The Aramaic Bible: Targums in their Historical Context

224 The Aramaic Bible: Targums in their Historical Context
some of the elders' of Jer. 19.1. The addition of the particle ke, 'as', is
similarly used by comparing Israel to a woman in LXX, P, V and
Targum (Jer. 3.20) or 'the prophet' to 'a wall of bronze' in Targum,
LXX and P (Jer. 15.20). In other passages of ancient versions the
addition of a comparative is also found (Jer. 9.6; P and Targum:
'Their tongue is like a sharpened arrow'; LXX, P and Targ. 22.28:
'like a vessel in which there is no use'; all the versions carry the
comparative: 'they shall become weak like women', Jer. 50.37. 22 On
the other hand, the pejorative condition of some prophets is indicated
with the epithet 'false' (so Jer. 27.9, 14 in Targ. and P; Targ. and LXX
in Jer. 6.13; 34.9; 36.1, 8) 23 ; or the poor quality of the fruit in Jer.
28.17 according to P and Targum through the adjective. Some phrases
are completed in order to become clearer. In Jer. 9.25, the phrase 'in
their flesh' is added by Targum, LXX and P to passive participle
'uncircumcised'. The divine punishment is likewise stressed with the
complementary phrase 'in his anger' (Targ. and LXX in Jer. 20.16). 24
Changes on Account of Theological Ideas
Other changes are caused on account of great reverence to divinity, or
of the holiness of the Bible text. We can mention the tendency to
reject anthropomorphic expressions related to God. Thus, 'in my eyes'
is changed by 'before me' (Jer. 18.10; 32.39; Targ., LXX and P) 25 ; the
phrase 'nothing is too wonderful for you' (Jer. 32.12, 27) sounds
blasphemous and therefore LXX, P and Targum render 'nothing is
hidden from you'. We find also the harmonization of texts which are
similar; for example P and Targum adapt the expression 'near every
leafy tree' of Jer. 17.2 to MT of Jer. 2.20; 3.6, 13, which reads almost
the same expression: 'under every leafy tree'.
These instances are not peculiar to this Targum, but are found in
many places of the Bible when it is translated by ancient versions. In
22. See also the comparative found in Targum and P of Jer. 51.30.
23. In Targum: nebiyya' de-siqra' and in LXX: pseudoprofetes. It is worth
pointing out that while in Jer. 29.18 P reads 'false prophets'—the same version of
LXX translating Jer. 34—Targum interprets as 'scribes'; see Ribera, Traduccion del
Targum de Jeremias (Valencia, 1992), p. 90 n. 13.
24. The translators seem to try to harmonize this passage with Onq. Deut. 29.22.
25. This idiomatic form qdm/mn qdm became so current that it is also used when
there is no indication of reverence; see Targum and P to Jer. 28.7: 'in the eyes of all
the people' is translated 'before all the people'.