Obadiah 1:10
What does Obadiah 1:10 mean?
A plain-English look at Obadiah 1:10 in WEB alongside six other public-domain English translations, with cross-references and chapter context.
What Obadiah 1:10 means
Here the charge is formal: Edom’s violence against their brother Jacob brings shame and an everlasting cutting off. The family bond intensifies the crime; Edom, descended from Esau, should have shown solidarity with Judah. Instead, they acted as enemies. Shame, the opposite of former pride, will cover them, and the penalty is enduring—“for ever.” This does not mean a momentary setback but a decisive end to Edom’s standing. God cares about how nations treat His covenant people, and treachery against a brother nation invites severe recompense. The verdict begins to explain the earlier judgments: pride flowered into cruelty, and cruelty against kin calls forth Jehovah’s righteous wrath.
Parallel translations
WEB
World English Bible · 2000For the violence done to thy brother Jacob, shame shall cover thee, and thou shalt be cut off for ever.
KJV
King James Version · 1611For thy violence against thy brother Jacob shame shall cover thee, and thou shalt be cut off for ever.
ASV
American Standard Version · 1901For the violence done to thy brother Jacob, shame shall cover thee, and thou shalt be cut off for ever.
BBE
Bible in Basic English · 1949Because you were the cause of violent death and because of your cruel behaviour to your brother Jacob, you will be covered with shame and will be cut off for ever.
YLT
Young's Literal Translation · 1862For slaughter, for violence <FI>to<Fi> thy brother Jacob, Cover thee doth shame, And thou hast been cut off--to the age.
DRA
Douay-Rheims (Challoner) · 1752For the slaughter, and for the iniquity against thy brother Jacob, confusion shall cover thee, and thou shalt perish for ever.
DBY
Darby Bible · 1890Because of violence against thy brother Jacob, shame shall cover thee, and thou shalt be cut off for ever.
Context
This verse inaugurates the moral indictment that explains Edom’s ruin. It reconnects the earlier judgments to their cause: not only arrogance, but concrete violence against Jacob. The next three verses (11–14) narrate Edom’s actions during Judah’s disaster—standing aloof, gloating, invading, looting, blocking escape, and betraying survivors. Understanding this sequence helps the reader see the gravity of Edom’s sin and why God’s response is so comprehensive.
v.9And 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.
v.10This passage
v.11In the day that thou stoodest on the other side, in the day that strangers carried away his substance, and foreigners entered into his gates, and cast lots upon Jerusalem, even thou wast as one of them.
Cross references
Related passages from across Scripture, drawn from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge.
- Psalms 89:45
The days of his youth hast thou shortened: Thou hast covered him with shame. [Selah
- Micah 7:10
Then mine enemy shall see it, and shame shall cover her who said unto me, Where is Jehovah thy God? Mine eyes shall see my desire upon her; now shall she be trodden down as the mire of the streets.
- Psalms 83:5
For they have consulted together with one consent; Against thee do they make a covenant:
- Jeremiah 51:51
We are confounded, because we have heard reproach; confusion hath covered our faces: for strangers are come into the sanctuaries of Jehovah’s house.
- Lamentations 4:21
Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom, that dwellest in the land of Uz: The cup shall pass through unto thee also; thou shalt be drunken, and shalt make thyself naked.
- Malachi 1:3
but Esau I hated, and made his mountains a desolation, and gave his heritage to the jackals of the wilderness.