The Aramaic Bible

The Aramaic Bible · the Torah

Targum Pseudo-Jonathan Deuteronomy · chapter 17

Aramaic public domain · English by Etheridge (1862)
Compare this chapter in Targum Onkelos
What is the Aramaic Bible?

After the exile, most Jews spoke Aramaic, not Hebrew, so in the synagogue each Scripture reading was followed by an Aramaic translation read aloud, so ordinary people could follow. Those translations are the Aramaic Bible. Scholars call them the Targums.

Why it’s worth reading: a Targum doesn’t just translate, it quietly explains as it goes. So it’s a window into how the first Jewish readers actually understood a passage. Famously, the Aramaic of Isaiah 53 names the servant “the Messiah” outright.

Hebrew, Greek & the Aramaic Bible, when to use each →

Why it reads differently from your Bible: a Targum doesn’t just translate, it interprets as it goes, so its wording often expands or differs from the plain Hebrew. That difference is the window into how the first readers understood it.

Tap any Aramaic word to trace it to its Jastrow dictionary entry.

  1. You shall not sacrifice before the. Lord your God a bullock or lamb which hath any blemish or evil in it, or which is torn or rent; for that is abominable before the Lord your God.

  2. If there be found among you in one of your cities that the Lord your God will give you a man or woman who doth what is evil before the Lord your God in transgressing His covenant,

  3. and, following after evil desire, shall serve the idols of the Gentiles, and worship them, or the sun, or the moon, or all the host of the heavens, which I have not commanded;

  4. and it be told you, and you hear and make inquiry by witnesses fairly; and, behold, if this word be true and certain, that such abomination is wrought among you,

  5. then you shall bring forth that man or woman who hath done this evil thing, unto the gate of your house of judgment, the man or the woman, and you shall stone them that they die.

  6. Upon the word of two witnesses or of three he shall die who is guilty of death; they shall not be put to death on the word of one witness.

  7. The hands of the witnesses shall be first upon him to kill him, and afterward the hands of all (any of) the people; and so shall you bring down the evil doer among you.

  8. If there be with you an extraordinary matter for judgment between unclean and clean blood, cases of life or of money, or between a plague of leprosy or of the scall, with words of controversy in your beth din, then you shall arise and go up to the place which the Lord your God will choose;

  9. and you shall come to the priests of the tribe of Levi, and to the judge who will be in those days, and inquire of them, and they will show you the process of judgment.

  10. Then shall you do according to the word of the custom of the law that they will show you at the place the Lord will choose, and observe to do whatsoever they teach you.

  11. According to the word of the law that they will teach you, and the manner of judgment they pronounce, you shall do. You shall not turn aside from the sentence they will show you, to the right or to the left.

  12. And the man who will act with presumption, and not obey the judge or the priest who standeth there to minister before the Lord your God, that man shall be put to death; so shalt you put down the doer of evil from Israel,

  13. and all the people will hear, and be afraid, and not do wickedly again.

  14. When you enter the land which the Lord your God giveth you, and possess, and dwell in it, and you say, Let us appoint a king over us, like all the nations about me,

  15. you shall inquire for instruction before the Lord and afterward appoint the king over you: but it will not be lawful to set over you a foreign man who is not of your brethren.

  16. Only let him not increase to him more than two horses, lest his princes ride upon them, and become proud, neglect the words of the law, and commit the sin of the captivity of Mizraim; for the Lord hath told you, By that way ye shall return no more.

  17. Neither shall he multiply to him wives above eighteen, lest they pervert his heart; nor shall he increase to him silver or gold, lest his heart be greatly lifted up, and he rebel against the God of heaven.

  18. And it shall be that if he be steadfast in the commandments of the law he shall sit upon the throne of his kingdom in security. And let the elders write for him the section (pharasha) of this law in a book before the priests of the tribe of Levi;

  19. and let it be at his side, and he shall read it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, to keep all the words of this law, and all these statutes to perform them:

  20. that his heart may not be arrogant toward his brethren, nor decline from the precepts to the right or the left, and that his days may be prolonged over his kingdom, his and his sons among Israel.

Aramaic. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan, Aramaic: 'Targum Jonathan on Deuteronomy' (public domain), served by the Sefaria v3 API (sefaria.org)

English. English: J. W. Etheridge (1862) (Public Domain) — an established translation of the Targum itself, joined by verse number. Never an AI rendering (BB-42).

We show the license-cleared original Aramaic and an established English translation, each Aramaic word traceable to a public-domain lexicon. We never machine-translate a primary text.

Targum Pseudo-Jonathan Deuteronomy 17: word by word · Bubble Bible