< Obadiah 1 >
1 Thus said Lord YHWH to Edom (We have heard a report from YHWH, And an ambassador among nations was sent, “Rise, indeed, let us rise against her for battle”):
The vision of Obdias. Thus says the Lord God to Idumea; I have heard a report from the Lord, and he has sent forth a message to the nations.
2 “Behold, I have made you little among nations, You [are] despised exceedingly.
Arise you, and let us rise up against her to war.
3 The pride of your heart has lifted you up, O dweller in clefts of a rock (A high place [is] his habitation, He is saying in his heart: Who brings me down [to] earth?)
Behold, I have made you small among the Gentiles: you are greatly dishonored. The pride of your heart has elated you, dwelling [as you do] in the holes of the rocks, [as one that] exalts his habitation, saying in his heart, Who will bring me down to the ground?
4 If you go up high as an eagle, And if you set your nest between stars, From there I bring you down,” A declaration of YHWH.
If you should mount up as the eagle, and if you should make your nest among the stars, thence will I bring you down, says the Lord.
5 “If thieves have come in to you, If spoilers of the night, How have you been cut off! Do they not steal their sufficiency? If gatherers have come in to you, Do they not leave gleanings?
If thieves came in to you, or robbers by night, where would you have been cast away? would they not have stolen [just] enough for themselves? and if grape gatherers went in to you, would they not leave a gleaning?
6 How has Esau been searched out! His hidden things have flowed out,
How has Esau been searched out, and [how] have his hidden things been detected?
7 All your allies have sent you to the border, Forgotten you, prevailed over you, have your friends, They make your bread a snare under you, There is no understanding in him!
They sent you to your coasts: all the men of your covenant have withstood you; your allies have prevailed against you, they have set snares under you: they have no understanding.
8 Is it not in that day,” a declaration of YHWH, “That I have destroyed the wise out of Edom, And understanding out of the mountain of Esau?
In that day, says the Lord, I will destroy the wise men out of Idumea, and understanding out of the mount of Esau.
9 And your mighty ones have been broken down, O Teman, So that everyone of the mountain of Esau is cut off.
And your warriors from Thaeman shall be dismayed, to the end that man may be cut off from the mount of Esau.
10 For slaughter, for violence [to] your brother Jacob, Shame covers you, And you have been cut off for all time.
Because of the slaughter and the sin [committed against] your brother Jacob, shame shall cover you, and you shall be cut off for ever.
11 In the day of your standing aloof from the opposite [side], In the day of strangers taking his force captive, And foreigners have entered his gates, And have cast a lot for Jerusalem, Even you [are] as one of them!
From the day that you stood in opposition [to him], in the days when foreigners were taking captive his forces, and strangers entered into his gates, and cast lots on Jerusalem, you also was as one of them.
12 And—you do not look on the day of your brother, On the day of his alienation, Nor do you rejoice over sons of Judah, In the day of their destruction, Nor make your mouth great in a day of distress.
And you should not have looked on the day of your brother in the day of strangers; nor should you have rejoiced against the children of Juda in the day of their destruction; neither should you have boasted in the day of [their] affliction.
13 Nor come into a gate of My people in a day of their calamity, Nor look, even you, on its misfortune in a day of its calamity, Nor send forth against its force in a day of its calamity,
Neither should you have gone into the gates of the people in the day of their troubles; nor yet should you have looked upon their gathering in the day of their destruction, nor should you have attacked their host in the day of their perishing.
14 Nor stand by the breach to cut off its escaped, Nor deliver up its remnant in a day of distress.
Neither should you have stood at the opening of their passages, to destroy utterly those of them that were escaping; neither should you have shut up his fugitives in the day of affliction.
15 For near [is] the Day of YHWH, on all the nations, As you have done, it is done to you, Your deed turns back on your own head.
For the day of the Lord is near upon all the Gentiles: as you have done, so shall it be [done] to you: your recompense shall be returned on your [own] head.
16 For—as you have drunk on My holy mountain, All the nations drink continually, And they have drunk and have swallowed, And they have been as [if] they have not been.
For as you have drunk upon my holy mountain, [so] shall all the nations drink wine; they shall drink, and go down, and be as if they were not.
17 And in Mount Zion there is an escape, And it has been holy, And the house of Jacob has possessed their possessions.
But on mount Sion there shall be deliverance, and there shall be a sanctuary; and the house of Jacob shall take for an inheritance those that took them for an inheritance.
18 And the house of Jacob has been a fire, And the house of Joseph a flame, And the house of Esau for stubble, And they have burned among them, And they have consumed them, And there is not a remnant to the house of Esau,” For YHWH has spoken.
And the house of Jacob shall be fire, and the house of Joseph a flame, and the house of Esau [shall be] for stubble; and [Israel] shall flame forth against them, and shall devour them, and there shall not be a corn-field [left] to the house of Esau; because the Lord has spoken.
19 And they have possessed the south with the mountain of Esau, And the low country with the Philistines, And they have possessed the field of Ephraim, And the field of Samaria, And Benjamin with Gilead.
And they [that dwell] in the south shall inherit the mount of Esau, and they in the plain the Philistines: and they shall inherit the mount of Ephraim, and the plain of Samaria, and Benjamin, and the land of Galaad.
20 And the expulsion of this force of the sons of Israel, That [is with] the Canaanites to Zarephat, And the expulsion of Jerusalem that [is] with the Sepharad, Possess the cities of the south.
And this [shall be] the domain of the captivity of the children of Israel, the land of the Chananites as far as Sarepta; and the captives of Jerusalem [shall inherit] as far as Ephratha; they shall inherit the cities of the south.
21 And saviors have gone up on Mount Zion, To judge the mountain of Esau, And the kingdom has been to YHWH!
And they that escape shall come up from mount Sion, to take vengeance on the mount of Esau; and the kingdom shall be the Lord's.