The Aramaic Bible · the Prophets
Targum Jonathan on the Prophets Isaiah · chapter 18
Aramaic public domain · English where it exists, else the Bible (BSB)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.
:
Ho! the land which is beyond the rivers of India, to which they come in ships from a far country, whose sails are spread as an eagle flieth with its wings.
:
That sendeth ambassadors by the sea, even in ships on the face of the waters, saying, Go, ye swift messengers, unto a people oppressed and plundered, unto a people that was mighty in times past, and shall be so in time to come: a people oppressed and robbed, whose land the nations have spoiled.
:
All ye inhabitants of the world, and ye dwellers on the earth, when the standard is lifted up on the mountains, ye shall see the standard, and the trumpet shall sound, ye shall hear of redemption.
:
For thus hath the Lord said unto me: I will give rest to my people, yea, I will make them to rest, and I will delight in my holy habitation to do them good: blessings and consolations I will bring upon them quickly, when the heat is intense through the heat of the sun, then I will be to them a cloud of dew as in the heat of harvest.
:
Before the time of harvest cometh the tree is ready to bud, and the unripe grape bursts forth into a flower: He shall slay the rulers of the nations with the sword, and their mighty ones He shall remove, and cause to pass away.
:
They shall be left together unto the fowl of the mountains, and to the beasts of the earth: all the fowls of the heavens shall dwell upon them in the summer, and all the beasts of the earth shall winter upon them.
:
At that time shall one bring an offering unto the Lord of hosts, to a people oppressed and spoiled, to a people that was mighty in times past, and shall be so in time to come, a people oppressed and robbed, whose land the nations have spoiled, unto the place which is called by the name of the Lord of hosts, whose Shekinah is in the mountain of Zion.
Aramaic. Targum Jonathan to the Prophets, Aramaic: 'Mikraot Gedolot' (public domain), served by the Sefaria v3 API (sefaria.org)
English. English: London "Chaldee Paraphrase," 1871 (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.