OET interlinear OBA 1:18

uW Translation Notes:

Note 1 topic: figures-of-speech / parallelism

וְ⁠הָיָה֩ בֵית־יַעֲקֹ֨ב אֵ֜שׁ וּ⁠בֵ֧ית יוֹסֵ֣ף לֶהָבָ֗ה

and=it_was house_of Yaakob fire and,house_of Yōşēf/(Joseph) flame

These two expressions have similar meanings. Yahweh is showing that what he is saying is important by saying it more than once. Both house of Jacob and house of Joseph stand for all of the Israelites. Alternate translation: “The Israelites will be like a fire. Yes, they will be like a flame” If saying this twice is confusing, you could combine them into one expression, as in the UST.

Note 2 topic: figures-of-speech / metonymy

בֵית־יַעֲקֹ֨ב

house_of Yaakob

Here, the word house means all of the people descended from a particular person. All of the descendants of Jacob are being described as if they were one household living together. Alternate translation: “the Israelites”

Note 3 topic: figures-of-speech / synecdoche

וּ⁠בֵ֧ית יוֹסֵ֣ף

and,house_of Yōşēf/(Joseph)

The descendants of Joseph are also being described as if they were one household. Joseph was the son of Jacob, and his descendants made up a large part of the people of Israel. So Yahweh is using his descendants to represent the whole nation.

Note 4 topic: figures-of-speech / metonymy

וּ⁠בֵ֤ית עֵשָׂו֙ & לְ⁠בֵ֣ית עֵשָׂ֔ו

and,house_of ˊĒsāv & of,house_of ˊĒsāv

The descendants of Esau (Edom) are also being described as if they were one household. Alternate translation: “the people of Edom”

Note 5 topic: figures-of-speech / metaphor

אֵ֜שׁ & לֶהָבָ֗ה & לְ⁠קַ֔שׁ

fire & flame & as,stubble

In this metaphor, Yahweh is saying that the Israelites will be like fire and flame, that the people of Edom will be like dry grass, and that the Israelites will do to the people of Edom what fire and flame do to dry grass. In other words, just as fire and flame burn up dry grass until it is all gone, the Israelites who survive will conquer all of Edom. If this metaphor is not clear in your language, you could make it a simile, as in the UST.

Note 6 topic: translate-unknown

לְ⁠קַ֔שׁ

as,stubble

The word stubble means the dry pieces of plants that are left in the ground after their stalks have been cut. Alternate translation: “like dry grass”

Note 7 topic: figures-of-speech / doublet

וְ⁠דָלְק֥וּ בָ⁠הֶ֖ם וַ⁠אֲכָל֑וּ⁠ם

and,set_~_onfire in/among=them and,consume,them

Burn and consume mean almost the same thing. Yahweh uses the words together to intensify the meaning. If you do not have two similar words in your language or if it would be confusing to say this twice, you could combine them into one phrase and intensify the meaning in another way. Alternate translation: “and they will burn them until they are all burned up” or “and they will burn them up completely”

Note 8 topic: figures-of-speech / explicit

כִּ֥י

that/for/because/then/when

Here, For indicates that what follows is the reason for what came before. Yahweh is reminding the reader that these things will certainly happen, because this message comes from him. If it would be helpful in your language, you could say this explicitly, as in the UST.

Note 9 topic: figures-of-speech / 123person

כִּ֥י יְהוָ֖ה דִּבֵּֽר

that/for/because/then/when YHWH spoken

Yahweh is speaking of himself in the third person here. If that is confusing in your language, you could change it to first person, as in the UST.