[477] iv. 21: yet _Uz_ fails in LXX., and some take ארץ to refer to the Holy Land itself. Buhl, _Gesch. der Edomiter_, 73. [478] It can hardly be supposed that Edom’s treacherous allies were Assyrians or Babylonians, for even if the phrase “men of thy covenant” could be applied to those to whom Edom was tributary, the Assyrian or Babylonian method of dealing with conquered peoples is described by saying that they took them off into captivity, not that they _sent them to the border_. [479] So even Cornill, _Einl._³ [480] This in answer to Wellhausen on the verse. [481] See below, p. 175, n. 6. [482] Calvin, while refusing in his introduction to Obadiah to fix a date (except in so far as he thinks it impossible for the book to be earlier than Isaiah), implies throughout his commentary on the book that it was addressed to Edom while the Jews were in exile. See his remarks on vv. 18-20. [483] There is a mistranslation in ver. 18: שׂריד is rendered by πυρόφορος. [484] This is no doubt from the later writer, who before he gives the new word of Jehovah with regard to Edom, quotes the earlier prophecy, marked above by quotation marks. In no other way can we explain the immediate following of the words “Thus hath the Lord spoken” with “_We_ have heard a report,” etc. [485] ‘Sela,’ the name of the Edomite capital, Petra. [486] The parenthesis is not in Jer. xlix. 9; Nowack omits it. _If spoilers_ occurs in Heb. before _by night_: delete. [487] Antithetic to _thieves_ and _spoilers by night_, as the sending of the people to their border is antithetic to the thieves taking only what they wanted. [488]‎ לחמך, _thy bread_, which here follows, is not found in the LXX., and is probably an error due to a mechanical repetition of the letters of the previous word. [489] Again perhaps a quotation from an earlier prophecy: Nowack counts it from another hand. Mark the sudden change to the future. [490] Heb. _so that_. [491] With LXX. transfer this expression from the end of the ninth to the beginning of the tenth verse. [492] “When thou didst stand on the opposite side.”—Calvin. [493] Plural; LXX. and Qeri. [494] Sudden change to imperative. The English versions render, _Thou shouldest not have looked on_, etc. [495] Cf. Ps. cxxxvii. 7, _the day of Jerusalem_. [496] The day of his strangeness = _aliena fortuna_. [497] With laughter. Wellhausen and Nowack suspect ver. 13 as an intrusion. [498]‎ פֶּרֶק does not elsewhere occur. It means cleaving, and the LXX. render it by διεκβολή, _i.e._ pass between mountains. The Arabic forms from the same root suggest the sense of a band of men standing apart from the main body on the watch for stragglers (cf. נגד, in ver. 11). Calvin, “the going forth”; Grätz פרץ, _breach_, but see Nowack. [499] Wellhausen proposes to put the last two clauses immediately after ver. 14.