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Obadiah 1:10–14, King James Version
Italic words were supplied in the English translation for clarity.
Obadiah 1:10–14
Violence against Brother Jacob Is Exposed
The charge is violence against a brother
For thy violence against thy brother Jacob shame shall cover thee, and thou shalt be cut off for ever. This is the book's moral center. Edom is not a generic villain and not a modern ethnicity to hate. The wrong is predatory harm to kin: Esau's people against Jacob's people, Judah's southeastern neighbor against Judah in catastrophe.
In the day that thou stoodest on the other side, in the day that the strangers carried away captive his forces, and foreigners entered into his gates, and cast lots upon Jerusalem, even thou wast as one of them. Jerusalem is invaded, goods or forces are taken, lots are cast. Edom stands apart and is counted with the attackers. The scene fits a Jerusalem disaster; many readers think of 586 BCE, while the oracle itself names neither king nor year. Claimed neutrality here is already participation.
Looking becomes gloating, then taking, then trapping survivors
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. The repeated 'thou shouldest not' can sound like a command spoken into the remembered day or like a later indictment. Either way the conduct is condemned: the gaze, the joy, the proud mouth over Judah's distress.
Thou shouldest not have entered into the gate of my people in the day of their calamity, nor have laid hands on their substance; neither shouldest thou have stood in the crossway, to cut off those of his that did escape; neither shouldest thou have delivered up those of his that did remain in the day of distress. The verbs climb: enter, seize, occupy the road, cut off fugitives, hand over those who still remain. 'Crossway' is a rare word; intercepting escape is not rare in the sentence. This is not a license to retaliate against anyone assigned Edom's role, and it is not a warrant to invert the charge against Jacob, Judah, or Jews.
How this should shape us
Refuse the whole ladder: do not watch a brother's collapse as entertainment, do not profit from it, do not block the road out, and do not hand survivors to those who would harm them. Protect people in calamity. Do not use Jacob and Esau as codes for present nations, and do not answer this violence with a new hunt for a people to cut off.
Teach it back
Explain Obadiah 1:10–14 in your own words. Include the Edom-Judah setting, the unit's movement, one material uncertainty, and one conclusion the context rules out.
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Go deeper
The explanation above is meant to stand on its own. Open these notes only if you want language, history, disagreements, or source locations.
Where careful interpreters disagreeThe strongest options and their difficulties
Where do careful interpreters disagree?
Best judgment: The clauses in verses 12–14 are grammatically negated jussives. They can sound like commands addressed into the narrated event or like a rhetorical 'you should not have' indictment after it. The KJV chooses the latter effect. Historical dating and several rare words remain disputed, but the sequence of condemned actions is unusually specific.
How certain? probableResearch trail and exact locationsThe source record behind this section
Supports: Exact reader-facing Scripture wording and complete verse coverage for this thought unit.
Obadiah 1:10–14, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus
Supports: Hebrew forms, clause boundaries, repeated roots, names, and the base wording behind translation discussion.
Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2 (commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00), wlc/Obad.xml, Masoretic words and morphology for 1:10–14
Supports: Material translation, syntax, text, date, geography, and uncertainty notes for the unit.
NET Bible Obadiah PDF, pp. 1723–1727, translation and notes on 1:10–14
Supports: Edom's brother relationship, first historical horizon, and explicitly disputed readings within the preview.
Dicou, Edom, Israel's Brother and Antagonist, preview pp. 13–23, especially annotated translation of 1:10–14
Supports: Addressee, speech roles, betrayal, Zion, possession, restoration, and responsible reader participation.
Toffelmire, 'Sitz im What?', pp. 231–240
Supports: Historical alternatives, literary structure, imagery, Edomite setting, and verse-level interpretation within the inspected preview's limits.
Patterson, Obadiah, p. 227 (opening commentary on 1:10–14)
Sources for This Section
These records identify the source, the claim it supports, and the exact location used. A source remains evidence to evaluate; it does not replace the biblical text.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact reader-facing Scripture wording and complete verse coverage for this thought unit.
Exact location: Obadiah 1:10–14, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Obadiah
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Hebrew forms, clause boundaries, repeated roots, names, and the base wording behind translation discussion.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2 (commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00), wlc/Obad.xml, Masoretic words and morphology for 1:10–14
Open source ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible: Obadiah with translators' notes
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press, 2006
Supports: Material translation, syntax, text, date, geography, and uncertainty notes for the unit.
Exact location: NET Bible Obadiah PDF, pp. 1723–1727, translation and notes on 1:10–14
Open source ↗scholarly monograph preview
Edom, Israel's Brother and Antagonist: The Role of Edom in Biblical Prophecy and Story
Bert Dicou
JSOT Press, Journal for the Study of the Old Testament Supplement Series 169, 1994
Supports: Edom's brother relationship, first historical horizon, and explicitly disputed readings within the preview.
Exact location: Dicou, Edom, Israel's Brother and Antagonist, preview pp. 13–23, especially annotated translation of 1:10–14
Open source ↗scholarly essay
Sitz im What? Context and the Prophetic Book of Obadiah
Colin M. Toffelmire
SBL Press, in The Book of the Twelve and the New Form Criticism, 2015
Supports: Addressee, speech roles, betrayal, Zion, possession, restoration, and responsible reader participation.
Exact location: Toffelmire, 'Sitz im What?', pp. 231–240
Open source ↗commentary
Obadiah
Richard D. Patterson
Tyndale House Publishers, Cornerstone Biblical Commentary, volume 10, 2008
Supports: Historical alternatives, literary structure, imagery, Edomite setting, and verse-level interpretation within the inspected preview's limits.
Exact location: Patterson, Obadiah, p. 227 (opening commentary on 1:10–14)
Open source ↗