unfoldingWord® Translation Questions
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| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| The vision of Obadiah: thus says my Lord Yahweh concerning Edom. We have heard a message from Yahweh, and a messenger has been sent off among the nations: Get up! And let us rise up against her for battle! | This is a message that Yahweh our God gave to {me,} Obadiah, about the people of Edom. Yahweh our God has said this to us: “I have sent a messenger to other nations, telling them to prepare to go and attack Edom.” |
Yahweh sent an ambassador among the nations to cause the nations to rise up for battle against Edom.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| Behold, I am making you small among the nations, you are extremely despised. | {Now Yahweh says this to the people of Edom:} “Listen to me—I will soon cause you to become the weakest and most despised nation {on the earth}. |
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| The pride of your heart has deceived you: he who dwells in the clefts of the rock, lofty in his dwelling; he who says in his heart, “Who will bring me down to earth?” | Your capital city is high in the rocky cliffs, and you are very proud. You think that you are safe there—that no army can conquer you. But you have deceived yourselves. |
The Edomites had pride in their hearts and believed that they could not be brought down to the ground.
| ULT | UST |
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| If you make yourself high like the eagle, even if your nest is set between the stars, from there I will bring you down: a declaration of Yahweh. | Even if you could live where eagles live or even higher than that, among the stars, you would still not be safe there from the attackers that I am sending to you. I, Yahweh, declare this {to you}. |
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| If thieves came to you, and plunderers by night (how you are being destroyed!), would they not steal enough for them? If grape-cutters came to you, would they not leave behind gleanings? | When thieves break into someone’s house during the night and rob them, they certainly steal only the things that they want. And people who pick grapes always leave a few grapes on the vines. But{, unlike them,} attackers will destroy your country completely! |
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| How Esau is being ransacked, his hidden treasures being searched out! | Descendants of Esau, these attackers will completely take away everything that you own. They will even find {and take away} the valuable things that you have hidden. |
| ULT | UST |
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| All the men of your covenant are sending you away as far as the border. The men of your peace are deceiving you and are prevailing against you. They of your bread will set a trap under you. There is no understanding in him. | All your allies will turn against you, and they will force you to leave your country. Those with whom you have peace now will trick you and defeat you. Those who eat meals with you now are planning to trap you. You people of Edom do not understand any of this. |
The men who had an alliance of peace with Edom will deceive and prevail against Edom.
| ULT | UST |
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| Will I not on that day (a declaration of Yahweh) destroy wise men from Edom, and understanding from the mountain of Esau? | I, Yahweh, declare that at that time, I will certainly destroy {even} Edom’s {famous} wise men. No one living in those cliffs will know what to do any more. |
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| And your mighty men will be dismayed, O Teman, so that a man will be cut off from the mountain of Esau by slaughter. | The soldiers in the army of Edom will become terrified. Then when your army stops fighting, the attackers will completely destroy all you people who live in the land of Edom.” |
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| Because of violence against your brother Jacob, shame will cover you, and you will be cut off for eternity. | “{All of this will happen because} you acted cruelly to your relatives who are descendants of Jacob{, the twin brother of your ancestor Esau}. So now everyone will be ashamed of you, and the attackers will destroy you forever. |
Edom will be covered with shame and cut off forever because of the violence Edom did to his brother Jacob.
| ULT | UST |
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| On the day that you stood opposite, on the day that strangers took captive his wealth, and foreigners entered his gates and cast lots for Jerusalem, you also were like one of them. | At the time when strangers carried away the Israelite’s wealth, you did nothing to help them. Foreigners conquered all the cities of Judah, and they even took whatever they wanted from Jerusalem. And you were just as bad as those foreigners{, because you did nothing to help}. |
On that day, strangers entered the gates of Jacob and took captive its wealth.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| But you should not have looked on the day of your brother, on the day of his misfortune. And you should not have rejoiced over the sons of Judah in the day of their perishing. And you should not have made your mouth great in a day of distress. | You should not have gloated about the disaster that the Israelites were experiencing. You should not have been happy when their towns were ruined. You should not have made fun of them when they were suffering. |
Yahweh said that Edom should not have looked, rejoiced, or made their mouth great.
| ULT | UST |
|---|---|
| You should not have entered the gate of my people in the day of their calamity. You should not have looked—yes, you!—on his evil in the day of his calamity. And you women should not have looted his wealth in the day of his calamity. | They are my people, so you should not have entered their city gates when they were experiencing this terrible disaster. Yes, you! You should not have enjoyed watching them suffer. You women should not have taken away their valuable possessions. |
Yahweh said that Edom should not have entered Judah’s gates, rejoiced, or looted Judah’s wealth in the day of Judah’s calamity.
| ULT | UST |
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| And you should not have stood at the crossroads to cut down his fugitives. And you should not have delivered up his survivors in a day of distress. | You should not have stood at the crossroads to kill some of the Israelites who were trying to escape. You should not have captured others of them who had survived {and turned them over to their enemies} when they were experiencing those disasters.” |
| ULT | UST |
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| For the day of Yahweh is near upon all the nations. According to what you have done, it will be done to you; your recompense will return on your own head. | “{You should have helped the Israelites,} because the time is coming soon when I, Yahweh, will judge and punish all the nations. I will do the same things to you {people of Edom} that you did to others. The same {evil} things that you did to others will happen to you. |
Yahweh said that Edom’s recompense would return on Edom’s head.
| ULT | UST |
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| For according to how you drank on the mountain of my holiness, all the nations shall drink continually. And they will drink, and they will swallow, and they will become like they never existed. | {The people of Edom should not have done these evil things to you, people of Israel,} because in the way that you suffered in Jerusalem, the hill where my holy temple is, in that same way I will continue to punish all the other nations. I will punish them severely and make them disappear completely. |
| ULT | UST |
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| But in the mountain of Zion there will be an escape, and there will be holiness, and the house of Jacob will possess their own possessions. | But some people in Jerusalem will survive, and Jerusalem will become a holy place. Then the Israelites will once again occupy the land that belongs to them. |
Some in Mount Zion would be able to escape despite the distress of Judah.
| ULT | UST |
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| And the house of Jacob will become a fire, and the house of Joseph a flame, and the house of Esau as stubble. And they will burn them, and consume them. And there will be no survivor for the house of Esau, for Yahweh has spoken. | The people of Israel will be like a fire, and the people of Edom will be like dry grass. They will destroy the people of Edom, just as fire completely burns up dry grass. None of the descendants of Edom will survive. This will certainly happen because I, Yahweh, have said it will happen.” |
There would be no survivors in Edom after Yahweh’s judgment.
| ULT | UST |
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| And the Negev will possess the mountain of Esau, and the Shephelah, the Philistines. And they will possess the field of Ephraim and the field of Samaria, and Benjamin, Gilead. | The Israelites who live in the southern wilderness of Judea will capture the land of Edom. The Israelites who live in the western foothills will capture the region of Phoenicia. The Israelites will also capture the areas that belonged to {the tribe of} Ephraim and that surrounded {the city of} Samaria {to the north}. The people of the tribe of Benjamin will capture the region east of the Jordan River. |
Those from the Negev would then possess the mount of Esau.
| ULT | UST |
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| And the exile of this army of the sons of Israel, who are Canaanites, as far as Zarephath, and the exile of Jerusalem, who are in Sepharad: they will possess the cities of the Negev. | A great number of the people from {the kingdom of} Israel were captured and taken away from their homes. They lived in the land of Canaan. {But they will return, and} they will capture and occupy that land as far {north} as Zarephath. Many of the people were captured and taken away from Jerusalem. They now live in Sepharad. They will {return and} occupy the cities in the southern wilderness of Judea. |
| ULT | UST |
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| And saviors will go up to the mountain of Zion to judge the mountain of Esau, and the kingdom will belong to Yahweh. | {After} Israel’s military leaders {conquer the land of Edom, they} will {then} rule over Edom from high up in Jerusalem. And Yahweh will be their king. |
The mountain of Esau would then be judged from Mount Zion.