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 .

In Revised Standard Version this verse begins with “For,” which shows its relationship to the preceding verses. The book up to now has told us that the Edomites will be punished by God for what they have done to Judah. This will happen “for” or “because” God judges and punishes all nations. The translator should understand the connection between the verses, and this may influence the way in which this verse is worded. But it may not be necessary actually to use any connecting word like “for.” There may not be any corresponding word in the receptor language, or the translator may feel that the relationship is quite clear without including any connecting word.

Some translators may need to understand more clearly the relationship between The day that God punishes Edom (verse 8), which is the time referred to in the second part of verse 15, and The day when the Lord will judge all nations. In some way the punishment of Edom is a part of the final punishment that the Lord will give to all nations, but it is not necessary to think that they happen at exactly the same time from our human point of view. Edom’s punishment may take place long before the other nations are punished. This is a good example of why we should not understand the day of the Lord as a literal day. (Psa 90.4 may be of some help in understanding this.)

The Lord is here referred to in the third person in the Hebrew. Good News Translation understands the whole of verses 2b-21 as the direct words of the Lord, and reminds the reader of this at this point by making a first person reference to I, the LORD.

The expression “the day of the LORD” (Revised Standard Version) is a common one in the prophetic books. Its meaning is made more explicit in Good News Translation by saying The day is near when I, the LORD, will judge all nations. The prophets firmly believed that the Lord was ruler of all the nations and was able to use them and to punish them as easily as he did his own people. The reference to the day here is an echo of the future day of Edom’s punishment in verse 8, in contrast to the frequent mention of the past day when Jerusalem fell, in verses 11-14.

Translators will probably want to choose an expression for “the day of the Lord” that they can use in most places where it occurs. But they will need to be able to vary it slightly when necessary, as for example in this verse, where the Lord himself is referring to it. In choosing this term, it is not necessary to use the word “day” if it does not seem appropriate. The word for “time” can be used here.

The thought is that God himself will be the judge at this time, so the verb used for judge should be the one used when referring to a judge holding court and deciding who is right and who is wrong. If the word chosen also includes the idea of deciding the punishments for the guilty, such a word will also be quite correct.

All nations may need to be translated as “the people of all countries (or, tribes).”

As one of the nations, Edom is particularly in the prophet’s mind, and Good News Translation addresses Edom by name here to make it clear that the second part of this verse refers to Edom.

Edom will be treated according to the principle “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth” (Deut 19.21): what you have done will be done to you. The Edomites had behaved treacherously toward their relatives the Israelites when Jerusalem fell, and they in turn will fall victim to treachery, as already described in verse 7. Thus they will get back what they have given. This last clause states in less figurative language what is expressed idiomatically in Hebrew as “your deeds shall return on your head” (Revised Standard Version). Many languages will have some suitable idiom that can be used at this point, provided it does not introduce any item historically or culturally impossible in ancient Israel. If there is no figurative way to say this, it may be necessary to omit this line, because its literal meaning is almost exactly the same as the line before it, and it may not be possible to say the same thing in two different ways.

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 structure of verse 5 in Hebrew is quite complex, as Revised Standard Version shows by following closely the order of the Hebrew clauses. Basically there are two comparisons here, one with thieves and one with grape gatherers. They are parallel to each other and reinforce each other, together making the point that destruction is not usually complete. As a unit they stand in contrast with the way the people of Edom will be treated. The point is made more simply in the second comparison: When people gather grapes, they always leave a few behind. This straightforward statement helps in the understanding of the previous one, which is complicated by two things. First, the subject is stated by naming two almost synonymous types of people (“thieves” and “plunderers” in Revised Standard Version) where really only one is intended. This is a figure of speech called hendiadys. Second, the first clause is separated from the second by an exclamation (“how you have been destroyed!” Revised Standard Version) that in sense really stands outside the sentence altogether and is related more closely with verse 6.

Clearly, this whole verse will need to be considerably restructured in order to present its information in a natural way in other languages. Unless such restructuring is done, the verse will lose much of its impact. Good News Translation here offers a good example of how such restructuring can be done in English, but of course translators in other languages will need to think out what is most effective in their own languages and not just translate Good News Translation literally.

Good News Translation has taken three steps. First, it has removed the exclamation from the middle of the first sentence and placed it at the end of the verse (your enemies have wiped you out completely). Second, Good News Translation has expressed the two conditional statements in the first comparison by a single clause with a single subject (When thieves come at night). Third, Good News Translation has put the comparisons in the form of statements rather than rhetorical questions.

All this not only simplifies the structure of the verse but makes its meaning and progression of thought much easier to understand. The two comparisons follow each other without any interruption, and the contrast between them and the situation of Edom is brought out by the word But. The meaning of the verse is: when a country undergoes some kind of defeat, the destruction is only partial in most cases; but in the case of Edom, it will be much more severe—your enemies have wiped you out completely. Just as Edom’s pride was pictured as greater than normal in verses 3 and 4, so here her destruction is pictured as more severe. Note also that in the last line, Good News Translation has turned a passive construction into an active one and made the subject explicit—your enemies.

Some translators may feel that the transition from verse 4 to verse 5 is too abrupt, and it may help to move the exclamation “how you have been destroyed!” (Revised Standard Version) to the beginning of verse 5 instead of to the end. It may then be translated as something like “Your enemies will completely destroy you!” Then, after stating in the rest of verse 5 that thieves and people who gather grapes do not usually take everything, translators can begin verse 6 with a word like “But,” to bring out the fact that Edom’s case is quite different.

Night in the first line of the verse is mentioned only because it is the usual time for thieves. It can be left out if it causes problems in a language.

They take only what they want implies that the thieves leave some things behind. It may be necessary in some languages to make this explicit, just as it is already explicit in the picture of gathering grapes that some are left behind.

When people gathering grapes always leave a few, this may happen because they do not see all of the grapes. For the people of Israel, however, it may also be that they intentionally left some grapes for the poor (Lev 19.10). Bible translators will have to find some way of talking about grapes, even if grapes are not known in their cultures, simply because they are so important in the Bible. Here, however, it would be possible to talk more generally about “gathering fruit.”

The expression wiped … out is an English idiom with the same meaning as Revised Standard Version‘s “destroyed.” The Hebrew verb here translated have wiped … out may be another prophetic perfect, as the verbs in verse 6 and the first three verbs in verse 7 may be. The change from future to past tense in verses 5-7 in the English of Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation is not particularly noticeable, but such a change in other languages may sound very odd and disturb the smooth flow of the whole section. Therefore translators may find that it is better in their languages to use future verbs in verses 5-7 in order to match those in verses 2-4 and 8-9.

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 .