But thou shouldest not have looked on— Houbigant reads the verbs in these verses in the imperative mood. Look not—rejoice not, &c. Instead of, Nor have laid hands on, &c. Obadiah 1:13. Houbigant reads, Be not thou sent against his army, when the day of his ruin is at hand. We have, under no affliction or calamity, more need of support and assistance from the good Spirit of God how to behave ourselves, than in those seasons, when they who have most maliciously persecuted us, and are in all considerations very bad men, fall under some extraordinary misery, and suffer as much as they desired to see us suffer. Thou shouldest not have rejoiced over the children of Judah, &c. If our joy has a mixture of insolence toward the persons of those who suffer (how justly soever), as men who have done us wrong, and so we are glad of their misery as a revenge for what they have done against us, we exceed our commission, and have no kind of warrant for such rejoicing. No degree of malice, or ill nature, or wickedness in other men, can excuse us for a defect of that charity and meekness and compassion, which ought ever to be inseparable from our religion.
Obadiah 1:12-14
12 But thou shouldest not have looked on the day of thy brother in the day that he became a stranger; neither shouldest thou have rejoiced over the children of Judah in the day of their destruction; neither shouldest thou have spokenb proudly in the day of distress.
13 Thou shouldest not have entered into the gate of my people in the day of their calamity; yea, thou shouldest not have looked on their affliction in the day of their calamity, nor have laid hands on their substancec in the day of their calamity;
14 Neither shouldest thou have stood in the crossway, to cut off those of his that did escape; neither shouldest thou have delivered upd those of his that did remain in the day of distress.