From the Greek Septuagint text as was used by First Century Christians
This is likely a late 7^th Century B.C.E. prophecy that was spoken against
the descendants of IsaAc's son Esau (the Edomites) concerning their coming destruction
for the bad things they had done to Judah during its destruction.

Chapter 1

¹ This is the vision of ObadiAh.

 Jehovah God said to Edom (I heard this report from Jehovah, and it's a summary of what He sent to the nations)… He said, 'Get up and rise against her in battle!

² 'Behold, I've made you few 'mong the nations, and much disgrace I have brought upon you. ³ For, you have made your hearts proud, by camping high among cracks in the rocks, and you have said in your hearts, Who can bring me down to the ground?

⁴ 'But if you should fly as high as an eagle, and put your nest high among stars, from there I'll lead you back down,' says Jehovah.

⁵ 'If thieves were to enter among you, or robbers were to come during the night, [how many things] would you lose? Would they not steal just the things [they desire]? And if those who [steal] grapes came among you, would they not leave you a gleaning?

⁶ 'O how Esau's things will be searched through, and how the things he hides will be lost. ⁷ For, to your borders they'll drive you, where your allies will fight you and win… men of peace will set [traps] against you, and they'll not understand what they've done.

⁸ 'So, in that day,' says Jehovah, 'I will destroy all the wise [men] of Edom, and in the mountains of Esau, understanding will no longer be there. ⁹ Your Temanite warriors will be terrified, and from the mountains of Esau, all the men will be taken.

¹⁰ 'Because you've been so defiant, and brought slaughter against Jacob your brother, with shame I'll cover you over, and you'll be removed through the age. ¹¹ For, from the day that you faced and opposed them, to the day that strangers captured his army, and foreigners entered his gates, then over Jerusalem's spoils they cast lots, you were as one of them.

¹² 'You shouldn't have [sneered at] your brother, during the day when strangers arrived… over the [fall] of of Judah's sons. You should't have rejoiced at their destruction… you shouldn't have gloated in their day of affliction. ¹³ You shouldn't have entered their gates, in the day of their misery; and you especially should not have looked, upon them in the day of their ruin, nor should you have joined the attack, 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 had fled, in their day of affliction. ¹⁵ For, the day of the Lord is near for all nations. And all the things that you've done, are the things that they'll do to you… what you did will come on 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 had never existed.

¹⁷ 'But salvation will come to Mount Zion, and a Holy Place will be there again. Then the house of Jacob will inherit, all those who've inherited them. ¹⁸ For, though there'll be fire within Jacob's house, and flames in the house of JoSeph, Esau's house will be stubble, and among them fire will burn and consume… for Esau there'll be no wheat harvest, because I, Jehovah, have spoken.

¹⁹ 'Then the Mountains of Esau will be, inherited by those who live in the Negev, and by those in Philistine ShepheLa, will inherit EphraIm's mountains, along with Samaria and Benjamin's plains, and all of GileAd's land.

²⁰ 'Then the sons of IsraEl who return, will inherit CanaAn's land to ZarEphath. And those of Jerusalem who return, will inherit Negev's cities to EphRatha. ²¹ While those from Mount Zion who are rescued, will take vengeance on the mountains of Esau, and their kingdom will belong to Jehovah.'

Notes

Why the Name Changes?

You have likely noticed that we are 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 IsaiAh, and Eliezer as EliEzer. Why? Well, partly to help with the correct pronunciations of the names, and partly to show some translating consistency.

Of course, 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, and the second part of the Name (Nathan) means Gift? So, the name was originally pronounced closer to Ye-hoh-nuh-thahn.

In the case of names that end with an iah, as in Isaiah, the last part of the name often includes the name of God. Isaiah, for example, means Salvation [of] JehovAH, and it was originally pronounced Ee-sai-Yah. Yet, there are other names (such as EliJah), where the IEs have been changed to Js.

So, why have translators substituted a capital 'J' for the letters 'Ie' in both of the above cases? Well, there is an inconsistency here, because there was no letter 'J' in Hebrew or Greek alphabets. However, the letters were changed to coincide with the common English pronunciations of these names. Unfortunately though, this process wasn't followed consistently by ancient translators; so while some names are spelled with a J, many others are still spelled with an Ie or Iah.

Another important word in names that we usually capitalize is 'El' (from the Hebrew Elohe, or God). So EliEzer (which people commonly pronounce Eelai-eezer and means God [has] Helped), should actually be pronounced Elee-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 (for example) probably meant the City of Lam.

Similar words, such as Bel (as in BelShazzar), Baal, and Beel, refer to 'the Lord' or 'the God.' Also, the prefixes '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? No, for we make no claim to Hebrew scholarship (all our translating here has been from Greek). So, what we are trying to do is provide a better understanding to how these names were pronounced by First-Century Christians.

Use your browser BACK button to return to the text you were reading

Age, Eternal, Perpetual, Everlasting, Immortal, or Forever?

Two words imply infinite states in the Bible; one is the Greek word athanasia (undying), which is only found in two places, 1 Corinthians 15:53, where it mentions resurrected ones as clothing themselves with immortality, and at 1 Timothy 6:16, where Paul speaks of Jesus alone as having it. The other Greek word is aidios, which is used at Romans 1:20 to describe God's Power and Might as eternal, and at Jude 6 when speaking of the perpetual state of gloomy darkness that rebellious angels have been confined to.

However, the Greek word aionos, which is used throughout the Bible in various conjugated forms and is often translated as eternal and forever, is what the English word eon is derived from. It means an indefinite period, and there is no exact English word to translate it. The best equivalents are age or era.

Where the singular form (aionos) is used, this appears to mean a period such as a lifetime, generation, or era. And where the plural form of the word (aiōnōn) is used, it refers to a longer time… at least multiple generations. Also, where the term ages of the ages is used (such as at Ephesians 3:21), which is usually said in reference to The 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 to arrive and this age will come to its conclusion?' Notice that aionos is also translated as world here in many Bibles, such as the KJ, and as system of things in other Bibles, such as the NWT. However, if the Apostles had meant any of those things, they would have used the Greek word cosmos (world or arrangement), not aionos.

You can see that 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, the time before the end would come. And for them, that meant the age when God's Temple in JeruSalem would be destroyed, because that's what Jesus was explaining to them.

Yet, there are instances when some forms of the word could imply forever, such as when we find it in the form aiōniŏn. This is an adjective in the singular case, which, when combined with the Greek word zoe (in its various forms) is usually translated in other Bibles as everlasting life. However, that isn't a totally-accurate description.

In the past, we had tried to reconcile the words zoe aiōniŏn as meaning, life in the age. However, the word age in this instance would not be an adjective, so we have recently chosen, in most cases where we find this word combination, to translate them more accurately as age-long life, which we will agree could mean everlasting life.

For more information, see the linked Scriptural Commentary, Does the Bible Promise Everlasting Life?

Use your browser BACK button to return to the text you were reading