Chapter 1
1 This is the vision of ObadiJah.
Jehovah God says to
2 ‘Behold, I’ve made you few among the nations, and much disgrace I have brought upon you. 3 For, you have made your heart proud, by camping high among cracks in the rocks, as you say in your heart, Who can bring me down to the ground?
4 ‘But, if you should fly as high as an eagle, and put your nest among the stars, from there I’ll lead you down,’ says Jehovah.
5 ‘If thieves were to enter among you, or robbers came during the night, [how many things] would you lose? Would they not steal just the things [they desire]? And if harvesters of grapes came among you, would they not leave you a gleaning?
6 ‘How Esau’s things were searched through, and how the things he hid were all lost. 7 For to the borders they’ll send you, but your allies will oppose you and win. Men of peace will set an ambush beneath you, and they won’t understand what they’ve done.
8 ‘So, in that day,’ says Jehovah, ‘I will destroy all the
wise [men] of
10 ‘Because you’ve been so defiant, and brought slaughter against your brother Jacob, I will cover you over with shame, and you’ll be removed through the age. 11 For, from day that you faced and opposed them, to the day that strangers captured his army, then strangers entered his gates, and over [the spoils of] Jerusalem cast lots, even you were as one among them.
12 ‘You shouldn’t have looked down on your brother, during
the day of the strangers… over the sons of
13 ‘You shouldn’t have entered the gates of their people, in the day of their misery, and you (especially you) should not have looked, upon their gathering in the day of their ruin, nor should you have joined in an attack on their army, in their day of destruction.
14 ‘You shouldn’t have stood in their mountain passes, to destroy those escaping through them, nor should you have locked up those who were fleeing, in their day of affliction. 15 For, the day of Jehovah is near for all nations. And the things that you’ve done are the things they’ll do to you… what you did will come upon your own head. 16 And the way you drank wine upon My Holy Mountain, is the same way the nations will drink wine from you. For, they will swallow you down, and it’ll be as though you never existed.
17 ‘But salvation will come to
19 ‘Then the Mountains of Esau will be inherited, by those
who live in the
20 ‘Then the sons of
21 ‘Then those from
Notes
Why the Name Changes?
You may have noticed that we have started putting some of the letters in Bible names in capital letters. For example, we’ve started spelling such names as Jonathan as JoNathan, Isaiah as IsaiJah, and Eliezer as EliEzer. Why? Well, partly to help with the correct pronunciations of the names, and partly to show some translating consistency.
We all know that the common English pronunciation of Jonathan (for example), is Jon-uh-thun. But did you know that the first part of the name (Io in Greek, Ieho in Hebrew) refers to the name Jehovah? For Jonathan means Jehovah has Given. So, the name was originally pronounced Yo-nuh-thahn. Then the second part of the Name (Nathan) means Gift.
In the case of names that end with an iah, as in Isaiah, the last part of the name includes the name of God. Isaiah, for example, means Salvation [of] Jehovah, and it was originally pronounced Ee-sai-Yah. So, why have we substituted a capital ‘J’ for the letters ‘ie’ in both of the above cases? Well, we recognize that there is an inconsistency here, because there was no letter ‘J’ in Hebrew or Greek alphabets. However, we have the choice of changing all names that start with ‘J’ (such as Jesus, John, Jonah, Joshua, Jeremiah, etc.) to start with the letters ‘Ie’, or for consistency, we can change all the ‘Ies’ into ‘Js’, which is what we have done.
Does this mean then that we are setting out a new rule for name spelling? Absolutely not, for centuries ago a Bible translator first established this rule when he spelled the name Eliou (Greek spelling, pronounced ay-lee-ou) and wrote it as EliJah, because this name is regarded as meaning ‘My God is Jehovah.’
Also notice that where a name ends with an iah, as in Jeremiah (Jehovah exalts), we have often spelled it iJah, because the i would typically be pronounced as a long e followed by a y in Hebrew, and writing it without the i (as in JeremJah) misses this nuance. So we have rendered it JeremiJah, which is similar to the way it is often pronounced by modern-day Hebrew-speaking Jews, YeremiYah.
Another important word in names that we usually capitalize is
‘El’ (from the Hebrew Elohe, or God). So EliEzer (which people commonly
pronounce Ee-lee-ay-zer and means God [has] Helped) should actually be
pronounced Ehlee-EhZer. The same is true for the letters Ai, especially
in the names of cities, because Ai in Hebrew refers to the word city.
So, AiLam probably meant the City of
Similar words, such as Bel (as in BelShazzar), Baal, and Beel, refer to ‘the Lord’ or ‘the God.’ Also, the letters ‘Ben’ and ‘Bar’ mean ‘the son of.’ ‘Beth’ means ‘the house of,’ ‘Beer’ refers to a ‘well,’ ‘Is’ or ‘Ish’ means ‘Man,’ etc.
Does this mean that we have put all the capitals in the right places, and where they should be? No, for we make no claim to Hebrew scholarship. All we are trying to do is provide a better understanding to how these names were pronounced by Greek-speaking Jews.
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Jehovah
The existing modern copies of the Greek Septuagint (Greek translation of the ‘Old Testament’ or ‘Ancient Scriptures of Israel’) don’t use the Name of God (Jehovah) at all. We know that the reason why the Name was removed from all later copies of the Hebrew versions, was because Jewish Scribes had become so awed with God’s Name that they refused to write it or say it, so they started substituting the term ‘the Lord’ (the Master) or ‘Theos’ (God), wherever it was found. And since most existing versions of the Septuagint come from the second century or later, it isn’t surprising that God’s Name has been omitted from the modern texts.
That the Name Jehovah (which means, He who Causes to Be, or, The Creator) was originally in the Bible is documented in all ancient Hebrew texts. And it is very likely that the Septuagint translation that Jesus and his Apostles used (most quotations they gave seem to have come from an ancient Septuagint) carried that Name, but probably in the four Hebrew characters that represent the English consonants YHWH.
Notice this comment by Robert Hanhart, who contributed the Introduction to ‘The Septuagint as Christian Scripture.’ He stated therein that, ‘All Greek biblical texts of Jewish origin found to date, whether from pre-Christian or Christian times, transmit the name יהוה Jehovah not in the form κύριος [Lord] encountered in all the LXX [Septuagint] manuscripts of Christian origin, but in some form of the Tetragrammaton.’ (See: ‘The Septuagint as Christian Scripture,’ 2002, book, p.7, by Martin Hengel. Introduction by Robert Hanhart, published by Baker Academic. ISBN 0-8010-2790-X).
You will see how in the book of Isaiah, for example, God is often referred to in Greek as Kyrios ho Kyrios, or, Lord the Lord (see Isaiah 48:16 LXX). And these are obvious examples of texts where God’s Name was omitted, for such sentences should clearly read Jehovah the Lord, or Lord Jehovah.
Since the words God and Lord both appear to have been substituted in the text wherever God’s Name originally appeared, it is difficult to know where to reinsert the Name for the titles. We could refer to the Hebrew texts and insert it wherever the Name appears there, but that would be out of harmony with the purpose of presenting this translation of the Septuagint on its own merit. So, wherever the term appears in reference to God, we have decided to insert the Name Jehovah, placing it in brackets because it doesn’t really appear in the Modern Greek text that we are using.
There are places where we have deviated from this rule. For example, there is the instance when Abraham was talking to three ‘men,’ one of whom he referred to as the Lord. In this case, Abraham was obviously speaking to a messenger from Jehovah (or likely His representative, Michael), because, as God told Moses, ‘No man can see God and live.’ So, in such instances we have left the term ‘Lord’ unchanged, because that is likely the actual word Abraham used.
The same thing is true in some of the writings of the Prophets, who often spoke of the messenger from God who was delivering the message as The Lord. So, it becomes very clear that always substituting the Name Jehovah for the title the Lord is probably not correct in many instances. Notice in the words found at Amos 4:13 (for example), that the person who is speaking (the Lord) speaks of God (Jehovah) in the third person: ‘{Look!} I bring the thunder and I create the wind; and I report to men of His caring. For He produces the dawn and the fog, and is mounted on the heights of the earth… His Name is Jehovah God Almighty!’
By the way, notice that the term for pagan gods (Baal, Beel, and Bel) also simply meant ‘the Lord.’ So, all the pagan peoples in Bible times referred to their gods as ‘the Lord.’ Then they might have added the name of that ‘Lord,’ to show which one they referring to. So, if the Israelites, Hebrews, and Jews had simply referred to their God as ‘the Lord’ without giving His Name, then no one among the surrounding nations would have known which ‘Lord’ they were talking about. So, from the context (and from its use in all ancient Bible texts) we can see that the Name Jehovah once appeared throughout the Bible to show which ‘Lord’ the Israelites worshiped.
And where you find the exclamation HalleluJah, which is the original Hebrew rendering, understand that this word means ‘Praise Jehovah!’ (Hallel means praise, u implies second person, and Jah is a shortened form of Jehovah). So, even in most Bibles where God’s Name has been omitted, it usually still appears in this Hebrew exclamation, as well as in most Bible names of faithful men.
But, is using God’s Name really all that important? Yes, because He Himself said concerning the nations, as recorded at Jeremiah 16:21, ‘Because of this {Look!} I’ll show them My hand, and in that time I’ll show them My power. Then they will know that My Name is Jehovah.’
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Age
The Greek word aionos is what the English word eon is derived from. It means an indefinite period. However, there is no exact English word to translate it. The best equivalents are age(s) or era. Please note that where the plural form of the word (ages) is used, it refers to a long time, at least multiple generations. However, where the singular form is used (age or era), this appears to mean a much shorter period, such as a lifetime, generation, or era. And where the term ‘ages of ages’ is used (such as at Ephesians 3:21), which is usually said in reference to God, we would assume that this truly means forever.
It is noteworthy that aionos is the word that is used in the Greek Septuagint in place of the Hebrew word ohlam, which is also translated as forever and time indefinite in popular versions of the Ancient Scriptures of Israel. So, this one word (aionos) is translated as forever, everlasting, eternal, system of things, time indefinite, [end of] the world, long ago, from of old, etc. Obviously, something is very wrong here, because the word can’t mean a period having a definite end in one place and infinity in another.
Take for example, the unique way that aionos is used in the question that Jesus’ Apostles asked him, which is found at Matthew 24:3, ‘Tell us, when will these things happen? What will be the signs when you are near and this age will finally end?’
The word aionos (which we have translated as age here) is also translated as world (KJ) and as system of things (NW) in other Bibles. However, if the Apostles had meant any of those words, they would have used the Greek word cosmos (not aionos) for world or system of things.
You can see that the word aionos obviously doesn’t mean forever, everlasting, or eternal in this case, nor did it mean world or system of things. It simply meant the age or time before the end would come. And for them, that meant the age when the Temple at Jerusalem would be destroyed, because that is what Jesus just told them.
The ancient Hebrews viewed everything (and rightly so) as having a beginning and an end. For that reason, you will only find three places in the Bible where words are used that imply no end, and none that imply no beginning. An interesting possible insight on the reason for this can be found at Hebrews 1:10-12, which says: ‘Long ago, O Lord, You laid the foundation of the earth and Your hands made the heavens. They will destroy themselves, but You will remain. They will grow old just like clothes do. Then, as [You would do to] a robe, You will wrap them up and repair them like clothes. Yes, You are the One, and Your years will never run out.’
The problem with most Bible translations is that when they encounter the word aionos in all its different tenses, they interpret it according to accepted doctrine, not according to the way that Jesus and his disciples used it. So, the common renderings forever, eternal, and everlasting are used even when the word is in its singular form (aioni, aiona, aionos, aioniǒn, aionian, aionios, aioniou), and this totally distorts the meaning of the text.
Take for example, the scripture at John 5:24, where Jesus said, ‘I tell you the truth; the one who hears what I say and believes in the One that sent me will have life in this age. He won’t have to be judged, but has crossed over from death to life.’
Most Bibles translate Jesus as saying that those who believe in the One who sent him will have everlasting life (or the equivalent). However, the words that Jesus used there were, zoe aioniŏn (life age – singular), not zoe aioniōn (life ages – plural).
Notice how Jesus explained the meaning of these words with his next statement, ‘He won’t have to be judged, but has crossed over from death to life.’
So, what Jesus was saying here, wasn’t that they would have everlasting life, but that they would (in their current life) be considered among the ‘living,’ not among the ‘dead’ (see Revelation 20:12). This doesn’t necessarily mean that they won’t live forever; it’s just that Jesus wasn’t really saying that.
From consideration of the evidence found in the bulk of Jesus’ words about life, the conclusion might be logically reached that he never taught the hope of ‘life eternal,’ ‘everlasting life,’ or ‘immortality,’ in those specific words. However, the concept is still there. What he taught was that; unlike those whom God considers to be ‘dead,’ living people would receive ‘life in the age,’ meaning; they will be considered worthy of life by God during their lifetimes. How long these ages will last is unclear from the references. Yet, as Jesus said, all who put faith in him will be given this life.
Two words imply infinity in the Bible. One is the Greek word athanasia, which means undying or immortal(ity) and is only found in two places, 1 Corinthians the Fifteenth Chapter (where it mentions heavenly resurrected ones as clothing themselves with immortality) and at 1 Timothy 6:16 (where it speaks of Jesus as having received it). The other Greek word, aidios, which is found at Romans 1:20 and at Jude 6, is used to describe God’s Power and Might as eternal.
For more information, select the linked documents Does the Bible Promise Everlasting Life? and The Hereafter.
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