Core Glossary
Core Glossary
Obadiah | English → French Language Package
Curriculum: Obadiah Core passage: Obadiah 1:15–21 Generated: 2026-07-03 Language pair: English–French
Purpose
This glossary records every load-bearing theological term identified in 07_semantic_analysis.md, across the entire book of Obadiah (1:1–21). It extends — and never contradicts — the baseline Romans translation_memory.json and bible_term_registry.json. Terms already fixed by the baseline are marked [BASELINE — REUSE EXACTLY] and carry forward their recorded French rendering unchanged. All new terms follow the same risk-tier framework (Critical / High / Medium / Low) defined in doctrine_risk_registry.json.
Glossary Table
| # | Term (English) | Original (Hebrew) | Transliteration | French Rendering | Risk Tier | Doctrine | Verse(s) | Notes / Alternatives Rejected |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Day of the LORD | יוֹם־יְהוָה | Yom YHWH | le jour de l’Éternel | Critical | The Day of the Lord for All Nations | 1:15 | TOB/BJ variant “le jour du SEIGNEUR” noted for reviewers; must stay a fixed capitalized eschatological phrase. Never “un jour de jugement” generically. |
| 2 | LORD (covenant name) | יְהוָה | YHWH | l’Éternel | Critical | Day of the Lord; foundational to all doctrines | throughout | Distinct register from baseline lord→“Seigneur” (which renders NT kyrios, Romans 10:9). Same God, different testament-register convention; do not conflate the two French words in teaching material. |
| 3 | Lord GOD (title formula) | אֲדֹנָי יֱהוִה | Adonai YHWH | le Seigneur, l’Éternel | Critical | Inspiration/authority of prophecy | 1:1 | Segond’s combined rendering; do not simplify to bare “Seigneur.” |
| 4 | vision | חָזוֹן | chazon | vision | Low | Inspiration of Scripture | 1:1 | Stable term. |
| 5 | Edom | אֱדוֹם | Edom | Édom | Medium | Judgment on Pride and Violence | throughout | Requires background gloss: Edom = descendants of Esau. |
| 6 | Esau | עֵשָׂו | Esav | Ésaü | Medium | Judgment on Pride and Violence | 1:6, 8, 9, 18, 19, 21 | Genealogical hinge of the book’s argument; needs explicit gloss for OT-illiterate readers. |
| 7 | Jacob | יַעֲקֹב | Ya’akov | Jacob | Medium | Unity/fraternity of God’s people; God’s Justice for the Oppressed | 1:10, 17, 18 | Closely related to baseline israel; make Jacob = Israel explicit on first use. |
| 8 | brother | אָח / אָחִיךָ | ach / achikha | frère | High | Judgment on Pride and Violence | 1:10, 12 | Ordinary French “frère” undersells specific covenantal betrayal; must be glossed as broken covenant-kinship, not generic fraternité. |
| 9 | day of your brother | יוֹם אָחִיךָ | yom achikha | le jour de ton frère | Medium | The Day of the Lord for All Nations | 1:11, 12, 13, 14 | Must render identically across all four occurrences to preserve the structural buildup to v.15. |
| 10 | pride (of heart) | זְדוֹן לִבֶּךָ / גַּאֲוַת לִבֶּךָ | zedon libbekha / ga’avat libbekha | l’orgueil de ton cœur | High | Judgment on Pride and Violence | 1:3 | Must retain full weight of culpable self-exaltation against God, not mere self-confidence or vanity. |
| 11 | violence | חָמָס | chamas | violence | High | Judgment on Pride and Violence; God’s Justice for the Oppressed | 1:10 | Contemporary association with the organization “Hamas” (same root) requires explicit historical anchoring to avoid unintended political reading. |
| 12 | covenant (allies) | בְּרִית / אַנְשֵׁי בְרִיתֶךָ | berit / anshei beritekha | alliance | Medium | — | 1:7 | [BASELINE — REUSE EXACTLY] Ironic double sense (political treaty vs. broken kinship-covenant) flagged for teaching commentary, not resolved lexically. |
| 13 | lots (cast lots) | גּוֹרָל | goral | tirer au sort / jeter le sort | Medium | God’s Justice for the Oppressed | 1:11 | Clarify as plunder-division, not neutral gambling. |
| 14 | thieves / robbers | גַּנָּבִים / שֹׁדְדֵי לַיְלָה | gannavim / shodedei laylah | voleurs / brigands nocturnes | Low | Judgment on Pride and Violence | 1:5 | Preserve ironic a fortiori comparison. |
| 15 | wise men | חֲכָמִים | chakhamim | sages | Low | Judgment on Pride and Violence | 1:8 | No human resource averts judgment. |
| 16 | mighty men | גִּבּוֹרֶיךָ | gibborekha | tes vaillants hommes | Low | Judgment on Pride and Violence | 1:9 | — |
| 17 | recompense / retribution | גְּמוּל / גְּמֻלְךָ | gemul / gemulkha | rétribution | High | God’s Justice for the Oppressed | 1:15 | Segond’s “récompense” is traditional but ironic/positive-sounding in ordinary French; prefer “rétribution” or gloss to preserve the negative, judicial sense. Alternative rejected: bare “récompense” unglossed. |
| 18 | nations (all the nations) | גּוֹיִם / כָּל־הַגּוֹיִם | goyim / kol ha-goyim | les nations | Medium | The Day of the Lord for All Nations | 1:1, 2, 15, 16 | [BASELINE-ALIGNED] Per baseline’s own caution on gentiles→“païens” (pejorative in modern French), use “les nations,” never “païens,” in this universal-scope context. |
| 19 | drink (the cup of judgment) | שָׁתָה / שְׁתִיתֶם | shatah / shatitem | boire (la coupe) | High | God’s Justice for the Oppressed | 1:16 | MUST use “coupe,” never “calice” — “calice” is reserved for the Eucharistic chalice in French and would create an unintended sacramental collision. |
| 20 | my holy mountain | הַר קָדְשִׁי | har qodshi | ma montagne sainte | Medium | Sanctification (Zion’s vindicated holiness) | 1:16 | [BASELINE — REUSE “saint” EXACTLY] |
| 21 | as though they had never been | כְּלוֹא הָיוּ | ke-lo hayu | comme s’ils n’avaient jamais existé | Low | Judgment on Pride and Violence | 1:16 | Preserve totality of annihilation, not mere metaphorical decline. |
| 22 | Mount Zion | הַר צִיּוֹן | Har Tsiyon | le mont Sion | High | The Kingdom’s Ultimate Belonging to the Lord | 1:17, 21 | Live political resonance in French public discourse (Zionism/Middle East politics); anchor explicitly to the covenantal/theological referent. |
| 23 | escape / remnant | פְלֵיטָה | pleitah | des rescapés | Medium | God’s Justice for the Oppressed | 1:17 | Distinct in French from v.18’s “pas de survivant/rescapé” for the house of Esau — preserve the stark remnant/no-remnant contrast. |
| 24 | holy(ness) | קֹדֶשׁ | qodesh | saint(e) / sainteté | Medium | Sanctification | 1:17 | [BASELINE — REUSE “saint” EXACTLY] |
| 25 | possess / possession(s) | יָרַש / מוֹרָשָׁה | yarash / morashah | posséder / possession(s) | High | The Kingdom’s Ultimate Belonging to the Lord | 1:17, 19, 20 | Alternative “héritage” risks conflation with the NT’s spiritual-inheritance/adoption doctrine (baseline adoption→“adoption filiale”); this is concrete historical-territorial restoration. Keep the two categories distinct in teaching notes. |
| 26 | house of Jacob / house of Joseph / house of Esau | בֵּית יַעֲקֹב / בֵּית יוֹסֵף / בֵּית עֵשָׂו | beit Ya’akov / beit Yosef / beit Esav | maison de Jacob / maison de Joseph / maison d’Ésaü | Medium | Unity of God’s covenant people vs. Edom | 1:18 | Requires explanatory gloss (patriarch-named tribal houses) for OT-illiterate readers. |
| 27 | fire / flame / stubble | אֵש / לֶהָבָה / קַש | esh / lehavah / qash | feu / flamme / chaume | Low | Judgment on Pride and Violence | 1:18 | Total, swift consuming judgment imagery. |
| 28 | no survivor | וְלֹא־יִהְיֶה שָׂרִיד | ve-lo yihyeh sarid | il n’y aura pas de survivant | Medium | Judgment on Pride and Violence | 1:18 | Keep distinct from v.17’s “rescapés” to preserve the remnant/no-remnant contrast. |
| 29 | for the LORD has spoken | כִּי יְהוָה דִּבֵּר | ki YHWH dibber | car l’Éternel a parlé | Medium | Inspiration/Fulfillment of Prophecy | 1:18 | Fixed divine-speech formula; do not weaken to “car Dieu l’a dit.” |
| 30 | geographic/tribal restoration list | הַנֶּגֶב, הַר עֵשָׂו, הַשְּׁפֵלָה, פְּלִשְׁתִּים, שְׂדֵה אֶפְרַיִם, שֹׁמְרוֹן, בִנְיָמִן, הַגִּלְעָד | ha-Negev, Har Esav, ha-Shefelah, Pelishtim, Sedeh Efrayim, Shomron, Binyamin, ha-Gil’ad | le Néguev, la montagne d’Ésaü, la Shéphéla, les Philistins, le territoire d’Éphraïm, la Samarie, Benjamin, Galaad | Medium | The Kingdom’s Ultimate Belonging to the Lord | 1:19 | No translation ambiguity; requires footnoted geographic orientation for readers with low OT literacy. |
| 31 | exiles / captivity | גָּלוּת | galut | les captifs / la captivité | Medium | God’s Justice for the Oppressed | 1:20 | Modern alternative “les exilés” acceptable; keep consistent throughout curriculum. Same contemporary-conflation caution as baseline israel. |
| 32 | Canaanites | כְּנַעֲנִים | Kena’anim | Cananéens | Low | — | 1:20 | Established historical term. |
| 33 | Zarephath | צָרְפַת | Tsarefat | Sarepta | Low | — | 1:20 | Consistent with NT form (Luke 4:26). |
| 34 | Sepharad | סְפָרַד | Sefarad | Sepharad | High | God’s Justice for the Oppressed | 1:20 | Modern French “Séfarade/Sépharade” is a live Jewish-community identity term; must not be conflated with this uncertain ancient place name. |
| 35 | saviors / deliverers | מוֹשִׁעִים | moshi’im | libérateurs | High | The Kingdom’s Ultimate Belonging to the Lord | 1:21 | Rejected alternative: “sauveurs” — too close to the fixed Christological title “le Sauveur” (Jesus); “libérateurs” avoids implying rival/plural saviors while preserving the yasha root’s deliverance sense. Note the same root underlies “Joshua”/“Jesus” for typological teaching, without claiming lexical identity. |
| 36 | judge (verb) | שָׁפַט | shafat | juger | Medium | God’s Justice for the Oppressed | 1:21 | Must be read in full OT governmental/vindicating sense, not narrowed to the modern French courtroom verdict sense. |
| 37 | the kingdom shall be the LORD’s | מְלוּכָה / וְהָיְתָה לַיהוָה הַמְּלוּכָה | melukhah / ve-hayetah la-YHWH ha-melukhah | la royauté (appartiendra à l’Éternel) | Critical | The Kingdom’s Ultimate Belonging to the Lord | 1:21 | Must NOT be rendered with baseline kingdom_of_god→“Royaume de Dieu” (a different NT Greek term/register). Use “royauté” (Segond’s own term); draw thematic, not lexical, continuity to the NT Kingdom doctrine in teaching notes. |
Terms Reused Exactly from Baseline translation_memory.json
| Term | Baseline French Rendering | Baseline Risk | Obadiah Verses |
|---|---|---|---|
| covenant | alliance | Medium | 1:7 |
| holy | saint | Medium | 1:16, 1:17 |
| gentiles/nations guidance | les nations (preferred over “païens”) | Medium | 1:1, 1:2, 1:15, 1:16 |
No baseline term is contradicted or overridden in this glossary. All new Obadiah-specific terms are additive extensions of the Romans Language Package, sharing its risk-tier framework, register requirements, and French Bible-tradition conventions (Segond/TOB/Bible de Jérusalem).
Critical Risk Terms
Day Of The Lord
Approved rendering: le jour de l’Éternel
Transliteration: Yom YHWH
Doctrine: The Day of the Lord for All Nations
Rejected alternatives: un jour de jugement (generic), le jour du Seigneur (Catholic liturgical Sunday collision)
Original: יוֹם־יְהוָה
Category: Eschatology
Fixed, capitalized eschatological formula (1:15). Must never be softened to a generic future reckoning, and must never be rendered ‘le jour du Seigneur’ — that phrase already means ‘Sunday’ in ordinary French Catholic liturgical usage, a serious and specific collision risk. Anchors the universalizing pivot from Edom’s specific ‘jour de ton frère’ refrain to God’s cosmic Day.
Lord Yhwh
Approved rendering: l’Éternel
Transliteration: YHWH
Doctrine: The Covenant Name of God (YHWH)
Rejected alternatives: Seigneur (NT kyrios register), Yahvé (TOB/BJ variant, rejected as primary form), Dieu (too generic)
Original: יְהוָה
Category: God
The covenant name of God, ground of the oracle’s authority (throughout). Distinct register from the baseline NT ‘Seigneur’ (kyrios, Romans 10:9); both name the same God, but conflating the two French words erases the OT covenant-name register this whole book operates in. Note the live tension: post-2008 French Catholic liturgical practice prefers ‘le Seigneur’ for the Tetragrammaton, while this curriculum follows the Segond-aligned, baseline-consistent ‘l’Éternel’ convention throughout Obadiah — flag for reviewers with a Catholic liturgical background.
Lord God Title
Approved rendering: le Seigneur, l’Éternel
Transliteration: Adonai YHWH
Doctrine: Inspired Prophetic Authority
Rejected alternatives: Seigneur (bare, oversimplified), Adonai (untransliterated, no established French Bible tradition in this position)
Original: אֲדֹנָי יֱהוִה
Category: God
Combined sovereign-title-plus-covenant-name formula opening the book (1:1). Do not simplify to bare ‘Seigneur,’ which would collapse this OT title-plus-name construction into the NT kyrios register and undercut the oracle’s specific claim to divine authority.
Kingdom Melukhah
Approved rendering: la royauté
Transliteration: melukhah
Doctrine: The Kingdom’s Ultimate Belonging to the Lord
Rejected alternatives: Royaume de Dieu (forbidden — a different NT Greek term/register, baseline-fixed)
Original: מְלוּכָה
Category: Kingdom
Kingship, sovereignty, royal reign — the book’s climactic resolution: ‘the kingdom shall be the LORD’s’ (1:21). Must NOT be rendered with the baseline’s fixed NT phrase ‘Royaume de Dieu’ (basileia tou theou); use ‘royauté’ (Segond’s own term) and draw the typological/thematic connection to the NT Kingdom doctrine only in teaching notes, never by lexical substitution. France’s own monarchical history may color ‘royauté’ as archaic political imagery; teaching material should make explicit this is God’s sovereign reign, not commentary on any human monarchy.
High Risk Terms
Lord
Approved rendering: Seigneur
Transliteration: Seigneur
Doctrine: Lordship of Christ
Rejected alternatives: maître, patron
Romans 10:9 ‘Jésus est Seigneur’; carries feudal-historical resonance in French. INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE, copied exactly. Obadiah extension (CRITICAL REGISTER FENCE): this NT term rendering Greek kyrios must NEVER be used to render the covenant name YHWH in Obadiah. Obadiah uses the distinct OT covenant-name register ‘l’Éternel’ (see Section B, lord_yhwh) throughout; a translator defaulting to ‘Seigneur’ for stylistic variation would erase this distinction and collapse two different biblical registers into one French word.
Brother
Approved rendering: frère
Transliteration: ach / achikha
Doctrine: Covenant Kinship and Fraternal Betrayal
Original: אָח / אָחִיךָ
Category: Covenant
Specific covenantal-fraternal kinship (Jacob and Esau were twins), the aggravating factor of Edom’s guilt (1:10, 12). Ordinary French ‘frère,’ reinforced by the Republican motto ‘liberté, égalité, fraternité,’ defaults to a generic goodwill register that risks flattening a specific, named act of covenant treachery into vague brotherly sentiment. Must be glossed on first occurrence.
Pride Of Heart
Approved rendering: l’orgueil de ton cœur
Transliteration: zedon libbekha / ga’avat libbekha
Doctrine: Judgment on Pride and Violence against God’s People
Rejected alternatives: fierté (positive self-esteem drift)
Original: זְדוֹן לִבֶּךָ / גַּאֲוַת לִבֶּךָ
Category: Judgment
Culpable self-exaltation trusting one’s own security rather than God, the root sin driving Edom’s downfall (1:3). Modern secular French commonly reads ‘orgueil’/‘fierté’ as ordinary self-confidence or approved self-esteem; must retain the full moral weight of rebellion against God’s sovereignty. Always use as an inseparable, glossed phrase, never bare ‘orgueil.‘
Violence
Approved rendering: violence
Transliteration: chamas
Doctrine: Judgment on Pride and Violence against God’s People
Rejected alternatives: transliterated Hebrew form (would visually reproduce ‘Hamas’)
Original: חָמָס
Category: Judgment
Physical and social violence, especially wronging the vulnerable or kin; Edom’s specific covenant-breaking crime (1:10). The Hebrew root is also the source of the contemporary organization name ‘Hamas,’ a live and sensitive association in French public discourse. Mandatory historical-anchoring footnote required on every occurrence, tying the term firmly to 6th-century-BC Edom, never to contemporary politics.
Recompense Retribution
Approved rendering: rétribution
Transliteration: gemul / gemulkha
Doctrine: God’s Justice for the Oppressed
Rejected alternatives: récompense (bare, unglossed) — positive/reward connotation in ordinary French inverts the judicial irony
Original: גְּמוּל / גְּמֻלְךָ
Category: Judgment
Edom’s own deeds returning on its own head (1:15), the lex talionis pivot verse. The Segond-tradition ‘récompense’ is a positive word in ordinary French (a prize, a reward); left unglossed it inverts the negative, judicial sense. Prefer ‘rétribution’ or an explicit ironic gloss.
Drink Cup Of Judgment
Approved rendering: boire (la coupe)
Transliteration: shatitem
Doctrine: God’s Justice for the Oppressed
Rejected alternatives: calice (forbidden — Eucharistic chalice collision)
Original: שָׁתִיתֶם
Category: Judgment
Idiomatic OT judgment-cup metaphor (cf. Isaiah 51:17, Jeremiah 25:15), reversed onto the nations in 1:16. French must use ‘coupe,’ never ‘calice,’ which is reserved almost exclusively for the Eucharistic chalice in Catholic and liturgical Protestant usage and would create an unintended sacramental collision inside a judgment oracle.
Mount Zion
Approved rendering: le mont Sion
Transliteration: Har Tsiyon
Doctrine: The Kingdom’s Ultimate Belonging to the Lord
Original: הַר צִיּוֹן
Category: Kingdom
Jerusalem’s temple mount, covenant seat of YHWH’s presence and future kingship (1:17, 21). Established proper noun, but contemporary French public discourse charges ‘Sion’ with live political resonance (Zionism, Middle East politics), echoing the baseline ‘israel’ caution. Must be anchored explicitly as the covenantal/theological referent, never left to stand as unglossed commentary on modern geopolitics.
Possess Possession
Approved rendering: posséder / possession(s)
Transliteration: yarash / morashah
Doctrine: The Kingdom’s Ultimate Belonging to the Lord
Rejected alternatives: héritage (risks conflation with NT spiritual inheritance/adoption doctrine)
Original: יָרַש / מוֹרָשָׁה
Category: Kingdom
Restoration of covenant territory to the house of Jacob (1:17, 19-20). Avoid ‘héritage’ as the primary rendering: it risks conflation with the baseline ‘adoption’→‘adoption filiale’ (Romans 8:17 heirship). This is concrete, historical, territorial restoration to post-exilic Israel, a distinct though typologically related category.
Sepharad
Approved rendering: Sepharad
Transliteration: Sefarad
Doctrine: God’s Justice for the Oppressed
Rejected alternatives: Séfarade / Sépharade (forbidden — modern living French-Jewish identity term)
Original: סְפָרַד
Category: Covenant
A place of exile of uncertain location (possibly Sardis in Asia Minor), naming where Jerusalem’s exiles were scattered (1:20). Modern French has adopted ‘Séfarade/Sépharade’ as the standard living identity term for Jews of Iberian/Mediterranean descent. Must clarify this ancient, geographically uncertain toponym is not equivalent to the modern ‘monde séfarade,’ avoiding anachronistic identity-political conflation.
Saviors Deliverers
Approved rendering: libérateurs
Transliteration: moshi’im
Doctrine: The Kingdom’s Ultimate Belonging to the Lord
Rejected alternatives: sauveurs (forbidden — collides with the fixed singular Christological title ‘le Sauveur’)
Original: מוֹשִׁעִים
Category: Kingdom
Human agents enacting God’s deliverance on Mount Zion (1:21), from the same root (yasha) as ‘Joshua’ and ‘Jesus.’ ‘Libérateurs’ (Segond’s own choice) avoids the collision while preserving the deliverance sense. French collective WWII memory (‘la Libération,’ 1944) lends the word real positive historical weight; redirect that resonance toward the theological referent in teaching notes. Note the etymological Joshua/Jesus link only as a typological pointer, never as lexical equivalence.
Medium Risk Terms
Holy
Approved rendering: saint
Transliteration: saint
Doctrine: Sanctification
Rejected alternatives: pur
Original: קֹדֶשׁ / קָדְשִׁי
Category: Sanctification
Set apart for God and morally pure; ‘pur’ alone loses the set-apart sense. INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE, copied exactly. Obadiah extension: applies to ‘ma montagne sainte’ (1:16) and Zion’s vindicated holiness (1:17) — covenantal set-apartness, not aesthetic or ritual sacredness. See doctrine ‘zion_sanctity_and_vindication’.
Covenant
Approved rendering: alliance
Transliteration: alliance
Doctrine: Davidic Covenant
Rejected alternatives: contrat
Original: בְּרִית / אַנְשֵׁי בְרִיתֶךָ
Category: Covenant
Relational covenant bond, more than a legal contract; ‘alliance’ also usefully evokes the wedding ring (l’alliance) in French. INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE, copied exactly. Obadiah extension (1:7): Edom’s own political ‘allies’ (les hommes de ton alliance) betray Edom in ironic contrast to the deeper covenant-kinship Edom itself violated with Jacob; resolve this double sense in teaching commentary, never by inventing a second French word.
Gentiles
Approved rendering: païens
Transliteration: païens
Doctrine: Unity of Jews and Gentiles
Rejected alternatives: étrangers
‘Païens’ carries a pejorative ‘uncivilized/irreligious’ connotation in modern French; prefer ‘les nations’ in mission/universal-scope contexts. INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE, copied exactly. Obadiah extension: this baseline caution is precisely why Obadiah’s own new term ‘nations’ (see Section B) — never ‘païens’ — renders Hebrew goyim throughout 1:1-2, 15-16. Do not use this entry’s French term ‘païens’ anywhere in Obadiah translation output; it is retained here only so reviewers recognize why it is being deliberately avoided.
Israel
Approved rendering: Israël
Transliteration: Israël
Doctrine: Unity of Jews and Gentiles
Contemporary Middle East politics and France’s significant Jewish community make it easy for readers to conflate biblical Israel with the modern nation-state; keep the referent historical/theological. INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE, copied exactly. Obadiah extension: the same caution applies with added force to ‘Jacob’ (=Israel), ‘Édom’/‘Ésaü,’ ‘le mont Sion,’ and the exile/restoration vocabulary of 1:19-20 — all require explicit historical anchoring against contemporary political reading.
God
Approved rendering: Dieu
Transliteration: Dieu
Doctrine: Deity of Christ
Secularization risk: ‘Dieu’ is used as a casual interjection and can be treated as an abstract deist concept. INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE, copied exactly. Obadiah extension: in this book the acting God is named throughout by the covenant name YHWH (‘l’Éternel’), not the generic ‘Dieu’; ‘Dieu’ should appear only in paraphrase/teaching commentary, not as a substitute for ‘l’Éternel’ in the biblical text itself.
Kingdom Of God
Approved rendering: Royaume de Dieu
Transliteration: Royaume de Dieu
Doctrine: Kingdom Mission
God’s sovereign reign, distinguished from any political kingdom association. INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE, copied exactly. Obadiah extension (CRITICAL REGISTER FENCE): this fixed NT phrase (rendering Greek basileia tou theou) must NEVER be substituted for Obadiah 1:21’s climactic ‘la royauté’ (Hebrew melukhah, see Section B, kingdom_melukhah). The two are thematically continuous but lexically distinct registers; draw the connection only in teaching commentary, never by lexical substitution.
Adoption
Approved rendering: adoption filiale
Transliteration: adoption filiale
Doctrine: Adoption into God’s Family
Rejected alternatives: adoption (bare, legal-procedural)
Full-son-status, full-inheritance sense; bare ‘adoption’ reads as the modern legal-procedural process. INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE, copied exactly. Obadiah extension: this NT spiritual-inheritance/heirship category (cf. Romans 8:17) must be kept visibly distinct from Obadiah’s concrete, historical, territorial ‘possession/héritage’ language of 1:17, 19-20 (see Section B, possess_possession). Never let ‘héritage’ become a bridge word collapsing the two categories.
Salvation
Approved rendering: salut
Transliteration: salut
Doctrine: Salvation
Rejected alternatives: délivrance
Reconciliation with a personal God through Christ’s work, not institutional membership. INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE, copied exactly. Obadiah extension: relevant background for the typological reading of 1:21’s human ‘libérateurs’ (Hebrew moshi’im, same root as Joshua/Jesus), which point forward to, but are not identical with, the NT’s unique Saviorhood of Christ. Do not use ‘salut’ or ‘Sauveur’ vocabulary to render moshi’im itself; reserve this entry strictly for teaching-note typological commentary.
For The Lord Has Spoken
Approved rendering: car l’Éternel a parlé
Transliteration: ki YHWH dibber
Doctrine: Inspired Prophetic Authority
Rejected alternatives: car Dieu l’a dit (weakens the covenant-name register)
Original: כִּי יְהוָה דִּבֵּר
Category: Prophecy
Fixed prophetic authority-and-certainty formula (1:18) guaranteeing the fulfillment of what has been declared. Preserve the covenant-name register; do not paraphrase into a generic divine-speech gloss.
Edom
Approved rendering: Édom
Transliteration: Edom
Doctrine: Judgment on Pride and Violence against God’s People
Original: אֱדוֹם
Category: Covenant
The nation descended from Esau, object of the whole oracle (throughout). Requires an explanatory background gloss (Edom = descendants of Esau, Jacob’s twin) for readers with low OT literacy.
Esau
Approved rendering: Ésaü
Transliteration: Esav
Doctrine: Covenant Kinship and Fraternal Betrayal
Original: עֵשָׂו
Category: Covenant
Jacob’s twin brother, ancestor of Edom (1:6, 8, 9, 18, 19, 21); the genealogical hinge of the book’s whole argument. Same background-gloss requirement as ‘Édom.‘
Jacob
Approved rendering: Jacob
Transliteration: Ya’akov
Doctrine: Covenant Kinship and Fraternal Betrayal
Original: יַעֲקֹב
Category: Covenant
Esau’s twin brother, ancestor of Israel, the covenant people wronged by their own kin (1:10, 17, 18). Closely related to but distinct from baseline ‘israel’; make the Jacob = Israël identification explicit on first use.
Day Of Your Brother
Approved rendering: le jour de ton frère
Transliteration: yom achikha
Doctrine: The Day of the Lord for All Nations
Original: יוֹם אָחִיךָ
Category: Eschatology
Recurring refrain (1:11, 12, 13, 14) for the day of Jerusalem’s calamity, from which Edom should have stood in solidarity but instead exploited or gloated. Coinage-by-calque, adopted because no existing French idiom captures it. Must render identically across all four occurrences to preserve the structural buildup toward ‘le jour de l’Éternel’ (v.15).
Lots
Approved rendering: tirer au sort / jeter le sort
Transliteration: goral
Doctrine: God’s Justice for the Oppressed
Original: גּוֹרָל
Category: Judgment
Casting lots to divide Jerusalem’s plundered goods and people (1:11). Clarify as callous plunder-division, not a morally neutral game of chance.
Nations
Approved rendering: les nations
Transliteration: goyim / kol ha-goyim
Doctrine: The Day of the Lord for All Nations
Rejected alternatives: païens (pejorative in modern French; baseline’s own caution)
Original: גּוֹיִם / כָּל־הַגּוֹיִם
Category: Nations
Non-Israelite peoples collectively, extended in Obadiah to encompass every nation universally under God’s judgment (1:1-2, 15-16). Per the baseline’s own caution on ‘gentiles’→‘païens,’ this universal-scope judgment context requires ‘les nations’ consistently, never ‘païens.‘
Remnant Escape
Approved rendering: des rescapés
Transliteration: pleitah
Doctrine: God’s Justice for the Oppressed
Rejected alternatives: délivrance (too abstract, loses the concrete surviving-remnant sense)
Original: פְלֵיטָה
Category: Salvation
A surviving remnant that has escaped disaster on Zion (1:17), introducing the remnant-salvation motif. Must stay lexically distinct from v.18’s ‘pas de survivant’ for the house of Esau, preserving the deliberate remnant/no-remnant structural contrast. Connect in teaching notes to Romans 11:5’s remnant theology without collapsing the two into identical technical terms.
House Of Jacob Joseph Esau
Approved rendering: maison de Jacob / maison de Joseph / maison d’Ésaü
Transliteration: beit Ya’akov / beit Yosef / beit Esav
Doctrine: Covenant Kinship and Fraternal Betrayal
Original: בֵּית יַעֲקֹב / בֵּית יוֹסֵף / בֵּית עֵשָׂו
Category: Covenant
Tribal/national ‘houses’ named by their patriarch, standing for entire peoples descended from him (1:18). Requires an explanatory gloss for French readers who will not automatically recognize ‘Jacob = Israël’ or ‘Ésaü = Édom.‘
No Survivor
Approved rendering: il n’y aura pas de survivant
Transliteration: ve-lo yihyeh sarid
Doctrine: Judgment on Pride and Violence against God’s People
Original: וְלֹא־יִהְיֶה שָׂרִיד
Category: Judgment
Total absence of remnant for the house of Esau (1:18), contrasting sharply with the ‘pleitah’ granted to Jacob (v.17). Keep distinct in French from ‘des rescapés’ so the deliberate structural contrast is preserved.
Geographic Restoration List
Approved rendering: le Néguev, la montagne d’Ésaü, la Shéphéla, les Philistins, le territoire d’Éphraïm, la Samarie, Benjamin, Galaad
Transliteration: ha-Negev, Har Esav, ha-Shefelah, Pelishtim, Sedeh Efrayim, Shomron, Binyamin, ha-Gil’ad
Doctrine: The Kingdom’s Ultimate Belonging to the Lord
Original: הַנֶּגֶב, הַר עֵשָׂו, הַשְּׁפֵלָה, פְּלִשְׁתִּים, שְׂדֵה אֶפְרַיִם, שֹׁמְרוֹן, בִנְיָמִן, הַגִּלְעָד
Category: Kingdom
Regional/tribal name list marking the full territorial scope of Israel’s future restoration (1:19). No translation ambiguity, but nearly all names will be unfamiliar to a biblically illiterate French readership; requires footnoted geographic orientation (map reference), not lexical adjustment.
Exiles Captivity
Approved rendering: les captifs / la captivité
Transliteration: galut
Doctrine: God’s Justice for the Oppressed
Original: גָּלוּת
Category: Covenant
The deported/dispersed covenant people considered corporately (1:20); God’s restoration reaches even the scattered. ‘Les exilés’ is an acceptable modern alternative; keep consistent throughout the curriculum. Shares the baseline ‘israel’ caution against conflating biblical/theological Israel with modern nation-state politics.
Judge Verb
Approved rendering: juger
Transliteration: shafat
Doctrine: God’s Justice for the Oppressed
Original: שָׁפַט
Category: Kingdom
To exercise governing, discerning, vindicating authority — establishing right order, not merely condemning (1:21). Ensure ‘juger’ is read in its full OT governmental sense, not narrowed to the modern French courtroom verdict sense.
Low Risk Terms
Prophet
Approved rendering: prophète
Transliteration: prophète
Doctrine: Inspiration of Scripture
Rejected alternatives: voyant
God’s spokesperson; avoid ‘voyant’ (fortune-teller connotation). INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE, copied exactly. Obadiah extension: Obadiah himself is one of the Twelve Minor Prophets (Trei Asar); this entry underlies the book’s own claim to inspired authority alongside ‘vision’ and ‘Lord GOD’ (Section B).
Prophecy
Approved rendering: prophétie
Transliteration: prophétie
Doctrine: Fulfillment of Prophecy
God-inspired declaration, not astrological prediction. INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE, copied exactly. Obadiah extension: applies to the whole oracle’s genre as prophetic ‘oracle against a nation,’ and specifically to the fixed guarantee formula ‘car l’Éternel a parlé’ (1:18, Section B).
Jesus
Approved rendering: Jésus
Transliteration: Jésus
Doctrine: Lordship of Christ
Stable across all French traditions. INHERITED FROM ROMANS PACKAGE, copied exactly. Obadiah extension: relevant only for the typological teaching note on 1:21’s ‘libérateurs’ (moshi’im), sharing the Hebrew root yasha with ‘Joshua’ and ‘Jésus/Yeshua.’ This is an etymological/typological pointer only; never imply lexical equivalence between ‘libérateurs’ and ‘Jésus’ in the translated text itself.
Vision
Approved rendering: vision
Transliteration: chazon
Doctrine: Inspired Prophetic Authority
Original: חָזוֹן
Category: Prophecy
A prophet’s received revelatory disclosure (1:1); establishes the book as divine revelation, not human political commentary. Stable term.
Thieves Robbers
Approved rendering: voleurs / brigands nocturnes
Transliteration: gannavim / shodedei laylah
Doctrine: Judgment on Pride and Violence against God’s People
Original: גַּנָּבִים / שֹׁדְדֵי לַיְלָה
Category: Judgment
Rhetorical a fortiori comparison (1:5-6): even thieves leave gleanings, but Edom will be stripped utterly bare. Preserve the ironic comparative logic.
Wise Men
Approved rendering: sages
Transliteration: chakhamim
Doctrine: Judgment on Pride and Violence against God’s People
Original: חֲכָמִים
Category: Judgment
Edom’s (Teman’s) proverbial wise counselors (1:8), which will fail it. No significant translation risk.
Mighty Men
Approved rendering: tes vaillants hommes
Transliteration: gibborekha
Doctrine: Judgment on Pride and Violence against God’s People
Original: גִּבּוֹרֶיךָ
Category: Judgment
Edom’s warriors, its military strength (1:9), which offers no protection against divine judgment.
As Though Never Been
Approved rendering: comme s’ils n’avaient jamais existé
Transliteration: ke-lo hayu
Doctrine: Judgment on Pride and Violence against God’s People
Rejected alternatives: disparaître à jamais (softer idiom, loses totality nuance)
Original: כְּלוֹא הָיוּ
Category: Judgment
Idiom of total, irreversible annihilation/erasure from history (1:16). Avoid softening to a merely metaphorical decline.
Fire Flame Stubble
Approved rendering: feu / flamme / chaume
Transliteration: esh / lehavah / qash
Doctrine: Judgment on Pride and Violence against God’s People
Original: אֵש / לֶהָבָה / קַש
Category: Judgment
Total, swift, consuming judgment imagery (1:18); stubble (‘chaume’) is the driest, most completely consumed material. Ensure ‘chaume’ is understood as flammable dry stalks, not decorative straw.
Canaanites
Approved rendering: Cananéens
Transliteration: Kena’anim
Doctrine: The Kingdom’s Ultimate Belonging to the Lord
Original: כְּנַעֲנִים
Category: Covenant
Inhabitants of Canaan prior to/alongside Israelite settlement, marking the territorial extent of restoration (1:20). Established historical term.
Zarephath
Approved rendering: Sarepta
Transliteration: Tsarefat
Doctrine: The Kingdom’s Ultimate Belonging to the Lord
Original: צָרְפַת
Category: Covenant
A Phoenician coastal town near Sidon, site of Elijah’s widow (1 Kings 17); marks the northward extent of restoration (1:20). Use the established French Bible form, consistent with the NT parallel (Luke 4:26).
Referenced passages