The Aramaic Bible: Targums in their Historical Context

352 The Aramaic Bible: Targums in their Historical Context
Demon who reduces
hero to misery:
Demon associated with
birds and trees:
Anthropomorphisms
Qohelet does not have many instances of anthropomorphisms but
where they are present in the MT Targum Qoheleth, in common with
Targum Job, shows the same ambivalence to their correction as do
most of the other Targums. For example:
Hand:
Mouth:
Anger
1.6-19; 2.1-9
28.7
Both can allow the hand of God to remain in the text (Targum
Job 5.18; 12.10; Targum Qohelet 2.24; 9.1). Targum Qohelet
can even insert it where it is not (Targum Qohelet 8.4; 10.2) 9
whereas Targum Job tends to add 'plague' (mhi) to 'hand'
(Targum Job 1.11; 2.5; 12.9) or substitute it for 'hand' (Targum
Job 19.21; 30.24). 'From before' can also be substituted for
'hand' (Targum Job 2.10) or 'prophecy' (Targum Job 27.11).
Targum Job allows 'mouth' to stand in the text (Targum Job
15.30; 39.27) 10 whereas Targum Qohelet adds it to the text
(Targum Qohelet 3.14; 6.7).
Both Targums allow the 'anger of God' to remain in the text
(Targum Job e.g. 9.13; 10.17; 20.23; Targum Qohelet 5.5) and
Targum Qohelet even inserts it into the text (Targum Qohelet
1.12; 8.3). 11
Names for God
While Targum Qohelet has titles for God which are not in Targum
Job (e.g. 'Master of the Universe', 'Attribute of Justice', 'Great' or
'Good' 'Name') there are also some titles which they have in common:
9. 'Of the Lord' added to 'right hand'.
10. Though there is ambivalence in the manuscripts. In some manuscripts Memra
is added to 'mouth' in 15.30 or substituted for it in 39.27: see Fernandez Vallina, El
Targum de Job, pp. 247, 449.
11. 'Anger' used to translate 'presence'.
1.12
2.5