In the Hebrew, the first two clauses share the same subject, Your allies, but the subject is not stated until the second clause. It is rather awkward to retain this order in English (though Jerusalem Bible manages to do so). Therefore Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation have reversed the clauses so as to put first the clause with the subject stated, namely, Your allies have deceived you. This will probably be necessary in many other languages. In terms of the flow of sense also, it is quite helpful to have this general statement at the beginning, before the more specific details. Allies refers to other countries or peoples who had promised to help Edom in time of war. But this promise was only a lie. These peoples had deceived the Edomites, and the downfall of Edom was to be accomplished at least partly through the treachery of people whom the Edomites considered to be their allies. To this extent, their punishment matches their own treacherous conduct at the fall of Jerusalem.
“They have driven you to the border” (Revised Standard Version) is best understood as referring to the Edomites being expelled from their own land. Good News Translation has made this interpretation explicit with its they have driven you from your country. This is what was happening from about 500 B.C. onward, as the Edomites were pushed westward into the Negev. Driven you from your country means “forced you to leave your country” or “chased you out of your country.”
The second and third sentences of the verse in Good News Translation add more detail about the way Edom was betrayed. It was People who were at peace with them who had now conquered them. The third sentence in Good News Translation contains two difficulties in Hebrew. The first is that the only subject stated in the Hebrew means “your bread,” which makes no sense on its own. Most scholars suppose that the phrase in Hebrew, “men of” from the previous part of the verse, is to be understood again here. “Men of your bread” is taken to mean friends who ate with you (Good News Translation) or “trusted friends” (Revised Standard Version). (Compare the language of Psa 41.9, also used in a context where treachery is involved.)
All three sentences in this verse refer to the same people or peoples: Your allies, People who were at peace with you, and Those friends who ate with you. Therefore in languages where it is difficult to find expressions for each of these different terms, it will be quite all right to refer to them in just one or two of these ways. Even in languages where all of the terms are possible, one should translate so as to show that the same people are being referred to. Thus one may translate the second sentence as “They were at peace with you, but now they have conquered you” or, using the future tense, “They are at peace with you now, but soon they will conquer you.”
The second problem in the third sentence is the Hebrew word mazor. This normally means “wound,” as in the King James Version (King James Version), but here it makes no real sense. Many scholars accept a small change in the Hebrew text to matsod, “net,” which perhaps has some support from ancient translations. Other believe that mazor has another meaning, namely trap, as found in Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation. This not only fits the context very well but also could have been the understanding on which the ancient translations were based. We do not know if Obadiah was referring to some particular historical situation with his image of Edom’s friends laying a trap for them. It is probably best to understand this as having the same meaning as the first line of the verse. These people made the Edomites think that they were their friends, but this was only a trap, a way of deceiving them. They actually meant to fight against the Edomites. Literally, trap refers to something used for catching animals, but it is not known exactly what kind of trap is meant here. A translator should not use this image unless it will have the right meaning in his language.
Where is all that cleverness he had?: the last clause of the verse is clear in itself but is hard to relate to the preceding words. Revised Standard Version translates literally, “there is no understanding of it”; this seems to mean either that the deceit of Edom’s supposed friends is so bad that one can hardly believe it, or else that the trap they have set is so clever that no one can guess it is there. Another possibility is to translate the words “of it” as “in him” and to regard this clause as words spoken about Edom. Jerusalem Bible follows this interpretation with “ ‘He has no intelligence now.’ ” Good News Translation does the same but incorporates two further features. First, it makes explicit the understanding that the speakers are the deceitful friends by saying they say of you. Second, it tries to convey something of the supposed mockery of the speakers by using the form of a rhetorical question, ‘Where is all that cleverness he had?’ This rhetorical question in English means the same as “He used to think he was very clever, but he certainly isn’t clever now.”
Often rhetorical questions in the Hebrew are clearer in meaning in English and other languages when restructured as statements. But the frequent removal of such questions can lead to a loss of emotional impact. It therefore helps to restore some of this impact by using rhetorical questions and other such devices at places where they are meaningful in these languages, even though they are not found in the Hebrew at just these places.
In this sentence, many translators will find it helpful to make the speakers explicit, though fewer will want to use a rhetorical question. The decision will depend on the natural usage of the receptor language.
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 .