The Aramaic Bible · the Prophets
Targum Jonathan on the Prophets Jonah · chapter 1
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.
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And this was the word of prophecy from before the LORD with Jonah son of Amitai, saying:
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Get up, go down to Nineveh, the great city, and prophecy upon them, for their evil has risen before Me.
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And Jonah got up to flee to the sea, from before prophesying in the name of the LORD, and went down to Joppa and found a ship that was leaving to the sea, and he gave the toll and went down in it to go with them on the sea from before prophesying in the name of the LORD.
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And the LORD rose up a great wind on the sea, and there was a great cyclone in the sea, and the boat would be breaking up.
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And the sailors were afraid, and each man pleaded from object of reverence, and they saw that there was no benefit to it, and they threw the weights that were on the ship into the sea to lighten it, and Jonah had gone down to the bottom of the corner of the ship and lay down and slept.
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And the captain of the sailors got to him and said to him, “What, are you sleeping? Get up, pray before your God! Perhaps there will be mercy from before your God on us, and we will not be lost!”
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And they said, one man to another, “Come on, let’s cast lots, and we’ll know on whose account this evil is ours.” And they cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah.
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And they said to him, “Tell us, now, you on whose account this evil is ours. What is your labor? And where do you come from? Which is your country, and of which people are you?”
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And he said to them, “A Jew am I, and before the LORD God of Heaven, who made the sea and the land, I revere.”
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And the men were afraid with a great fear, and said to him, “What did you do!?” because the men know that from before the LORD he had fled, since he told them.
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And they said to him, “What should we do to you to calm the sea from us!” For the sea was going and its cyclone was strengthening.
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And he said to them, “Hoist me and throw me into the sea, and the sea will calm from upon you. For I know that it is on my account that this great cyclone is upon you.
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And the men sailed about to come to dry land, but they could not, because the sea was going and its cyclone was strengthening upon them.
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And they prayed before the LORD and said: “Receive our pleas, LORD! Let us not now be lost for the guilt of the soul of this man, and do not put upon us the guilt of righteous blood! For You are the LORD; what is desired before You, You do!”
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And they lifted up Jonah and threw him into the sea, and the sea calmed from its cyclone.
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And the men revered with great reverence before the LORD, and they said they would sacrifice sacrifices before the LORD and pledge pledges.
Aramaic. Targum Jonathan to the Prophets, Aramaic: 'Mikraot Gedolot' (public domain), served by the Sefaria v3 API (sefaria.org)
English. English: Sefaria Community Translation (CC0) — 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.