The Aramaic Bible

The Aramaic Bible · the Prophets

Targum Jonathan on the Prophets Isaiah · chapter 58

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.

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. :

    Cry aloud, O prophet, spare not, lift up thy voice like the voice of a trumpet, and shew unto my people their rebellion, and unto the house of Jacob their sins.

  2. :

    And they seek daily instruction from me, as if to know the ways which are right before me, finding delight in my presence as a people that doeth righteousness, and have not forsaken the judgment of their God: they ask of me judgment and truth, as if they delighted to draw nigh to the fear of the Lord.

  3. :

    They say, Wherefore do we fast, as it is revealed before Thee? wherefore have we afflicted ourselves, as known unto Thee? The prophet said unto them, Behold, in the day of your fast ye seek your extortions, and ye bring near all your stumbling-blocks.

  4. :

    Behold, ye fast for provocation and strife, and to smite with the fist of wickedness; ye shall not fast a fast as if to make your voice to be heard on high.

  5. :

    Is this the fast which I delight in? a day to afflict oneself? Is it to have his head bent down as a bulrush, and passing the night in sackcloth and ashes? Will ye call this a fast before the presence of the Lord, and a day in which I delight?

  6. :

    Is not this the fast which I have chosen? to scatter the assembly of wickedness, to loose the fetters of a decree of perverted judgment, to set at liberty the sons of the freeborn, who have suffered violence, and to remove all perverted judgment?

  7. :

    Shouldest not thou sustain the hungry with thy bread, and bring the poor that are cast out into the midst of thy house? When thou seest the naked, that thou cover him, and shouldest not hide thine eyes from the kindred who is thy flesh ?

  8. :

    Then shall thy light be revealed like the early dawn, and the healing of thy wound shall appear quickly; thy great righteousness shall go before thee, and thou shalt be gathered to the glory, which is in the presence of the Lord.

  9. :

    Then thou shalt pray, and the Lord shall hear thy prayer; thou shalt supplicate before Him, and He shall grant thy supplication, if thou put away from the midst of thee perverted judgment, the pointing of the finger, and the speaking of violent words;

  10. :

    And if thou breathest out thy soul before the hungry and satisfiest the afflicted soul, then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noonday:

  11. :

    And the Lord shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in the years of drought, and He shall quicken thy body with eternal life, and thy soul shall be full with delicacies like a watered garden, well irrigated, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.

  12. :

    Thy offspring shall build the old waste places: thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations, and they shall call thee, The restorer of the right way; The converter of the wicked to the law.

  13. :

    If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath from following thine employment on my holy day, and dost meet the Sabbath with great delight to sanctify the Lord, and honour Him, not doing thine own ways, nor making thy wants ample, nor speaking violent words:

  14. :

    Then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and He shall cause thee to dwell in the strong places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father; for thus it is decreed by the WORD of the Lord.

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.

Targum Jonathan Isaiah 58: word by word · Bubble Bible