survive / escape / save

The Hebrew and Greek that is translated as “survive,” “escape,” “save,” or similar in English is translated in the Contemporary Chichewa translation (2002/2016) in these verses with pulumuka, describing someone whose life was in danger but who has freed himself or herself. (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)

complete verse (Obadiah 1:14)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Obadiah 1:14:

  • Kupsabiny: “You guarded/looked out for people where the roads divided so you could catch those who were fleeing and gave (them) over to their enemies in those days when they were in hardship.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “You should not wait at the cross-roads
    to catch and kill those who escaped.
    You should not have handed over to their enemies,
    those who were left in their time of disaster.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “Wish you (plur.) did- not -stand where- the roads -had-crossed to kill the ones-who have-escaped from Jerusalem. And wish you (plur.) did- not -hand- them -over to the enemies at the time of their difficulty.’” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “You should not have stood at crossroads
    to catch those who were trying to escape.
    You should not have captured them and put them into the hands of their enemies
    when they were experiencing those disasters.’” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on Obadiah 1:14

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 .