Obaja 1:13-14

1:13 You should not have entered the city ¹  of my people when they experienced distress. ² 

You should not have joined ³  in gloating over their misfortune when they suffered distress. ⁴ 

You should not have looted ⁵  their wealth when they endured distress. ⁶ 

1:14 You should not have stood at the fork in the road ⁷  to slaughter ⁸  those trying to escape. ⁹ 

You should not have captured their refugees when they suffered adversity. ¹⁰ 

Obaja 1:17

1:17 But on Mount Zion there will be a remnant of those who escape, ¹¹ 

and it will be a holy place once again.

The descendants ¹²  of Jacob will conquer ¹³ 

those who had conquered them. ¹⁴ 

[1:13]  ¹ tn Heb “the gate.” The term “gate” here functions as a synecdoche for the city as a whole, which the Edomites plundered.

[1:13]  ² tn Heb “in the day of their distress.” The phrase is used three times in this verse; the Hebrew word translated “distress” (אֵידָם, ’edam) 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.”

[1:13]  ³ tn Heb “you, also you.”

[1:13]  ⁴ tn Heb “in the day of his distress.” In this and the following phrase at the end of v. 13 the suffix is 3rd 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”).

[1:13]  ⁵ 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.

[1:13]  ⁶ tn See the note on the phrase “suffered distress” in the previous line.

[1:14]  ⁷ 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.”

[1:14]  ⁸ tn Heb “to cut off” (so KJV, NRSV); NASB, NIV “to cut down.”

[1:14]  ⁹ tn Heb “his fugitives”; NAB, CEV “refugees.”

[1:14]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “in the day of distress” (so KJV, ASV).

[1:17]  ¹¹ tn Heb “will be a fugitive.” This is a collective singular. Cf. NCV “some will escape the judgment.”

[1:17]  ¹² tn Heb “house” (so most English versions); NCV, TEV “the people of Jacob.” The word “house” also occurs four times in v. 18.

[1:17]  ¹³ tn Heb “dispossess.” This root is repeated in the following line to emphasize poetic justice: The punishment will fit the crime.

[1:17]  ¹⁴ tc The present translation follows the reading מוֹרִשֵׁיהֶם (morishehem; literally, “those dispossessing them”; cf. NAB, NRSV, CEV) rather than מוֹרָשֵׁיהֶם (morashehem, “their possessions”) of the MT (cf. LXX, Syriac, and Vg, followed by KJV, ASV, NASB).