened.

The main accusation this verse makes against the Edomites has already been discussed, that they “were like one of” the enemies (Revised Standard Version). Good News Translation makes clear that the way in which they were like the enemies is a bad thing, and says You were as bad as the enemies. In some languages this type of comparison is quite difficult to make, and it may be much easier to use a form more like Revised Standard Version. Other languages will have different ways of expressing the same idea.

Wealth here includes all kinds of moveable possessions, not just money. The way the enemy divided it among themselves was by casting lots, a procedure that was basically religious, since the result was supposed to be controlled by the gods. Revised Standard Version says that they “cast lots for Jerusalem,” but this refers to the wealth that they found there, as Good News Translation makes clear. It may be more likely that the wealth was divided in Jerusalem and carried off afterward, so that Good News Translation‘s ordering of the clauses may still not correspond exactly to the order in which the events took place.

The method of casting lots in these cases is not definitely known, but it may have involved small stones that stood for different possible answers. A method was used for choosing one of the stones by chance, and this showed what the answer was. One method of choosing was to shake the stones in a cup until one of them fell out.

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 .