UObhadiya 1:14

Izhibhalo Ezingcwele

14 Musa ukuma ekwahlukaneni kweendlela, ukuze unqumle abasabayo bakubo; ungabanikeli abaseleyo bakubo ngemini yembandezelo.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

neither shouldest: Amos 1:6, Amos 1:9

delivered up: or, shut up, Psalms 31:8

in the day: Obadiah 1:12, Genesis 35:3, Isaiah 37:3, Jeremiah 30:7

Reciprocal: Deuteronomy 23:15 - General 2 Chronicles 28:17 - the Edomites

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Neither shouldest thou have stood in the crossing,.... In a place where two or more roads met, to stop the Jews that fled, let them take which road they would: or, "in the breach" y; that is, of the walls of the city;

to cut off those of his that did escape; such of the Jews that escaped the sword of the Chaldeans in the city, and attempted, to get away through the breaches of the walls of it, or that took different roads to make their escape; these were intercepted and stopped by the Edomites, who posted themselves at these breaches, or at places where two or more ways met, and cut them off; so that those that escaped the sword of the enemy fell by theirs; which was exceeding barbarous and cruel:

neither shouldest thou have delivered up those of his that did remain in the day of their distress; or "shut up" z; they shut them up in their houses, or stopped up all the avenues and ways by which they might escape, even such as remained of those that were killed or carried captive; these falling into the hands of the Edomites, some they cut off, and others they delivered up into the hands of the Chaldeans. Of the joy and rejoicing of the mystical Edomites, the Papists, those false brethren and antichristians, at the destruction of the faithful witnesses and true Christians, and of their cruelty and inhumanity to them, see Revelation 11:7.

y על הפרק "in diruptione", Junius & Tremellius, Tarnovius. z ואל תסגר "neque concludas", Montanus, Mercerus, Tigurine version, Tarnovius.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

But thou shouldest not - , rather it means, and can only mean , “And look not (i. e., gaze not with pleasure) on the day of thy brother in the day of his becoming a stranger ; and rejoice not over the children of Judah in the day of their destruction; and enlarge not thy mouth in the day of distress. Enter not into the gate of My people in the day of their calamity; look not, thou too, on his affliction in the day of his calamity; and lay not hands on his substance in the day of his calamity; And stand not on the crossway, to cut off his fugitives; and shut not up his remnants in the day of distress.”

Throughout these three verses, Obadiah uses the future only. It is the voice of earnest, emphatic, dehortation and entreaty, not to do what would displease God, and what, if done, would be punished. He dehorts them from malicious rejoicing at their brother’s fall, first in look, then in word, then in act, in covetous participation of the spoil, and lastly in murder. Malicious gazing on human calamity, forgetful of man’s common origin and common liability to ill, is the worst form of human hate. It was one of the contumelies of the Cross, “they gaze, they look” with joy “upon Me.” Psalms 22:17. The rejoicing over them was doubtless, as among savages, accompanied with grimaces (as in Psalms 35:19; Psalms 38:16). Then follow words of insult. The enlarging of the mouth is uttering a tide of large words, here against the people of God; in Ezekiel, against Himself Ezekiel 35:13 : “Thus with your mouth ye have enlarged against Me and have multiplied your words against Me. I have heard.”

Thereon, follows Edom’s coming yet closer, “entering the gate of God’s people” to share the conqueror’s triumphant gaze on his calamity. Then, the violent, busy, laying the hands on the spoil, while others of them stood in cold blood, taking the “fork” where the ways parted, in order to intercept the fugitives before they were dispersed, or to shut them up with the enemy, driving them back on their pursuers. The prophet beholds the whole course of sin and persecution, and warns them against it, in the order, in which, if committed, they would commit it. Who would keep clear from the worst, must stop at the beginning. Still God’s warnings accompany him step by step. At each step, some might stop. The warning, although thrown away on the most part, might arrest the few. At the worst, when the guilt had been contracted and the punishment had ensued, it was a warning for their posterity and for all thereafter.

Some of these things Edom certainly did, as the Psalmist prays Psalms 137:7, “Remember, O Lord, to the children of Edom the day of Jerusalem, who said, Lay bare, lay bare, even to the foundation in her.” And Ezekiel Ezekiel 35:5-6 alluding to this language of Obadiah , “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 calamity, in the time that their iniquity had an end, therefore, as I live, saith the Lord God, I will prepare thee unto blood, and blood shall pursue thee; sith thou hast not hated blood, even blood shall pursue thee.” Violence, bloodshed, unrelenting, deadly hatred against the whole people, a longing for their extermination, had been inveterate characteristics of Esau. Joel and Amos had already denounced God’s judgments against them for two forms of this hatred, the murder of settlers in their own land or of those who were sold to them Joel 3:19; Amos 1:6, Amos 1:9, Amos 1:11.

Obadiah warns them against yet a third, intercepting their fugitives in their escape from the more powerful enemy. “Stand not in the crossway.” Whoso puts himself in the situation to commit an old sin, does, in fact, will to renew it, and will, unless hindered from without, certainly do it. Probably he will, through sin’s inherent power of growth, do worse. Having anew tasted blood, Ezekiel says, that they sought to displace God’s people and remove God Himself Ezekiel 35:10-11. “Because thou hast said, these two nations and these two countries shall be mine, and we will possess it, whereas the Lord was there, therefore, as I live, saith the Lord God, I will even do according to thine anger, and according to thine envy, which thou hast used out of thy hatred against them.”

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Obadiah 1:14. Neither shouldest thou have stood in the crossway — They are represented here as having stood in the passes and defiles to prevent the poor Jews from escaping from the Chaldeans. By stopping these passes, they threw the poor fugitives back into the teeth of their enemies. They had gone so far in this systematic cruelty as to deliver up the few that had taken refuge among them.