“Those who eat your bread will set a trap”
Those who eat your bread will set a trap for you without your awareness of it. (Obadiah 1:7 BSB)
What it sounds like today
A vague warning about untrustworthy acquaintances.
The cultural key
The phrase carries more weight than 'people you know.' In the ancient Near East, to eat someone's bread, to share a meal and especially to seal a treaty over food, established a binding covenant of loyalty and mutual protection; table-fellowship made you allies obligated to defend one another. So 'those who eat your bread' are precisely Edom's sworn allies and confederates, the very partners bound by that sacred tie to stand with her. The horror Obadiah announces is that these covenant friends will turn on Edom, driving her to the border and secretly 'setting a trap' she never sees coming. Betrayal by a fellow diner was regarded as the vilest treachery, which is why the psalmist laments, 'even my close friend whom I trusted, who shared my bread, has lifted his heel against me' (Psalm 41:9), the verse Jesus applies to Judas. Edom, who betrayed her brother Judah, is repaid by the betrayal of her own trusted allies.
Recovered meaning
'Those who eat your bread' are Edom's covenant allies, bound by the sacred loyalty of shared meals. Obadiah announces that these very partners will betray her with a hidden trap, the deepest treachery, fittingly repaying Edom for betraying her brother Judah.