The Aramaic Bible: Targums in their Historical Context

278 The Aramaic Bible: Targums in their Historical Context
Delayed for Forty Years
It is a march of eleven days from Horeb, by way of the mountain of
Gabla, to Reqem-Geah. But because you turned aside and angered the
Lord you were delayed for forty years. (Pseudo-Jonathan DeuL 1.2).
The Palestinian Targums and Pseudo-Jonathan make essentially the
same midrashic addition to v. 2, stating that because Israel sinned God
detained them in the wilderness. The purpose of the addition is to
explain why Israel spent forty years in the desert (cf. Deut. 1.3), if,
according to v. 2, the journey from Horeb to Kadesh-barnea should
have taken only eleven days. The reason given by the Targums is
essentially the same as that given in Sifre 2. The author of Sifre makes
the point—at some length—that if the Israelites had been meritorious
for even a short time after crossing the Reed Sea they would have
entered the Promised Land immediately. But since they acted
corruptly, God imposed upon them a delay of forty years and forty
days. Exod. R. 20. 13-16 gives several different reasons for the delay
in the wilderness. See also Targum Song 2.7; 3.5.
The Hebrew text of Deut. 1.2 reads, literally: 'It was eleven days
from Horeb...' The more usual Hebrew idiom would be 'it was eleven
days journey (drk) from Horeb...' See, for example, Gen. 30.36;a
31.23; Exod. 3.18; 5.3. In our present verse the Targums supply a
word corresponding to the Hebrew drk, Pseudo-Jonathan, Onqelos,
Fragmentary Targums and Neofiti marginal gloss using mhlk, while
Neofiti has 'rh mhlk.
'Seir' of HTis usually rendered by 'Gabla' in the Palestinian Targums
and in Pseudo-Jonathan; see, for example, Gen. 14.6; 32.4; 36.8, 9;
Num. 24.18; Deut. 1.44. 34 All the Targums, including Onqelos, translate
'Kadesh-barnea' by 'Reqem-Geah'; see, for example, Num. 32.8;
Deut. 1.2, 19; 2.14; 9.23. 35
In the phrase 'because you turned aside (or: deviated) and angered
the Lord' Pseudo-Jonathan uses two verbs that it has already used in
v. 1: 'turned aside and angered'. Compare Neofiti, Fragmentary
Targums and Ctg Br which employ the verbs 'sinned (tit')' and
'angered (rgzY, only one of which was used by these Targums in
v. 1; see above under the heading 'Unworthy Response'.
34. See further, Maher, Genesis, p. 56 n. 19.
35. Cf. Maher, Genesis, p. 56 n. 22.