The Aramaic Bible · the Prophets
Targum Jonathan on the Prophets Jonah · chapter 4
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 displeased Jonah as greatly evil, and he raised an objection.
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And he prayed before the LORD and said: “Accept my plea, LORD! Isn’t this what I said would happen upon my land? This is why I hurried to flee to the sea, since I know that You, God, are merciful and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in doing good, and You turn Your word back from bringing about evil.
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And now, LORD, take — now! — my life from me, because better I die than live.”
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And the LORD said, “You mad?”
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And Jonah went out from the city and sat east of the city and built a hut there and sat under it in shadow until he could see what the doom of the city would be.
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And the LORD God invited a gourd, and it grew up over Jonah to be shade over his head, to shelter him from its evil, and Jonah rejoiced with much rejoicing over the gourd.
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And the LORD invited a worm as the sun rose on the net day, and it struck the gourd and it wilted.
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And when the sun was in the east, the LORD invited a silent east wind, and the sun spread out over Jonah’s head, and he was weakened and asked for his life to die, saying “Better I die than live.”
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And the LORD said to Jonah, “You mad about that gourd?” And he said, “Yes, I’m so mad I want to die!”
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And the LORD said, “You! You had mercy on the gourd which you didn’t work for and you didn’t grow, one night it was there and the next it was gone.
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And I, should I not have mercy on Nineveh, the great city that had in it more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who don’t know the difference between their right and left, and many animals too?
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.