Obadiah 1:2

JPS Old Testament

Behold, I make thee small among the nations; thou art greatly despised.

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.

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

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.

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 vision of Obadiah. Thus saith the Lord GOD concerning Edom: We have heard a message from the LORD, and an ambassador is sent among the nations: 'Arise ye, and let us rise up against her in battle.' ² Behold, I make thee small among the nations; thou art greatly despised. ³ The pride of thy heart hath beguiled thee, O thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock, thy habitation on high; that sayest in thy heart: 'Who shall bring me down to the ground?' ⁴ Though thou make thy nest as high as the eagle, and though thou set it among the stars, I will bring thee down from thence, saith the LORD. ⁵ If thieves came to thee, if robbers by night--how art thou cut off!--would they not steal till they had enough? If grape-gatherers came to thee, would they not leave some gleaning grapes? ⁶ How is Esau searched out! How are his hidden places sought out! ⁷ All the men of thy confederacy have conducted thee to the border; the men that were at peace with thee have beguiled thee, and prevailed against thee; they that eat thy bread lay a snare under thee, in whom there is no discernment. ⁸ Shall I not in that day, saith the LORD, destroy the wise men out of Edom, and discernment out of the mount of Esau? ⁹ And thy mighty men, O Teman, shall be dismayed, to the end that every one may be cut off from the mount of Esau by slaughter.

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
And the earth brought forth grass, herb yielding seed after its kind, and tree bearing fruit, wherein is the seed thereof, after its kind; and God saw that it was good.

Genesis 1:14
And God said: 'Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days and years;

Job 26:7
He stretcheth out the north over the empty space, and hangeth the earth over nothing.

Job 26:14
Lo, these are but the outskirts of His ways; and how small a whisper is heard of Him!

Psalms 33:6
By the word of the LORD were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth.

Isaiah 45:18
For thus saith the LORD that created the heavens, He is God; that formed the earth and made it, He established it, He created it not a waste, He formed it to be inhabited: I am the LORD, and there is none else.

Nahum 2:10
Take ye the spoil of silver, take the spoil of gold; for there is no end of the store, rich with all precious vessels.

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.