The Aramaic Bible · the Torah
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan Leviticus · chapter 12
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 Lord spake with Mosheh, saying:
Speak with the sons of Israel, saying: When a woman hath conceived and borne a male child, she shall be unclean seven days, as the days of the removal of her uncleanness shall she be unclean.
But on the eighth day she shall be loosed, and her child shall be circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin.
And thirty and three continuous days she shall have for the purification of the whole blood; but she must not touch things sacred, nor come into the sanctuary until the time when the days of her purification be completed.
And if she hath borne a daughter, she shall be unclean fourteen continuous days according to (the law of) her separation; and on the fifteenth she shall be released; but sixty and six continuous days shall she have for the (full) purification of the blood.
And when the days of her purification are completed for the son or the daughter, she shall bring a lamb of its year for a burnt offering, and a young pigeon or a turtle dove for a sin offering, unto the priest at the door of the tabernacle of ordinance;
and the priest shall offer it before the Lord and make atonement for her; then shall she be purified from either source of (her) blood. This is the law of the purification of her who hath borne a son or a daughter.
But if she find not her hand sufficient to bring a lamb, let her bring two turtle doves or two young pigeons; one for the burnt offering, and one for the sin offering, and the priest shall make atonement for her, and she shall be clean.
Aramaic. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan, Aramaic: 'Targum Jonathan on Leviticus' (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.