Obadiah 13-15

New English Translation

Footnotes

1. Obadiah 1:13 tn Heb “the gate.” The term “gate” here functions as a synecdoche for the city as a whole, which the Edomites plundered.
2. Obadiah 1:13 tn Heb “in the day of their distress.” The phrase is used three times in this verse; the Hebrew word translated “distress” (אֵידָם, ʾedam) is a wordplay on the name Edom. For stylistic reasons and to avoid monotony, in the present translation this phrase is rendered, “when they experienced distress,” “when they suffered distress,” and “when they endured distress.”
3. Obadiah 1:13 tn Heb “you, also you.”
4. Obadiah 1:13 tn Heb “in the day of his distress.” In this and the following phrase at the end of v. 13 the suffix is third person masculine singular. As collective singulars both occurrences have been translated as plurals (“they suffered distress…endured distress,” rather than, “he suffered distress…endured distress”).
5. Obadiah 1:13 tc In the MT the verb is feminine plural, but the antecedent is unclear. The Hebrew phrase תִּשְׁלַחְנָה (tishlakhnah) here should probably be emended to read תִּשְׁלַח יָד (tishlakh yad), although yad (“hand”) is not absolutely essential to this idiom.
6. Obadiah 1:13 tn See the note on the phrase “suffered distress” in the previous line.
7. Obadiah 1:14 tn The meaning of the Hebrew word פֶּרֶק (pereq; here translated “fork in the road”) is uncertain. The word is found in the Hebrew Bible only here and in Nah 3:1, where it means “plunder.” In the present context it seems to refer to a strategic intersection or fork in a road where bands of Edomites apprehended Israelites who were fleeing from the attack on Jerusalem (cf. NAB, NIV, NLT “crossroads,” NRSV “crossings”).
8. Obadiah 1:14 tn Heb “to cut off” (so KJV, NRSV); cf. NASB, NIV “to cut down.”
9. Obadiah 1:14 tn Heb “his fugitives”; cf. NAB, CEV “refugees.”
10. Obadiah 1:14 tn Heb “in the day of distress” (so KJV, ASV).
11. Obadiah 1:15 sn The term יוֹם (yom, “day”) is repeated ten times in vv. 11-14, referring to the time period when Judah/Jerusalem suffered calamity that Edom exploited for its own sinful gain. In each of those cases יוֹם was qualified by a following genitive to describe Judah’s plight, e.g., “in the day of your brother’s calamity” (v. 12). Here it appears again but now followed by the divine name to describe the time of God’s judgment against Edom for its crimes against humanity: “the day of the Lord.” In the present translation, the expression בְּיוֹם (b^eyom; literally, “In the day of”) appears as “When…” in vv. 11-14. However, here it is translated more literally because the expression “the day of the Lord” is a well-known technical expression for a time of divine intervention in judgment. While this expression sometimes refers to the final eschatological day of God’s judgment, it may also refer occasionally to historical acts of judgment.
12. Obadiah 1:15 tn Heb “near” (so KJV, NAB, NIV, NRSV, NLT); cf. NCV “is coming soon.”
13. Obadiah 1:15 sn God’s judgment would not be confined to Edom. Edom would certainly be punished in just measure for its wrongdoing, but “the day of the Lord” would also encompass judgment of the nations (v. 15).
14. Obadiah 1:15 tn Heb “your deed will return on your own head.” Verses 15 and 16 provide an example of ironic reversal, whereby the tables are turned and poetic justice is served. This is a motif that is common in prophetic oracles against foreign nations.