What Does Obadiah 1:10 Mean in the King James?
For thy violence against thy brother Jacob shame shall cover thee, and thou shalt be cut off for ever.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
Violence against a brother ends by covering the aggressor in shame and severing the bond.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks to the one who directs violence against a brother: shame covers the one who commits it, and the bond is severed. Kinship keeps the injury inside a relationship, so the consequence reaches beyond the immediate act.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that kinship shields an aggressor from consequence dissolves here: shame and lasting severance fall on the one who commits the violence.
THE ROOT
חֲמַס
ḥămas
GROWS FROM
חמס
To act violently or wrongfully; violence and oppression.
The English “violence” can suggest force alone; חָמָס also names wrongful injury and oppression. The verse frames the act as harm within kinship, not merely a clash between opponents.
ALSO GROWS
ḥāmās: Violence, wrong, oppression (noun).
חָמָס
This noun form shares the verse’s root and shows that the charge includes wrongful harm, not only physical force.
ḥāmas: To act violently or wrong another (verb).
חָמַס
The verb names the action behind the verse’s accusation: doing violence to another.
וְנִכְרַתָּ
venikhreta
GROWS FROM
כרת
To cut or sever.
“cut off” in this verse is venikhreta. The verse’s ending names a severance. The same root appears in “cut a covenant” and in כְּרִיתוּת, a word for severance or divorce, so the language of cutting can describe both binding a relationship and formally breaking one.
ALSO GROWS
kārat berit: To cut a covenant; to make a covenant.
כָּרַת בְּרִית
The same verb used for cutting off also appears in the idiom for making a covenant, placing severance beside the language of binding relationship.
keritut: Severance; divorce.
כְּרִיתוּת
This derived noun names a formal relationship broken, illuminating the relational force of being cut off.
בּוּשָׁה
būshāh
GROWS FROM
בוש
To be ashamed, confounded, or disappointed.
The root names the condition of being confounded or disappointed, while the verse makes shame the covering of the one who commits the violence. The consequence rests on the aggressor, not the brother who is harmed.
ALSO GROWS
bōsh: To be ashamed or confounded.
בּוֹשׁ
This verb shares the root and shows shame as a state that overtakes a person.
būshāh: Shame or disgrace.
בּוּשָׁה
This noun is the form used in the verse, where shame covers the one responsible for the violence.
THE PATTERN
Scripture treats violence against a brother as a rupture that reaches beyond the immediate injury into death or severance.
And Cain talked with Abel his brother: and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him.Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of Edom, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because he did pursue his brother with the sword, and did cast off all pity, and his anger did tear perpetually, and he kept his wrath for ever:Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.THE THREAD
And I will establish my covenant with you; neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood; neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth.Both verses use כרת (karat), “cut” or “sever,” in the phrase translated “cut off.” Genesis places that same root in a covenant promise preserving all flesh, while Obadiah names an enduring severance; together they reveal the contrast between preservation and being cut away.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us