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 .

The introduction to this book is very brief, with no details of Obadiah’s home or ancestors and no indication of the date of his activity. Since the content of the book is not expressed in the form of a “vision” (Revised Standard Version [Revised Standard Version]), Today’s English Version (Good News Translation) uses the more general term prophecy. The basic meaning is that God has given Obadiah a special message or revelation that Obadiah is to tell to others. The word “vision” could suggest that Obadiah received this message while in a trance or some similar state, but it is not necessary for a translator to emphasize this, as it is not important here.

The origin of Obadiah’s message is the Sovereign LORD himself. Sovereign LORD represents the Hebrew words ʾadonay YHWH. YHWH is the personal name of God. The traditional English transliteration is Jehovah. Its meaning is probably something like “the Eternal,” and it is sometimes translated in this way (for example, by Moffatt [Moffatt] in English and Segond in French). The Jews considered the name YHWH too holy to be pronounced, so when they read the Scriptures, they said the word ʾadonay instead. ʾAdonay means “lord” or “master,” and because of this the Jews translated YHWH as kurios, which is the Greek word for “Lord,” when they translated the Old Testament in the Greek version called the Septuagint. The majority of translations in English and many other languages follow this example, and this is usually the best solution for translators to adopt in other languages. Where the English word “Lord” is used as a translation for YHWH, it is spelled in Revised Standard Version, Good News Translation, and most English translations with capital letters, “LORD.” Where it represents ʾadonay it is spelled with only a capital L, “Lord.”

There are many places in the Old Testament where the Hebrew words ʾadonay YHWH come together, as in Obadiah verse 1. In this case the Jews pronounced YHWH as ʾelohim, the word for God. In such places Revised Standard Version and many others translate ʾadonay YHWH as “Lord GOD,” spelling “GOD” with capital letters. Good News Translation translates ʾadonay YHWH as Sovereign LORD. Sovereign means “almighty” or “all-powerful,” and many translators will find it best to translate as “Almighty Lord” here and in other such passages. If translators wish to spell “LORD” or “GOD” with capital letters in their languages when these terms translate the Hebrew name YHWH, they may of course do so. But there is no need for them to adopt this custom if they do not want to. However, if they do wish to do so, they should be very careful to do it consistently.

The main subject of the message given to Obadiah is the nation of Edom. According to the Bible, the Edomites were descended from Esau, the twin brother of Jacob (Gen 25.19-26; Gen 36). Their traditional homeland was the area south of the Dead Sea and east of the rift valley called the Arabah; this valley continues south from the Jordan Valley to the Gulf of Aqaba.

The nations of Israel and Edom, though closely related, had been hostile to each other for centuries. According to the tradition of Num 20.14-21, the Israelites were on their journey from Egypt to the Promised Land. When they asked the King of Edom for permission to pass through his territory, he refused permission. This refusal was the beginning of a lasting enmity between the two nations. Their mutual hatred reached its peak when Jerusalem was captured by the Babylonians (587 or 586 B.C.). The Edomites joined in the destruction (1 Esdras 4.45), encouraged the attackers (Psa 137.7), and even helped to catch Judean fugitives (Obadiah 14). For such terrible cruelty against his people, God was bound to punish Edom, and this is the main point of Obadiah’s message (compare Isa 34.5-15; 63.1-6; Ezek 25.12-14; 35.1-15; Amos 1.11-12; Mal 1.2-4).

We are not told who Obadiah’s audience was when he spoke this prophecy. Even though much of the book seems to address the Edomites directly, calling them “you,” the prophecy was spoken to the people of Israel and not to the Edomites themselves. This information may be helpful to the translator, but it does not need to be mentioned unless his language requires it.

The first part of the sentence is often considered to be a title for the book, as in Revised Standard Version, and it can be translated that way if this is natural in a particular language. In some languages, however, it may be necessary to explain the meaning of prophecy more precisely. If so, it may seem quite repetitious to keep the two parts of the sentence separate. They can be combined in some way such as “This is what the Sovereign Lord told Obadiah to say about the nation of Edom.”

The LORD has sent his messenger to the nations: here the order of the clauses in Revised Standard Version follows that of the Hebrew, but Good News Translation reverses the order of the first two clauses so as to present the information in a more logical sequence. Clearly, the messenger has to be sent before anyone hears the message. Good News Translation also mentions The LORD as the one who has sent the messenger. It is known that the sender is the LORD because of the statement that the tidings are “from the LORD” (Revised Standard Version). Making The LORD the subject of the sentence avoids the passive construction “has been sent” that would cause difficulty in many languages.

The messenger was no doubt a representative from one nation who was going around to neighboring nations urging them to create a military alliance against Edom. This is the meaning of the message “Get ready! Let us go to war against Edom!”

The prophet heard this message and realized that the Lord had sent it. The prophet says we have heard this message. He is speaking to the people of Judah, and the pronoun we means that they have heard it as well as himself. In languages that distinguish between inclusive and exclusive forms in the first person plural, this form would therefore be inclusive. The pronoun his in his message refers primarily to the messenger, not the Lord, although since Obadiah calls this man the Lord’s messenger (Good News Translation), it is in a sense the Lord’s message.

Some would understand this passage rather differently from Good News Translation. They would take the “tidings from the LORD” (Revised Standard Version) to refer to the Lord’s words that begin at verse 2 (see the New English Bible). Sending a messenger among the nations is then a separate but related event that is going on at the same time, and it would not be necessary to say that the Lord himself sent the messenger. He would presumably have been sent by the leaders of his own country, though from Obadiah’s point of view, this is still evidence of the Lord’s work. A literal translation like Revised Standard Version could be interpreted as having either this sense or the sense of Good News Translation, but a translator should not try to be ambiguous in this way. He should choose one or the other of these meanings. In this case, the Good News Translation meaning is probably preferable. If the meaning not chosen is felt to be important enough, it can be put in a footnote.

The pronoun us in Let us go to war refers to the people of the country that this man represents, along with the people of the countries he is speaking to, so again an inclusive form is required in languages that make this distinction.

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 .

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 .

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 .

This verse contains several echoes of other verses in Obadiah. The expression “entered the gate” (Revised Standard Version) recalls verse 11, and “you should not have gloated” recalls verse 12. The word translated riches (Revised Standard Version “goods”) is the same as the word for wealth in verse 11, and in Hebrew the emphatic “you” of the last line of verse 11 is also repeated in the second clause here in verse 13. The word here translated seized (Revised Standard Version “looted”) is the same Hebrew verb as that translated sent in verse 1 and driven in verse 7. The Hebrew word translated three times as “calamity” (Revised Standard Version) resembles the name “Edom” and is a wordplay on that name, as in Ezek 35.5.

To enter the “gate” (Revised Standard Version) means to enter the city, and this is how Good News Translation translates it. The three clauses of the verse represent a progression in the Edomites’ hostile actions toward Judah. First, they entered the city following the Babylonian armies. Then they began to gloat over the suffering of Jerusalem. Before long they even joined the invaders to seize the city’s riches for plunder. Here, as in verse 11, riches includes all kinds of goods, not just money.

In Revised Standard Version, after “my people” are mentioned in the first line, the people of Jerusalem are referred to by the pronoun “his”—“his calamity,” “his disaster,” and “his goods.” In most languages this will have to be a plural pronoun, like their in Good News Translation.

There is some uncertainty over the exact form of the Hebrew word translated seize. It seems probable that the expression literally means “to stretch out the hand,” and some translators may be able to use a comparable idiomatic expression in their own language.

As Revised Standard Version shows, the phrase “in the day of his calamity” occurs three times in this verse. Good News Translation reproduces it only once as on the day of their disaster. Many translators will do the same, while others may find that they can repeat the phrase as a kind of refrain without breaking the natural patterns of their own language.

Some translations have tried to translate the “you” of the second clause of the Hebrew so as to show that it is emphatic. Jerusalem Bible has “in your turn.” However, in the context this is not very meaningful, because we are not told that anyone else gloated over the people’s suffering. Furthermore, verse 12 has already told us in three different ways that the Edomites gloated over Jerusalem’s troubles. Most translators will probably want to follow Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation and not stress this “you.” In some languages it may be more appropriate to stress the “you” in the other two clauses, since verse 11 has already said that the Babylonians came into the city and looted it, and here we are told that the Edomites also did these very same things.

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 .

Here Revised Standard Version reflects the Hebrew sentence structure. This is very awkward in English and would be even more awkward in many other languages. Accordingly Good News Translation has broken the verse into two sentences and made the reason-result sequence in the second one clearer by including the words and so.

Your pride has deceived you the expression “The pride of your heart” (Revised Standard Version) uses “heart” in a figurative way. In languages that also speak of the heart as the seat of the emotions, the figure can be retained, as in the Jerusalem Bible (Jerusalem Bible) “Your pride of heart,” and New English Bible “Your proud, insolent heart.”

In other languages other parts of the body are considered the place where a person feels proud, and it is of course perfectly all right to use the term that is natural in the language. In languages where a figurative use is not acceptable, translators can follow Good News Translation and simply say Your pride or the equivalent. The meaning of this sentence is that the Edomites are proud and think that they cannot be defeated (as the rest of the verse explains); but they have deceived themselves, since they are in fact about to be defeated. This could be expressed in many different ways, such as “Because you are proud, you have deceived yourself (or, yourselves),” or “You have been proud of your strength, but you were wrong to think in this way.”

Your capital is a fortress of solid rock the reason for the pride was the strong position of the Edomites’ capital, Sela. The name “Sela” is also the Hebrew word for rock, and thus there is a play on words in the Hebrew. This wordplay cannot be retained in English, but Good News Translation tries to bring out something of its meaning by referring specifically to Your capital. The city of Sela was set on a high, rocky plateau and could be approached from only one direction. Thus it was like a fortress, and it was the ease with which they could defend their city that made the Edomites so proud.

A fortress here refers to a town with very strong walls. The walls of Sela are said to be made of solid rock and are therefore so strong that no enemy can break them. The Hebrew figure used here speaks of the Edomites living in cracks or “clefts of the rock” (Revised Standard Version). Some people may feel that this would be a very uncomfortable way to live, or a place suitable only for poor people. But the meaning of the figure is that the place where they live is very well protected and very hard to attack.

The Edomites say the last sentence of this verse “in their hearts” (see Revised Standard Version), which means to say to yourself or yourselves, or just “to think.”

Their home was high in the mountains, and this was why they said to themselves, Who can ever pull me down? This question is rhetorical, and in some languages it may need to be expressed as a negative statement, “No one will ever be able to pull me down.” In some cases, too, it would be more natural to drop the direct quotation and say “You think that no one will ever pull you down.” The idea that no one can pull the Edomites down means that no one can defeat them. It is expressed in this way to continue the picture of the people living high up among the rocks, who would have to be pulled down from the rocks in order to be defeated.

Some translators may feel that the connection between verses 2 and 3 is not very clear. Verse 2 states that God is going to punish Edom. Verses 3 and 4 say this again but give more detail. They say that even though the Edomites think they are so strong that no one can defeat them, nevertheless God will defeat them easily. It may be clearer in some languages to change the order of the parts of verse 3 to make the connection with verse 2 clearer. One may say “You are very proud, and think that no one can ever pull you down, because your capital is a fortress of solid rock and your home is high in the mountains. But you are wrong; your pride has deceived you.”

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 .

This verse continues the catalog of Edom’s misdeeds, which here reach a terrible climax. The Edomites not only joined in plundering Jerusalem, but they even helped to catch those people who had escaped from the city, and handed them over to the Babylonians or perhaps even killed some themselves. This may be a reference to the flight and capture of King Zedekiah and his army (2 Kgs 25.3-7). Though the Edomites are not mentioned there, some scholars believe that they could have been involved.

In this verse, as in verse 13, there are echoes of other verses: stood repeats the stood of verse 11, “cut off” (Revised Standard Version) repeats the “cut off” of verses 9 and 10, and the final phrase “in the day of distress” (Revised Standard Version) is identical with the final phrase of verse 12.

The word translated crossroads in the first line is more literally “the parting of the ways” (Revised Standard Version) or a fork in the road, a place where a road splits and goes in two directions. It would be easier to watch for the people escaping from Jerusalem at places like this, rather than to have to station separate groups of people on both roads.

The exact meaning of the word translated “cut off” in Revised Standard Version is not certain here. Often it means to kill (and is translated as “killed” by Good News Translation in verse 9), but here it seems more likely to mean “cut off the escape,” or catch. It would be an anticlimax to speak first of killing the fugitives and then of handing them over to the enemy.

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 .

In this verse the main clause, I will pull you down, is the answer that the Lord gives to the rhetorical question in the previous verse. The Edomites may seem to be strongly defended, but they are not beyond the reach of divine justice.

The strength of the Edomites’ position is pictured by a comparison with an eagle (not in this context a vulture, as in New English Bible). In structure the comparison is a double one, speaking both of soaring (that is, flying high; see Revised Standard Version) and of building a nest in high and inaccessible places. It is not certain whether the soaring and the building are two separate comparisons that are parallel with each other, or whether the building is simply an expansion or result of the soaring. Revised Standard Version and Jerusalem Bible make them parallel, while New English Bible can be taken either way; Moffatt seems to support Good News Translation in making the second an expansion.

In the second part of the comparison there is a further figure of speech called a hyperbole, or exaggeration. This is the reference to the “nest … set among the stars” (Revised Standard Version). No one supposed that eagles actually nested among the stars, but here the stars stand for places that are too high for men to climb to. Since this hyperbole could be misunderstood, Good News Translation has tried to show that it is not to be taken literally; therefore it translates so that it seems to be among the stars. Some translators will wish to follow this example.

On the other hand, in other languages it may be quite effective to keep the hyperbole of the Hebrew. This helps to stress how great God is in comparison to man, even when man thinks he is very powerful. The Edomites believed that their high fortress made them safe. But even if the Edomites could fly like eagles or go among the stars, God would still be able to bring them down. So of course he will have no trouble defeating them in their mountain fortress.

Eagles are referred to in this passage primarily because they are able to fly so high, and because they build their nests in high places. But they are also large birds that prey on other creatures. This habit may also be part of the comparison, since Edom is condemned for preying on Israel (verse 13). In areas where eagles are not known, the translator should try to find a bird that has one or all of these characteristics, the most important of which is the ability to fly very high.

The final words “says the LORD” (Revised Standard Version) have been transferred to the beginning of the paragraph in Good News Translation and appear as “The LORD says to Edom” in verse 2. These words are meant to remind people that what Obadiah is saying is God’s own message. In English it is a bit awkward to interrupt a speech with this sort of statement, and it may be best to put it only at the beginning, as Good News Translation has done. In other languages, however, it may be quite natural to follow the Hebrew and keep these words here (note that they are repeated in verse 8, and similar words are used in verse 18). Another possibility is to make the words part of God’s own speech, and to say something like “I, the Lord, am speaking to you.”

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 .