The Aramaic Bible: Targums in their Historical Context

286 The Aramaic Bible: Targums in their Historical Context
reading of Onqelos and chooses a translation that is in agreement with
that of the Palestinian Targums. On a few occasions Pseudo-Jonathan
goes his own independent way and offers his own personal rendering
of the Hebrew.
Pseudo-Jonathan is the only Targum of this verse to mention Arad
and Hormah. In referring to these places Pseudo-Jonathan is dependent
on Sifre 6, which in turn is following the indications of Num.
21.1-3. Like Pseudo-Jonathan, Rashi in his commentary on the
Pentateuch also adopts the Sifre interpretation of our present verse.
Sifre 6 takes sknyw, 'the neighbouring regions' (RSV), of HT to be
'Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir'. Pseudo-Jonathan, and Pseudo-
Jonathan alone among the Targums, takes up this tradition, replacing
the Hebrew name Seir with Gabla, as is usual in the Palestinian
Targums (cf. e.g., Deut. 1.2). 44 Here again Rashi's commentary
adopts the Sifre interpretation.
Sifre 6 interprets 'the Arabah' as 'the plain of Zoar', or, as we find
in some Sifre versions, 'the plain of the forest'.45 This latter reading is
the one that was known to Pseudo-Jonathan, and it is also the one we
find in Rashi's commentary on Deut. 1.7. Pseudo-Jonathan Deut. 1.7 is
the only place in the Targums where this translation of 'the Arabah'
occurs (compare, e.g., Num. 22.1; 26.3, 63; 31.12), and here Pseudo-
Jonathan's rendering would seem to be due to the influence of Sifre.
Zoar, the place mentioned in the Sifre text just referred to, is, if we
are to be guided by the biblical references to that place (cf. e.g.,
Gen. 12.2; 19.22; Deut. 34.3), to be located in the southern end of the
Dead Sea basin. With regard to 'the plain of the forest' to which
Pseudo-Jonathan refers we may note that Josephus tells of 'the forest
of Jarden', the place where many Jews who had fled from Jerusalem
and Macherus were slaughtered. 46
Like Onqelos and Neofiti, Pseudo-Jonathan translates 'the hill country'
and 'the Shephelah' literally, ignoring Sifre which interprets 'the
hill-country' as 'the mountain of the king', and 'the Shephelah' as 'the
lowland of Lod and the lowland in the south'. In its rendering of the
term 'the seacoast' Pseudo-Jonathan returns to Sifre. But whereas
44. See above p. 278 ('on Seir', v. 2) and n. 34.
45. See the apparatus in Finkelstein, Sifre, p. 14. 'The plain of the forest' is also
the reading in Yalkut Shim'oni 601 (vol. 1, p. 565) where the Sifre interpretation of
Deut. 1.7 is repeated.
46. Cf. Josephus, War 7.6.5.