Obaja 1:8

1:8 At that time,” ¹  the Lord says,

“I will destroy the wise sages of Edom! ² 

the advisers ³  from Esau’s mountain! ⁴ 

Obaja 1:13

1:13 You should not have entered the city ⁵  of my people when they experienced distress. ⁶ 

You should not have joined ⁷  in gloating over their misfortune when they suffered distress. ⁸ 

You should not have looted ⁹  their wealth when they endured distress. ¹⁰ 

[1:8]  ¹ tn Heb “in that day” (so KJV, NIV); NAB, NASB, NRSV “on that day.”

[1:8]  ² tn Heb “Will I not destroy those who are wise from Edom?” The rhetorical question functions as an emphatic affirmation. For the sake of clarity this has been represented by the emphatic indicative in the translation.

[1:8]  ³ tn Heb “understanding”; NIV “men of understanding.” This undoubtedly refers to members of the royal court who offered political and military advice to the Edomite kings. In the ancient Near East, such men of wisdom were often associated with divination and occultic practices (cf. Isa 3:3, 47:10, 13). The Edomites were also renown in the ancient Near East as a center of traditional sagacity and wisdom; perhaps that is referred to here (cf. Jer 49:7).

[1:8]  ⁴ tn Heb “and understanding from the mountain of Esau.” The phrase “I will remove the men of…” does not appear in the Hebrew but is supplied in the translation for the sake of clarity and smoothness. Here “understanding” is a synecdoche of part for whole; the faculty of understanding is put for the wise men who possess it.

[1:13]  ⁵ tn Heb “the gate.” The term “gate” here functions as a synecdoche for the city as a whole, which the Edomites plundered.

[1:13]  ⁶ 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]  ⁷ tn Heb “you, also you.”

[1:13]  ⁸ 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]  ⁹ 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]  ¹⁰ tn See the note on the phrase “suffered distress” in the previous line.