The Aramaic Bible: Targums in their Historical Context

100 The Aramaic Bible: Tar gums in their Historical Context
present purposes is the reading recorded for Ms c in Sperber's
apparatus, for Itmn exactly corresponds to the apparent locative smh
of lQIs a in a way that the rest of the Targum texts do not. But a
further point requires our attention in that smh in lQIs a 57.6 almost
certainly does not involve the locative he. At a number of places in the
scroll smh stands where the MT hassw, and there are even two
occurrences of msmh (52.11; 65.20). Sperber's Ms c therefore
represents a flat-footed approach to the reading smh, since what was
functionally an adverbial he has been treated as a locative he. Further
inquiry, however, shows that Ms c and the majority reading at
Isa. 57.6 are but representative of a large number of places, in both
Targum Onqelos and Targum Jonathan of the Prophets, where the
manuscripts are divided between the readings tmn and Itmn for MT
smh, 33 and even for MTsm. 34
2. nws> 'rq/'pk
A largely unexploited approach to the Targums is the study of the
translation of selected Hebrew words across the complete targumic
spectrum. A good illustration of the value of the approach is provided
by Grossfeld's article, published in 1979, in which he examined the
targumic treatment of Hebrew verbs for 'flee'. 35 One of Grossfeld's
more striking observations is that in the Targum of the Former
Prophets BH nws is most often translated by 'pk, and only occasionally
by 'rq, whereas in the Latter Prophets 'pk never represents nws,
for which 'rq is the almost universal equivalent. 36 The explanation
offered by Grossfeld (p. 118) is that the Targum of the Latter
Prophets is older than the Targum of the Former Prophets and that
'pk as a translation of 'flee' was a later arrival in targumic Aramaic.
p. 292 (cf. pp. 413-14).
33. Sperber notes thirty-three instances in Targum Onqelos alone (The Targum
Onkelos', p. 321); see also Isa. 22.18; Jer. 16.15; 22.27; 40.4.
34. See Isa. 23.12; 34.14; 57.7. Note that the Samaritan Pentateuch sometimes
has sm where the MT has smh (cf. Gen. 19.20; 23.13; 42.2; Num. 35.6, 11;
Deut. 4.42). Occasionally smh in the MT lacks any locative significance (e.g. 2 Kgs
23.8; Jer. 18.2; cf. GK 90d).
35. B. Grossfeld, The Relationship between Biblical Hebrew brh and nws and
their Corresponding Aramaic Equivalents in the Targum - 'rq, 'pk, 'zl: A Preliminary
Study in Aramaic-Hebrew Lexicography', ZAW91 (1979), pp. 106-23.
36. The exceptions are at Isa. 35.10 (=51.11) (swp) and Zech. 2.10 where MT
wnsw is paraphrased by 'assemble yourselves and come'.