The Aramaic Bible: Targums in their Historical Context

MAHER Targum Pseudo-Jonathan of Deuteronomy 1.1-8 283
from now on it would be bad for you to remain* 1 on this mountain
(Pseudo-Jonathan DeuL 1.6).
After the introductory words of v. 6, 'The Lord our God said to us',
Pseudo-Jonathan, and Pseudo-Jonathan alone, adds 'and (I am) not
(speaking) on my own (authority)' (wl' 'n b'anpy npsy). This
addition faithfully represents the Sifre comment on the words 'The
Lord our God spoke to us at Horeb'. Sifre reads as follows: Moses
said to them: 'I am not speaking on my own (/' m'smy 'ny '\vrnr)—
what I am saying to you comes form the mouth of the Holy One'.
Pseudo-Jonathan shows an economy of words and does not feel the
need to be as explicit as Sifre in making the point that Moses is not
speaking on his own authority but in the name of God.
Pseudo-Jonathan inserts a longish midrashic addition into his rendering
of the words 'You have stayed long enough at this mountain
(rb Ikm sbt bhr hzhY. This addition is a combination of three interpretations
of these same biblical words which are recorded in Sifre 5.
The first of these refers to the Tabernacle, the Showbread Table and
the lampstand as rewards that were received at Horeb; the second—
which begins as follows: 'your staying at this mountain has been a
benefit for you (hnyh hy' Ikm ysybtkm; cf. Pseudo-Jonathan 'thny
IkwnY—refers to the gift of the Torah, the seventy elders, and the
leaders of thousands, of hundreds etc., that were appointed over the
people; the third states that Israel's staying on the mountain was bad
for Israel, since idleness is bad. The first two interpretations
understand HT rb in the sense of 'gain, reward'. The third interpretation
may involve a play on the word rb in HT—which in this context
means 'long enough'—and r\ 'bad', and it reads as follows: 'Your
staying at this mountain has been bad for you—Turn and take your
journey (Deut. 1.7), for idleness is bad'. In making this third interpretation
his own Pseudo-Jonathan modifies it, and does not say that the
stay of the Israelites at Sinai had been bad for them, but that further
delay there would be to their disadvantage. Pseudo-Jonathan's modified
version of this particular interpretation is much more meaningful
than the reading in Sifre.
We see, then, that Pseudo-Jonathan has incorporated all the essential
elements of the Sifre interpretations of the words 'You have stayed
41. I'ytrh' which M. Jastrow (A Dictionary of the Targumim, the Talmud Babli
and Yerushalmi, and the Midrashic Literature [2 vols.; New York: Pardes, 1903;
reprint 1950], p. 118) takes to mean 'to sojourn'.