Like a number of other East Asian languages, Japanese uses a complex system of honorifics, i.e. a system where a number of different levels of politeness are expressed in language via words, word forms or grammatical constructs. These can range from addressing someone or referring to someone with contempt (very informal) to expressing the highest level of reference (as used in addressing or referring to God) or any number of levels in-between.
One way Japanese show different degree of politeness is through the choice of a second person pronoun (“you” and its various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. The most commonly used anata (あなた) is typically used when the speaker is humbly addressing another person.
In these verses, however, omae (おまえ) is used, a cruder second person pronoun, that Jesus for instance chooses when chiding his disciples.
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 .
Like a number of other East Asian languages, Japanese uses a complex system of honorifics, i.e. a system where a number of different levels of politeness are expressed in language via words, word forms or grammatical constructs. These can range from addressing someone or referring to someone with contempt (very informal) to expressing the highest level of reference (as used in addressing or referring to God) or any number of levels in-between.
One way Japanese show different degree of politeness is through the choice of a first person singular and plural pronoun (“I” and “we” and its various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. The most commonly used watashi/watakushi (私) is typically used when the speaker is humble and asking for help.
In these verses, where God / Jesus is referring to himself, watashi is also used but instead of the kanji writing system (私) the syllabary hiragana (わたし) is used to distinguish God from others.