"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. Obadiah 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: Obadiah 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" (Caspari), or "on the supposition that he is merely depicting an event that has already past" (Hitzig). If the taking and plundering of Jerusalem were an accomplished fact, whether in idea or in reality, as it is shown to be by the perfects בּאוּ and ידּוּ in Obadiah 1:11, Obadiah could not in that case warn the Edomites against rejoicing over it, or even taking part therein. Hence Drusius, Rosenmller, and others, take the verbs in Obadiah 1:12-14 as futures of the past: "Thou shouldest not have seen, shouldest not have rejoiced," etc. But this is opposed to the grammar. אל followed by the so-called fut. apoc. is jussive, and cannot stand for the pluperf. conjunct. And Maurer's suggestion is just as untenable, namely, that yōm in Obadiah 1:11 denotes the day of the capture of Jerusalem, and in Obadiah 1:12, Obadiah 1:13 the period after this day; since the identity of יום עמדך (the day of thy standing) in Obadiah 1:11 with יום אחיך in Obadiah 1:12 strikes the eye at once. The warning in Obadiah 1:12-14 is only intelligible on the supposition, that Obadiah has not any particular conquest and plundering of Jerusalem in his mind, whether a future one or one that has already occurred, but regards this as an event that not only has already taken place, but will take place again: that is to say, on the assumption that he rises from the particular historical event to the idea which it embodied, and that, starting from this, he sees in the existing case all subsequent cases of a similar kind. From this ideal standpoint he could warn Edom of what it had already done, and designate the disastrous day which had come upon Judah and Jerusalem by different expressions as a day of the greatest calamity; for what Edom had done, and what had befallen Judah, were types of the future development of the fate of Judah and of the attitude of Edom towards it, which go on fulfilling themselves more and more until the day of the Lord upon all nations, upon the near approach of which Obadiah founds his warning in Obadiah 1:15. The warning proceeds in Obadiah 1:12-14 from the general to the particular, or from the lower to the higher. Obadiah warns the Edomites, as Hitzig says, "not to rejoice in Judah's troubles (Obadiah 1:12), nor to make common cause with the conquerors (Obadiah 1:13), nor to outdo and complete the work of the enemy (Obadiah 1:14)." By the cop. Vav, which stands at the head of all the three clauses in Obadiah 1:12, the warning addressed to the Edomites, against such conduct as this, is linked on to what they had already done.

The three clauses of Obadiah 1:12 contain a warning in a graduated form against malicious pleasure. ראה with ב, to look at anything with pleasure, to take delight in it, affirms less than שׂמח ב, to rejoice, to proclaim one's joy without reserve. הגדּיל פּה, to make the mouth large, is stronger still, like הגדּיל בּפה, to boast, to do great things with the mouth, equivalent to הרחיב פּה על, to make the mouth broad, to stretch it open, over (against) a person (Psalm 35:21; Isaiah 57:4), a gesture indicating contempt and derision. The object of their malicious pleasure mentioned in the first clause is yōm 'âchı̄khâ, the day of thy brother, i.e., the day upon which something strange happened to him, namely, what is mentioned in Obadiah 1:11. Yōm does not of itself signify the disastrous day, or day of ruin, either here or anywhere else; but it always receives the more precise definition from the context. If we were to adopt the rendering "disastrous day," it would give rise to a pure tautology when taken in connection with what follows. The expression 'âchı̄khâ (of thy brother) justifies the warning. בּיום נכרו is not in apposition to בּיום אחיך, but, according to the parallelism of the clauses, it is a statement of time. נכר, ἁπ. λεγ. equals נכר (Job 31:3), fortuna aliena, a strange, i.e., hostile fate, not "rejection" (Hitzig, Caspari, and others). The expression יום אבדם, the day of their (Judah's sons) perishing, is stronger still; although the perishing ('ăbhōd) of the sons of Judah cannot denote the destruction of the whole nation, since the following word tsrh, calamity, is much too weak to admit of this. Even the word איד, which occurs three times in Obadiah 1:13, does not signify destruction, but (from the root אוּד, to fall heavily, to load) simply pressure, a burden, then weight of suffering, distress, misfortune (see Delitzsch on Job 18:12). In Obadiah 1:13 Obadiah warns against taking part in the plundering of Jerusalem. The gate of my people: for the city in which the people dwell, the capital (see Micah 1:9). Look not thou also, a brother nation, upon his calamity, as enemies do, i.e., do not delight thyself thereat, nor snatch at his possessions. The form tishlachnâh, for which we should expect tishlach, is not yet satisfactorily explained (for the different attempts that have been made to explain it, see Caspari). The passages in which nâh is appended to the third pers. fem. sing., to distinguish it from the second person, do not help us to explain it. Ewald and Olshausen would therefore alter the text, and read תּשׁלח יד. But יד is not absolutely necessary, since it is omitted in 2 Samuel 6:6; 2 Samuel 22:17, or Psalm 18:17, where shâlach occurs in the sense of stretching out the hand. חילו, his possessions. On the fact itself, compare Joel 3:5. The prominence given to the day of misfortune at the end of every sentence is very emphatic; "inasmuch as the selection of the time of a brother's calamity, as that in which to rage against him with such cunning and malicious pleasure, was doubly culpable" (Ewald). In Obadiah 1:14 the warning proceeds to the worst crime of all, their seizing upon the Judaean fugitives, for the purpose of murdering them or delivering them up to the enemy. Pereq signifies here the place where the roads break or divide, the cross-road. In Nahum 3:1, the only other place in which it occurs, it signifies tearing in pieces, violence. Hisgı̄r, to deliver up (lit., concludendum tradidit), is generally construed with אל (Deuteronomy 23:16) or בּיד (Psalm 31:9; 1 Samuel 23:11). Here it is written absolutely with the same meaning: not "to apprehend, or so overpower that there is no escape left" (Hitzig). This would affirm too little after the preceding הכרית, and cannot be demonstrated from Job 11:10, where hisgı̄r means to keep in custody.

Micah 7:9 Parallel Commentaries

bear.

Leviticus 26:41 And that I also have walked contrary to them, and have brought them into the land of their enemies...

1 Samuel 3:18 And Samuel told him every whit, and hid nothing from him. And he said, It is the LORD: let him do what seems him good.

2 Samuel 16:11,12 And David said to Abishai, and to all his servants, Behold, my son, which came forth of my bowels, seeks my life...

2 Samuel 24:17 And David spoke to the LORD when he saw the angel that smote the people, and said, See, I have sinned, and I have done wickedly...

Job 34:31,32 Surely it is meet to be said to God, I have borne chastisement, I will not offend any more...

Lamentations 1:18 The LORD is righteous; for I have rebelled against his commandment: hear, I pray you, all people, and behold my sorrow...

Lamentations 3:39-42 Why does a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins...

Luke 15:18,19 I will arise and go to my father, and will say to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before you...

Hebrews 12:6,7 For whom the Lord loves he chastens, and whips every son whom he receives...

until.

1 Samuel 24:15 The LORD therefore be judge, and judge between me and you, and see, and plead my cause, and deliver me out of your hand.

1 Samuel 25:39 And when David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, Blessed be the LORD, that has pleaded the cause of my reproach from the hand of Nabal...

1 Samuel 26:10 David said furthermore, As the LORD lives, the LORD shall smite him; or his day shall come to die; or he shall descend into battle...

Psalm 7:6 Arise, O LORD, in your anger, lift up yourself because of the rage of my enemies...

Psalm 43:1 Judge me, O God, and plead my cause against an ungodly nation: O deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man.

Jeremiah 50:17-20,33,34 Israel is a scattered sheep; the lions have driven him away: first the king of Assyria has devoured him...

Jeremiah 51:35,36 The violence done to me and to my flesh be on Babylon, shall the inhabitant of Zion say; and my blood on the inhabitants of Chaldea...

Revelation 6:10,11 And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true...

Revelation 18:20 Rejoice over her, you heaven, and you holy apostles and prophets; for God has avenged you on her.

he will.

Job 23:10 But he knows the way that I take: when he has tried me, I shall come forth as gold.

Psalm 37:6 And he shall bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your judgment as the noonday.

Malachi 3:18 Then shall you return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serves God and him that serves him not.

1 Corinthians 4:5 Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness...

2 Thessalonians 1:5-10 Which is a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God...

2 Timothy 4:8 From now on there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day...