Obadiah 1:12

But thou shouldest not have looked on the day of thy brother,.... The day of his calamity, distress, and destruction, as afterwards explained; that is, with delight and satisfaction, as pleased with it, and rejoicing at it; but rather should have grieved and mourned, and as fearing their turn would be next: or, "do not look" t; so some read it in the imperative, and in like manner all the following clauses:

in the day that he became a stranger; were carried into a strange country, and became strangers to their own: or, "in the day of his alienation" u; from their country, city, houses, and the house and worship of God; and when strange, surprising, and unheard of things were done unto them, and, among them:

neither shouldest thou have rejoiced over the children of Judah in the day of their destruction; the destruction of the Jews, of the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin, by the Chaldeans: this explains what is meant by the Edomites looking upon the day of the calamity of the Jews, that it was with pleasure and complacency, having had a good will to have destroyed them themselves, but it was not in the power of their hands; and now being done by a foreign enemy, they could not forbear expressing their joy on that occasion, which was very cruel and brutal; and this also shows that Obadiah prophesied after the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar:

neither shouldest thou have spoken proudly in the day of distress; or "magnified thy mouth" w; opened it wide in virulent scoffing, and insulting language; saying with the greatest fervour and vehemence, and as loud as it could be said, "rase it, rase it to the foundation thereof", Psalms 137:7.

t אל תרא "ne aspicias", Junius Tremellius "ne aspicito", Piscator; "ne spectes", Cocceius. u ביום נכרו "diem alienationis ejus", Junius Tremellius, Piscator, Mercerus "in die alienationis ejus", Calvin, Cocceius, Burkius. w ואל תגדל פיך "et non debebas magnificare os tuum", Pagninus; "ne magnifices", Montanus, Junius Tremellius "ne magnificato", Piscator; "ne magno ore utaris", Cocceius.