The Aramaic Bible · the Torah
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan Genesis · chapter 23
Aramaic public domain · English by Etheridge (1862)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.
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.
And the days of the life of Sarah were an hundred and twenty and seven years, the years of the life of Sarah.
And Sarah died in Kiryath Arba, which is Hebron. And Abraham came from the mountain of worship, and found that she was dead; and he sat to mourn for Sarah, and to weep for her.
And Abraham rose up from the sight of the face of his dead, and spake with the sons of Hittah, saying,
I am a sojourner and dweller with you; I pray sell me the inheritance of a sepulchre among you, and I will bury my dead there.
And the sons of Hittah responded unto Abraham, saying to him,
Attend to us, our lord. Great before the Lord art thou among us, in the best of our sepulchres bury thy dead: there is not a man of us who will refuse thee his sepulchre, that thou mayest bury thy dead.
And Abraham rose and bowed to the people of the land, the sons of Hittah.
And he spake with them, saying, If it be with the consent of your mind that I bury my dead from before my face, receive of me, and intercede for me before Ephron bar Zochar
that he sell me his double cave which is built in the side of his field, for the full price in silver let him give it me among you, for an inheritance of sepulture.
But Ephron the Hittite answered Abraham in the presence of the sons of Hittah, of all who entered the gate of his city, saying,
My lord, listen to me: the field I give thee, and the cave which is in it, to thee I give it, as a gift before the sons of my people I give it to thee; go, bury thy dead.
And Abraham bowed before the sons of Hittah.
And he spake with Ephron before the people of the land, saying, Nevertheless, if thou art willing to do me a favour, hear me: I will give thee in silver the price of the field; take (it) of me, and I will bury my dead there. And
Ephron answered Abraham, saying to him,
My lord, hear me: the land, as to its price, would be four hundred sileen of silver; between me and thee what is that? Bury thy dead.
And Abraham hearkened unto Ephron, and Abraham weighed to Ephron the silver which he had named before the sons of Hittah, four hundred sileen of silver, good, passing at every table, and receivable in all transactions.
And he confirmed the purchase of the field of Ephron, in which (was) the double (cave) which is before Mamre, The field, and the cave that is therein, and all the trees that were in the field, in all the boundaries thereof round about,
--Unto Abraham, for a purchased possession, in the presence of the sons of Hittah, (even) of all who entered in at the gate of the city.
And afterwards Abraham buried Sarah his wife in the cave of the field Kapheilta which is before Mamre, that is, Hebron in the land of Kenaan.
And the field and the cave therein were confirmed unto Abraham for an inheritance of sepulture from the sons of Hittah.
Aramaic. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan, Aramaic: 'Targum Jonathan on Genesis' (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.