The Aramaic Bible · the Prophets
Targum Jonathan on the Prophets Jonah · chapter 2
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.
:
And the LORD invited a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the fish’s guts for three days and three nights.
:
And Jonah prayed before the LORD his God from the fish’s guts.
:
And he said: I prayed, since in narrow straits was I, before the LORD, and He received my prayer from the lowest depths; I pleaded, You acted on my plea.
:
And You threw me in the depths of the heart of the sea, and the river all around me, all the sea’s cyclones and waves passed over me.
:
And I had said: “I am driven out from before Your Word; will I again gaze upon the palace of Your Holiness?”
:
Water encircled me to death; depths surrounded me; the reedy sea rose over my head.
:
To the roots of mountains You brought me down; earth drawing against me in strength to over all existence, and You — near before You to come up from the damage alive, LORD my God.
:
In weariness my soul is upon me; of worshipping the LORD I am reminded, and entering before You is my prayer to the palace of Your Holiness.
:
Not like the nations worshipping falsehoods; of the place of goodness none of them know.
:
And I, in laudation, give thanks; my offerings I will offer before You as I pledged; I will repay my soul’s redemption in the shadow of before the LORD!
:
And the LORD spoke to the fish, and it discharged Jonah onto dry land.
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.