The Aramaic Bible: Targums in their Historical Context

ALEXANDER The Targum of the Song of Songs 325
lay before the targumist. Secondary translation is translation of other
biblical texts embedded in the targumist's paraphrase of Shir ha-
Shirim. For a number of reasons the primary translations yield few
results. There is little significant overlap of vocabulary between Shir
ha-Shirim and the other biblical books. The contrast with Chronicles
is instructive. There we have an historical narrative, large sections of
which run parallel to the other historical books. Moreover, Targum
Shir ha-Shirim often gives an allegorical paraphrase of the Hebrew,
rather than a direct translation. However, a few examples will show
how this mode of analysis would work.
(a) It can hardly be accidental that Targum Shir ha-Shirim agrees
with the pentateuchal Targumim in rendering degel (Song 2.4, \vediglo
'alay ahavah) by teqas. This equivalent is found in both Onqelos
and the Palestinian Targumim (see, e.g., ish 'al diglo in Num. 2.2).
Too much should not, perhaps, be made of the fact that Targum Shir
ha-Shirim's spelling of the word (which is derived from the Greek
taxis) agrees with Onqelos rather than with Neofiti (takhsltekhes).
(b) Targum Shir ha-Shirim's rendering of erez ('cedar') at Song 1.7
by the recherche Persian loanword gulmish is noteworthy. The consistent
equivalent in Onqelos, Jonathan, Neofiti and the Cairo Geniza
texts is erez. However, at Num. 19.6 Pseudo-Jonathan has gulmish.
This striking agreement does not necessarily indicate the dependence
of Targum Shir ha-Shirim on Pseudo-Jonathan, since both Targum
Shir ha-Shirim and Pseudo-Jonathan may have derived the equivalent
from B. RosHas23aorB. Sanh. 108b.
(c) At Song 2.1 Targum Shir ha-Shirim renders havasselet by
narqis, 'narcissus'. Havasselet occurs elsewhere only in Isa. 35.1, and
there Jonathan translates shoshanna. That translation is clearly out of
the question at Song 2.1, since havasselet is there in parallelism with
shoshannah. The well-known passage in B. Ber. 43b which distinguishes
between the 'garden narcissus' (narqis de-gintd) and the 'wild
narcissus' (narqis de-davra) may be the source of the targumic
equivalent.
(d) At Song 2.13 and 6.2 Targum Shir ha-Shirim renders
shoshannah by warda. (At Song 7.3 it treats shoshannah metaphorically.)
In the only two occurrences of the word outside the Song of
Songs, viz., Hos. 14.6 and 2 Chron. 4.5, the targumic equivalent is
shoshanna.