Verses 19-20 together give details of how the Lord’s people will reoccupy the full extent of the land that was promised to them. There are a number of difficulties in the Hebrew text. In places it is so disjointed that many scholars believe that some words in it were original notes and were only by accident taken into the text itself. However, Good News Translation makes good sense of the passages with only very little change in the Hebrew text as it stands.

After the people of Judah been taken into exile in 587 or 586 B.C., the Edomites had begun to move westward and occupy southern Judah, called in Hebrew “the Negeb” (Revised Standard Version; spelled “Negev” on Good News Translation maps and on maps in this Handbook). Obadiah here foresees the opposite thing happening—People from southern Judah will occupy Edom, which had been part of the wider kingdom under David and Solomon (2 Sam 8.13, 14). The people referred to here are obviously considered to be people of Judah, and were probably returned exiles. To occupy, in the context of verse 18, would doubtless involve some fighting, and the meaning is therefore the same as capture, used in the next line.

Those from the western foothills will capture Philistia: another nation that had given much trouble in earlier times was that of the Philistines, who lived mainly in the western coastal plain. They too had been conquered by David (2 Sam 5.17-25) but had remained troublesome to Israel from time to time, and after the fall of Jerusalem they were able to occupy “the Shephelah” (Revised Standard Version) unopposed. The Shephelah is the area of foothills in western Judah, next to the coastal plain. Here again the situation will be reversed, and the people from the western foothills will capture Philistia.

If a language does not have a word for foothills, this simply means the region where the hill country begins. It should be possible to find a way to express this idea, but it can also called the “western border region.”

In the second half of the verse, the prophet turns to the northern part of the country, the territory of Ephraim and Samaria. The text as we have it today does not say clearly who will regain this territory, as it simply has “they” (Revised Standard Version) as the subject of the verb. Clearly, some group of the Lord’s people is meant, and Good News Translation supplies the general term Israelites.

Ephraim had often been used in the past to stand for the northern kingdom, since it was the dominant tribe there, and Samaria had been the capital city of that kingdom. The wording of the Hebrew (see Revised Standard Version) would suggest that two separate areas are referred to, but the two names really refer to the same territory. It may be possible in some languages to follow Good News Translation and suggest that there is one territory called both Ephraim and Samaria. In other languages it may be clearer to say “the town of Samaria, and the rest of the territory of Ephraim.”

Finally, the people of Benjamin will take Gilead. The traditional territory of Benjamin was the area just north of Jerusalem. Gilead is a general term for the areas to the east of the River Jordan occupied in the past by the tribes of Reuben and Gad, and part of the tribe of Manasseh. It is not clear why Benjamin should be named to recapture this area.

It is not clear whether the prophet thought that the Israelites would have to fight to take Ephraim and Gilead, or whether they would be able to take over these areas peacefully, so the translator should use the word that seems most appropriate to him. In all cases, the translator should make it clear that it is the Israelites who are taking over the areas mentioned.

Verse 19 as a whole states that the Lord’s people will expand their territory southward (into Edom), westward (into Philistia), northward (into Ephraim and Samaria), and eastward (into Gilead). That is to say, from the small area around Jerusalem that they held in the prophet’s day, they will expand in all directions in the effort to regain their traditional land. Some translators may feel that it will be helpful to bring this out more clearly in the translation, by making sure that all of these directions are clear in the text. One may say, for example, that “the people of Benjamin will cross to the eastern side of the Jordan and take the region of Gilead.” Directions are sometimes a problem for translators, especially if their languages do not use terms that match with Hebrew and English terms like north, south, east, and west. In some languages, for example, directions are given in terms of the way the main rivers flow. Translators should of course use the forms that are natural in their languages. But if they have problems knowing just how to use these forms to refer to the geography of Palestine, they should ask their translation consultant about their special problems.

It may be useful to mention that Jerusalem is in hilly country. These hills run from north to south and include the areas of Ephraim and the Negeb, so there is no significant change of altitude between any of these places. Philistia to the west was in the plain near the Mediterranean Sea and was lower than Jerusalem. Anyone traveling to Gilead in the east or Edom in the south would have to cross the low valley of the Jordan and the Dead Sea. But both Gilead and Edom are mostly in high county, so the person going to them would have to climb up again to altitudes about the same as Jerusalem.

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 .