1 The vision of Obadiah. Thus said the Lord GOD {YHWH Adonai, Judging Sovereign} concerning Edom: We have heard a report {shemuah: covenant warning} from the LORD, and an envoy has been sent among the nations: “Rise, and let us rise against her for battle.”
2 Look, I {YHWH, Humbling Judge} have made you small {qaton: lowered rank} among the nations; you are very despised.
3 Your heart’s pride {zedon: arrogant presumption} has misled {hishi’ekha: made you stray} you, O dweller in the clefts of the rock, the height of whose dwelling is on high, saying in his heart, “Who will bring me down to the ground?”
4 Even if you lift yourself up high {tagbiah: proud ascent} like an eagle, and even if you set your nest among the stars, from there I will bring you down, declares the LORD {YHWH, Humbling King}.
5 If thieves came upon you, if night raiders arrived—how you have been undone {nidmeita: brought to ruin}!—would they not take only what satisfied them {dayyam: enough for them}? If grape-harvesters came to you, would they not leave gleanings?
6 How Esau {Esav: forebear of Edom} has been searched out, how his hidden things {matspunav: secret treasures} have been uncovered!
7 Up to the border, all the men of your covenant {berit: treaty bond} have sent you; the men of your peace have deceived you and prevailed against you. Those who eat your bread have set a snare {mazor: concealed ambush} under you; there is no understanding in you.
8 “Is it not on that day,” declares the LORD {YHWH, Sentence-Giver}, “that I will wipe out the wise men {khakhamim: court sages} from Edom, and understanding from the mountain of Esau?”
9 And your mighty men{gibborekha: elite troops}, Teman, will be shattered with fear, so that every man from the mountain of Esau may be cut off by slaughter{miqqatel: mass killing}.
10 On account of the violence {hamas: ruthless harm} toward your brother Jacob, shame will cover you, and you will be cut off {nikhrata: lasting exclusion} for ever.
11 On the day of your standing {amadkha: steadfast presence} aloof, on the day that strangers {zarim: nonnative marauders} took captive his strength and foreigners entered his gates and cast lots for Jerusalem, you also were like one of them.
12 And do not look on the day of your brother {achikha: close kinship tie} in the day of his estrangement, and do not rejoice over the sons of Judah in the day of their destruction {avdam: utter ruin}, and do not boast with your mouth in the day of distress.
13 Do not enter the gate of my people {ammi: covenant community} in the day of their calamity; do not even gaze at his misfortune in the day of his calamity; and do not lay hands on his wealth {kheil: strength or resources} in the day of his calamity.
14 And do not stand at the crossroad {perek: ambush site} to cut off his fugitives; and do not deliver up his survivors in the day of distress {tsarah: time of crisis}.
15 For the day of the LORD {YHWH, Righteous Avenger} is near against all nations. What you have done will be done back to you; your recompense {gemulcha: deserved outcome} will come back on your head.
16 For just as you drank on My {YHWH, Sovereign Judge} holy {qodshi: consecrated place} mountain, so all the nations will drink continually; they will drink, gulp it down, and become as if they had never existed.
17 But on Mount Zion there will be deliverance {peletah: rescue}, and it will be holy {kodesh: sacred status}; and the house of Jacob shall possess their inheritances.
18 The house of Jacob will become a fire, and the house of Joseph a flame {lehabah: fierce burning}, but the house of Esau will be stubble. They will blaze among them and devour them, and there will be no survivor for the house of Esau, because the LORD {YHWH, Righteous Judge} has spoken.
19 Those in the Negev {hannegev: southern desert} will take the mountain of Esau, and those in the Shephelah {hashefela: western foothills} will take the land of the Philistines; they will also take the field of Ephraim and the field of Samaria, and Benjamin will take Gilead.
20 The exiles of this host {hakhel-hazeh: exile contingent} of the sons of Israel will possess the land of the Canaanites as far as Zarephath, and the exiles of Jerusalem who are in Sepharad {sfarad: far-off region} will possess the cities of the Negev.
21 And deliverers {moshiim: appointed liberators} will go up on Mount Zion to judge the mountain of Esau, and the kingship will belong to the LORD {YHWH, Reigning King}.