The Aramaic Bible: Targums in their Historical Context

222 The Aramaic Bible: Targums in their Historical Context
Jer. 6.28, is read with sin, sry, 'princes of, by P, Targum and V, and
the word h'mwn, 'artisan', becomes hhmwn, 'crowd', in Targum and
P. According to this criterion the versions follow sometimes the qere
instead of ketib, as in Jer. 49.30: 'Over you' and not 'over them'
Clkm/'lhm).
tarte masma'
Another hermeneutic device frequently used from the Bible itself, is
called tarte masma' by which the translator employs the double
meaning of a word. 15 In the phrase magor missabib, 'terror around
about', of the MT (Jer. 6.25), from the root gwr, 'to dwell', and
'terror', LXX translates according to the first meaning, 'dwells around'
(paroikei) and we find something similar in P: 'she approaches
around'. 16 The Targum makes use of both meanings of the root gwr,
and comments: 'the sword of the enemy is killing those who are
assembled round about'. Related to the same root, the Hebrew word
ger, 'resident, alien' is found, which corresponds in Targum to gyor
and in the LXX to proselytos (Targ. Jer. 7.6; 22.3); both words, gyor
and proselytos, probably also include the religious connotation of
'proselyte'; thus, I think, the meaning of these words embraces both
'alien' and 'proselyte'. 17 Seemingly the Hebrew word deber would be
understood in Targum and LXX as 'plague' and 'deadly pestilence' and
the qualifying 'deadly' is taken to be a noun so that deber is rendered
in Targum and the LXX by 'death', mota, thanatos (Jer. 14.12; 24.10;
38.2; 44.13). 18
Free Translations for Explaining or Specifying the Hebrew Text
In many passages the translator feels the need to clarify the meaning
of the Hebrew text so that its contents would be comprehensible in a
certain way. For this purpose the original word is usually changed, or
another one is added. In line with this Targum and LXX replace the
verb 'sanctify' by another one more suitable to the context, e.g.
15. See Munoz, Derds, pp. 95-96.
16. P has a paraphrasis: 'the daughter of my people approaches about'; see also
Jer. 20.10.
17. The translator, probably, does not refer only to one meaning of the word as
Le D6aut ('La Septante, un Targum', p. 149 and n. 13) indicates, but he intends to
give to the word its double meaning.
18. Also the root mwtn' of P implies the two meanings: 'death' and 'pestilence'.