Obadiah 1:13 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Obadiah 1:13
Thou shouldest not have entered into the gate of my people in the day of their calamity; yea, thou shouldest not have looked on their affliction in the day of their calamity, nor have laid hands on their substance in the day of their calamity;
to go or come (in a wide variety of applications) · verb, qal jussive, 2nd person masculine singular
gate
בְשַֽׁעַרve.sha.'ar-
H8179
an opening · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct
people
עַמִּי֙'a.Mi
H5971
a people (as a congregated unit) · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix
day
בְּי֣וֹםbe.Yom
H3117
a day (as the warm hours) · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct
calamity
אֵידָ֔ם'ei.Dam
H343
oppression · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine plural
looked
תֵּ֧רֶאTe.re'
H7200
to see · verb, qal jussive, 2nd person masculine singular
affliction
בְּרָעָת֖וֹbe.ra.'a.To
H7451
bad or (as noun) evil (natural or moral) · preposition + noun, common feminine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
day
בְּי֣וֹםbe.Yom
H3117
a day (as the warm hours) · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct
calamity
אֵיד֑וֹ'ei.Do
H343
oppression · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
laid
תִּשְׁלַ֥חְנָהtish.Lach.nah
H7971
to send away · verb, qal jussive, 2nd person feminine plural
substance
בְחֵיל֖וֹve.chei.Lo
H2428
probably a force · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
day
בְּי֥וֹםbe.Yom
H3117
a day (as the warm hours) · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct
calamity
אֵידֽוֹ'ei.Do
H343
oppression · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Ezekiel 35:5 Because thou hast had a perpetual hatred, and hast shed the blood of the children of Israel by the force of the sword in the time of their c…
Zechariah 1:15 And I am very sore displeased with the heathen that are at ease: for I was but a little displeased, and they helped forward the affliction.
2 Samuel 16:12 It may be that the LORD will look on mine affliction, and that the LORD will requite me good for his cursing this day.
Psalms 22:17 I may tell all my bones: they look and stare upon me.
Ezekiel 35:10 Because thou hast said, These two nations and these two countries shall be mine, and we will possess it; whereas the LORD was there:
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Obadiah 1:10-16
When we have read Edom's doom, no less than utter ruin, it is natural to ask, Why, what evil has he done? What is the ground of God's controversy with him? Many things, no doubt, were amiss in Edom; they were a sinful people, and a people laden with iniquity. But that one single crime which is laid to their charge, as filling their measure and bringing this ruin upon them, that for which they here stand indicted, of which they are convicted, and for which they are condemned, is the injury they had done to the people of God (Oba 1:10): "It is for thy violence against thy brother Jacob, that ancient and hereditary grudge which thou hast borne to the people of Israel, that all this shame shall…
Thou shouldest not have looked - It shows a malevolent heart to rejoice in the miseries of those who have acted unkindly or wickedly towards us. The Edomites triumphed when they saw the judgments of God fall upon the Jews. This the Lord severely reprehends in Oba 1:12-15. If a man have acted cruelly towards us, and God punish him for this cruelty, and we rejoice in it, we make his crime our own; and then, as we have done, so shall it be done unto us; see Oba 1:15. All these verses point out the part the Edomites took against the Jews when the Chaldeans besieged and took Jerusalem, destroyed the temple, and divided the spoils.
John Gill on Obadiah 1:13
Thou shouldest not have entered into the gate of my people in the day of their calamity,.... Or gates, as the Targum; the gates of any of their cities, and particularly those of Jerusalem; into which the Edomites entered along with the Chaldeans, exulting over the Jews, and insulting them, and joining with the enemy in distressing and plundering them:
yea, thou shouldest not have looked on their affliction in the day of their calamity: which is repeated, as being exceeding cruel and inhuman, and what was highly resented by the Lord; that, instead of looking upon the affliction of his people and their brethren with an eye of pity and compassion, they looked upon it with the utmost pleasure a…
The Church Fathers
(Verse 13, 14.) And you shall not despise them in their adversities on the day of their destruction, and you shall not send forth your army against them on the day of their destruction. And you shall not stand at the exits to kill those who flee, and you shall not capture the survivors on the day of their distress. LXX: And you shall not despise even their assembly on the day of their ruin, and you shall not put your strength against them on the day of their ruin. And you shall not stand at their retreats to kill those who have been saved from them, and you shall not capture their fugitives on the day of their trouble. When you yourself have been captured and destroyed by the Babylonian, among the other things that you have done, do not do the following: Do not despise or scorn your brother Jacob on the day of his devastation; do not join the army of the Babylonians or fail to send against the army of Judah when it has been defeated by the enemy and turns its back. And when they start fleeing along their familiar paths, detours, and roads leading to the wilderness, do not stand at the crossroads or wait for them at the intersections to kill those who have been set free and to release the others who have been captured; and either you yourself will be captured or you will keep watch over the captives of the enemy. We have said these things according to history: for we must briefly grasp the clearer things, and proceed to those which are obscure. Who despises the ecclesiastics of heretics? Who does not rejoice in their misfortunes, if at any time they are handed over to persecution due to the sins of the people, and many, either weak in faith or sown on stony ground, fall into denial? You may see them rejoicing, finding pleasure, considering our downfall as their own victory: to such an extent that they join with the nations, and a more furious persecution arises, either from the Jews or from those who pretend to be our brothers and are considered by the same name. And when someone, whether by flight or by repentance, has escaped, they stand in the byways and propose sophisms and testimonies, as if they were presenting them from the Scriptures: so that, worn out and exhausted, they offer stitched pillows and place them under every elbow. And thus it happens that those who perhaps have overcome persecution either by strength or by fear, deceived by false…
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Edom · .Sins of — .Sins of
Edomites · Join Babylon in war against the Israelites — Join Babylon in war against the Israelites
Esau · Hostility of — Hostility of
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Obadiah 12-14
12. But thou shouldest not have looked on the day of thy brother in the day that he became a stranger; neither shouldest thou have rejoiced over the children of Judah in the day of their destruction; neither shouldest thou have spoken proudly in the day of distress.
12. Et non aspicias in die fratris tui, in die alientationis ejus, et ne gaudeas super filiis Jehudah die exitii corum, et ne magnifices os tuum in die afflictionis (hoc est, ne magnifice loquaris.)
13. Thou shouldest not have entered into the gate of my people in the day of their calamity; yea, thou shouldest not have looked on their affliction in the day of their calamity, nor have laid hands on their substanc…
"And look not at the day of thy brother on the day of his misfortune; and rejoice not over the sons of Judah in the day of their perishing, and do not enlarge thy mouth in the day of the distress. Oba 1:13. Come not into the gate of my people in the day of their calamity; thou also look not at his misfortune in the day of his calamity, and stretch not out thy hand to his possession in the day of his calamity: Oba 1:14. Nor stand in the cross-road, to destroy his fugitives, nor deliver up his escaped ones in the day of distress." This warning cannot be satisfactorily explained either "on the assumption that the prophet is here foretelling the future destruction of Judah and Jerusalem" (Caspar…
All societies are held accountable for sins such as those of Edom (see, e.g., the oracles against Israel’s neighbors in Amos 1:3–2:3). Among the sins that the Edomites committed against Judah were sharing with the Babylonians in plundering the land (Obad 1:13) and either killing or repatriating Judah’s fugitives (1:14).
1:12 The tribes of Israel were Edom’s relatives (literally brother; cp. Num 20:14). • Edom and other local nations had apparently deceived themselves into thinking that rapprochement with Nebuchadnezzar in 586 BC would bring them respite. Their time of judgment would come.
Rashi on Obadiah 1:13
and you should not have stretched out upon their possessions—You should not have stretched out your hand upon their possessions. So did Jonathan render. And this is an ellipsis, to which we must add: “your hands.”
