Obaja 1:3

1:3 Your presumptuous heart ¹  has deceived you –

you who reside in the safety of the rocky cliffs, ² 

whose home is high in the mountains. ³ 

You think to yourself, ⁴ 

‘No one can ⁵  bring me down to the ground!’ ⁶ 

Obaja 1:7

1:7 All your allies ⁷  will force ⁸  you from your homeland! ⁹ 

Your treaty partners ¹⁰  will deceive you and overpower you.

Your trusted friends ¹¹  will set an ambush ¹²  for ¹³  you

that will take you by surprise! ¹⁴ 

[1:3]  ¹ tn Heb “the presumption of your heart”; NAB, NIV “the pride of your heart”; NASB “arrogance of your heart.”

[1:3]  ² tn Heb “in the concealed places of the rock”; KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV “in the clefts of the rock”; NCV “the hollow places of the cliff”; CEV “a mountain fortress.”

[1:3]  sn The word rock in Hebrew (סֶלַע, sela’) is a wordplay on Sela, the name of a prominent Edomite city. Its impregnability was a cause for arrogance on the part of its ancient inhabitants.

[1:3]  ³ tn Heb “on high (is) his dwelling”; NASB “in the loftiness of your dwelling place”; NRSV “whose dwelling (abode NAB) is in the heights.”

[1:3]  ⁴ tn Heb “the one who says in his heart.”

[1:3]  ⁵ tn The Hebrew imperfect verb used here is best understood in a modal sense (“Who can bring me down?”) rather than in the sense of a simple future (“Who will bring me down?”). So also in v. 4 (“I can bring you down”). The question is not so much whether this will happen at some time in the future, but whether it even lies in the realm of possible events. In their hubris the Edomites were boasting that no one had the capability of breaching their impregnable defenses. However, their pride caused them to fail to consider the vast capabilities of Yahweh as warrior.

[1:3]  ⁶ tn Heb “Who can bring me down?” This rhetorical question implies a negative answer: “No one!”

[1:7]  ⁷ tn Heb “All the men of your covenant”; KJV, ASV “the men of thy confederacy.” In Hebrew “they will send you unto the border” and “all the men of your covenant” appear in two separate poetic lines (cf. NAB “To the border they drive you – all your allies”). Since the second is a noun clause functioning as the subject of the first clause, the two are rendered as a single sentence in the translation.

[1:7]  ⁸ tn Heb “send”; NASB “send you forth”; NAB “drive”; NIV “force.”

[1:7]  ⁹ tn Heb “to the border” (so NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[1:7]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “the men of your peace.” This expression refers to a political/military alliance or covenant of friendship.

[1:7]  ¹¹ tn Heb “your bread,” which makes little sense in the context. The Hebrew word can be revocalized to read “those who eat bread with you,” i.e., “your friends.” Cf. KJV “they that eat thy bread”; NIV “those who eat your bread”; TEV “Those friends who ate with you.”

[1:7]  ¹² tn Heb “set a trap” (so NIV, NRSV). The meaning of the Hebrew word מָזוֹר (mazor; here translated “ambush”) is uncertain; it occurs nowhere else in the Hebrew Bible. The word probably refers to something “spread out” for purposes of entrapment, such as a net. Other possibilities include “trap,” “fetter,” or “stumbling block.”

[1:7]  ¹³ tn Heb “beneath” (so NAB).

[1:7]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “there is no understanding in him.”