Obadiah 1:2

Contemporary English Version

The Lord said to Edom: I will make you the weakest and most despised nation.

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
Look, I will make you insignificantamong the nations;you will be deeply despised.

Hebrew Names Version
Behold, I have made you small among the nations. You are greatly despised.

King James Version (1611)
Behold, I haue made thee small among the heathen: thou art greatly despised.

King James Version
Behold, I have made thee small among the heathen: thou art greatly despised.

English Standard Version
Behold, I will make you small among the nations; you shall be utterly despised.

New American Standard Bible
"Behold, I will make you small among the nations; You are greatly despised.

New Century Version
"Soon I will make you the smallest of nations. You will be greatly hated by everyone.

Amplified Bible
"Behold [Edom], I shall [humiliate you and] make you small among the nations; You are greatly despised.

Geneva Bible (1587)
Beholde, I haue made thee smal among the heathen: thou art vtterly despised.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
"Behold, I will make you small among the nations; You are greatly despised.

Legacy Standard Bible
"Behold, I will make you small among the nations;You are greatly despised.

Berean Standard Bible
"Behold, I will make you small among the nations; you will be deeply despised.

Complete Jewish Bible
"I am making you the least of all nations, you will be beneath contempt.

Darby Translation
Behold, I have made thee small among the nations; thou art greatly despised.

Easy-to-Read Version
"Edom, I will make you the smallest nation. Everyone will hate you very much.

George Lamsa Translation
Behold, I have made you the least among the nations; you are greatly despised.

Good News Translation
The Lord says to Edom, "I will make you weak; everyone will despise you.

Lexham English Bible
"Look, I will make you insignificant among the nations. You will be utterly despised!

Literal Translation
Behold, I have given you to be small among the nations; you are greatly despised.

American Standard Version
Behold, I have made thee small among the nations: thou art greatly despised.

Bible in Basic English
See, I have made you small among the nations: you are much looked down on.

JPS Old Testament (1917)
Behold, I make thee small among the nations; thou art greatly despised.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
Behold, I haue made thee smal among the heathen, thou art vtterly despised.

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
Arise ye, and let us rise up against her to war.

English Revised Version
Behold, I have made thee small among the nations: thou art greatly despised.

World English Bible
Behold, I have made you small among the nations. You are greatly despised.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Lo! Y yaf thee litil in hethene men, thou art ful myche `worthi to be dispisid.

Update Bible Version
Look, I have made you small among the nations: you are greatly despised.

Webster's Bible Translation
Behold, I have made thee small among the heathen: thou art greatly despised.

New English Translation
The Lord says, "Look! I will make you a weak nation; you will be greatly despised!

New King James Version
"Behold, I will make you small among the nations; You shall be greatly despised.

New Living Translation
The Lord says to Edom, "I will cut you down to size among the nations; you will be greatly despised.

New Life Bible
"I will make you small among the nations. Everyone will hate you.

New Revised Standard
I will surely make you least among the nations; you shall be utterly despised.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Lo! small, have I made thee, among the nations - Despised art thou exceedingly!

Douay-Rheims Bible
Behold I have made thee small among the nations: thou art exceeding contemptible.

Revised Standard Version
Behold, I will make you small among the nations, you shall be utterly despised.

Young's Literal Translation
Lo, little I have made thee among nations, Despised [art] thou exceedingly.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Beholde, I will make ye small amoge the Heithen, so that thou shalt be vtterly despised.

THE MESSAGE
"Listen to this, Edom: I'm turning you to a no-account, the runt of the godless nations, despised. You thought you were so great, perched high among the rocks, king of the mountain, Thinking to yourself, ‘Nobody can get to me! Nobody can touch me!' Think again. Even if, like an eagle, you hang out on a high cliff-face, Even if you build your nest in the stars, I'll bring you down to earth." God 's sure Word.

Contextual Overview

¹ The Lord God gave Obadiah a message about Edom, and this is what we heard: "I, the Lord , have sent a messenger with orders for the nations to attack Edom." ² The Lord said to Edom: I will make you the weakest and most despised nation. ³ You live in a mountain fortress, because your pride makes you feel safe from attack, but you are mistaken. ⁴ I will still bring you down, even if you fly higher than an eagle or nest among the stars. I, the Lord , have spoken! ⁵ If thieves break in at night, they steal only what they want. And people who harvest grapes always leave some unpicked. But, Edom, you are doomed! ⁶ Everything you treasure most will be taken from you. ⁷ Your allies can't be trusted. They will force you out of your own country. Your best friends will trick and trap you, even before you know it. ⁸ Edom, when this happens, I, the Lord , will destroy all your marvelous wisdom. ⁹ Warriors from the city of Teman will be terrified, and you descendants of Esau will be wiped out.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Numbers 24:18, 1 Samuel 2:7, 1 Samuel 2:8, Job 34:25-29, Psalms 107:39, Psalms 107:40, Isaiah 23:9, Ezekiel 29:15, Micah 7:10, Luke 1:51, Luke 1:52

Reciprocal: Jeremiah 49:15 - General Ezekiel 32:29 - Edom

Cross-References

Genesis 1:12
The earth produced all kinds of vegetation. God looked at what he had done, and it was good.

Genesis 1:14

The Fourth Day

God said, "I command lights to appear in the sky and to separate day from night and to show the time for seasons, special days, and years.

Job 26:7
who hung the northern sky and suspended the earth on empty space.

Job 26:14
These things are merely a whisper of God's power at work. How little we would understand if this whisper ever turned into thunder!

Psalms 33:6
The Lord made the heavens and everything in them by his word.

Isaiah 45:18
The Lord alone is God! He created the heavens and made a world where people can live, instead of creating an empty desert. The Lord alone is God; there are no others.

Nahum 2:10
Nineveh is doomed! Destroyed! Her people tremble with fear; their faces turn pale.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Behold, I have made thee small among the Heathen,.... Or "a little one", or "thing" o; their number few, and their country not large, as Aben Ezra, especially in comparison of other nations; and therefore had no reason to be so proud, insolent, and secure, as they are afterwards said to be; or rather, "I will make thee"; the past for the future, after the prophetic manner, as Kimchi; that is weak and feeble, as the Targum; reduce their numbers, destroy their towns and cities, and bring them into a low and miserable condition: or the sense is, that he would make them look little, mean, and abject, in the sight of their enemies who would conclude, upon a view of them, that they should have no trouble in subduing them, and therefore should attack them without fear, and as sure of success:

thou art greatly despised; in the eyes of the nations round about; by their enemies, who looked upon them with contempt, because of the smallness of their number, their defenceless state and want of strength to support and defend themselves; see Jeremiah 49:15; had so the pope of Rome is little and despicable in the eyes of the monarchs of the earth; and the antichristian Edom will be more so at the time of its general ruin.

o קטן "parvium", V. L.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Behold, I have made thee small - God, having declared His future judgments upon Edom, assigns the first ground of those judgments. Pride was the root of Edom’s sin, then envy; then followed exultation at his brother’s fall, hard-heartedness and bloodshed. All this was against the disposition of God’s Providence for him. God had made him small, in numbers, in honor, in territory. Edom was a wild mountain people. It was strongly guarded in the rock-girt dwelling, which God had assigned it. Like the Swiss or the Tyrolese of old, or the inhabitants of Mount Caucasus now, it had strength for resistance through the advantages of its situation, not for aggression, unless it were that of a robber-horde. But lowness, as people use it, is the mother either of lowliness or pride. A low estate, acquiesced in by the grace of God, is the parent of lowliness; when rebelled against, it generates a greater intensity of pride than greatness, because that pride is against nature itself and God’s appointment. The pride of human greatness, sinful as it is, is allied to a natural nobility of character. Copying pervertedly the greatness of God, the soul, when it receives the Spirit of God, casts off the slough, and retains its nobility transfigured by grace. The conceit of littleness has the hideousness of those monstrous combinations, the more hideous, because unnatural, not a corruption only but a distortion of nature. Edom never attempted anything of moment by itself. “Thou art greatly despised.” Weakness, in itself, is neither despicable nor “despised.” It is despised only, when it vaunts itself to be, what it is not. God tells Edom what, amid its pride, it was in itself, “despicable;” what it would thereafter be, “despised” .

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Obadiah 1:2. I have made thee small among the heathen — God ever attributes to himself the rise and fall of nations. If they be great and prosperous, it is by God's providence; if they be low and depressed, it is by his justice. Compared with the Assyrians, Chaldeans, Egyptians, Syrians, Arabs, and other neighbouring nations, the Idumeans were a small people.