Obadiah 1:7

All your allies ¹  will force ²  you from your homeland! ³  Your treaty partners ⁴  will deceive you and overpower you. Your trusted friends ⁵  will set an ambush ⁶  for ⁷  you that will take you by surprise! ⁸ 

All your allies will force you to the border; your friends will deceive and overpower you; those who eat your bread will set a trap for you, but you will not detect it.

"All the men allied with you Will send you forth to the border, And the men at peace with you Will deceive you and overpower you. They who eat your bread Will set an ambush for you. (There is no understanding in him.)

"All your allies will turn against you. They will help to chase you from your land. They will promise you peace, while plotting your destruction. Your trusted friends will set traps for you, and you won’t even know about it.

All your old partners will drive you to the edge. Your old friends will lie to your face. Your old drinking buddies will stab you in the back. Your world will collapse. You won't know what hit you.

All the men who were united with you have been false to you, driving you out to the edge of the land: the men who were at peace with you have overcome you; they have taken their heritage in your place.

All your allies have deceived you, they have driven you to the border; your confederates have prevailed against you; those who ate your bread have set a trap for you—there is no understanding of it.

All the men in your confederacy Shall force you to the border; The men at peace with you Shall deceive you and prevail against you. Those who eat your bread shall lay a trap for you. No one is aware of it.

All your allies ¹  will force ²  you from your homeland! ³  Your treaty partners ⁴  will deceive you and overpower you. Your trusted friends ⁵  will set an ambush ⁶  for ⁷  you that will take you by surprise! ⁸ 

¹ tn Heb “All the men of your covenant”; KJV, ASV “the men of thy confederacy.” In Hebrew “they will send you unto the border” and “all the men of your covenant” appear in two separate poetic lines (cf. NAB “To the border they drive you – all your allies”). Since the second is a noun clause functioning as the subject of the first clause, the two are rendered as a single sentence in the translation.

² tn Heb “send”; NASB “send you forth”; NAB “drive”; NIV “force.”

³ tn Heb “to the border” (so NASB, NIV, NRSV).

⁴ tn Heb “the men of your peace.” This expression refers to a political/military alliance or covenant of friendship.

⁵ tn Heb “your bread,” which makes little sense in the context. The Hebrew word can be revocalized to read “those who eat bread with you,” i.e., “your friends.” Cf. KJV “they that eat thy bread”; NIV “those who eat your bread”; TEV “Those friends who ate with you.”

⁶ tn Heb “set a trap” (so NIV, NRSV). The meaning of the Hebrew word מָזוֹר (mazor; here translated “ambush”) is uncertain; it occurs nowhere else in the Hebrew Bible. The word probably refers to something “spread out” for purposes of entrapment, such as a net. Other possibilities include “trap,” “fetter,” or “stumbling block.”

⁷ tn Heb “beneath” (so NAB).

⁸ tn Heb “there is no understanding in him.”