The Aramaic Bible

The Aramaic Bible · the Prophets

Targum Jonathan on the Prophets Malachi · chapter 3

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 →

Tap any Aramaic word to trace it to its Jastrow dictionary entry.

  1. :

    “Behold, I will send My messenger, who will prepare the way before Me. Then the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to His temple — the Messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight — see, He is coming,” says the LORD of Hosts.

  2. :

    But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? For He will be like a refiner’s fire, like a launderer’s soap.

  3. :

    And He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; He will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver. Then they will present offerings to the LORD in righteousness.

  4. :

    Then the offerings of Judah and Jerusalem will please the LORD, as in days of old and years gone by.

  5. :

    “Then I will draw near to you for judgment. And I will be a swift witness against sorcerers and adulterers and perjurers, against oppressors of the widowed and fatherless, and against those who defraud laborers of their wages and deny justice to the foreigner but do not fear Me,” says the LORD of Hosts.

  6. :

    “Because I, the LORD, do not change, you descendants of Jacob have not been destroyed.

  7. :

    Yet from the days of your fathers, you have turned away from My statutes and have not kept them. Return to Me, and I will return to you,” says the LORD of Hosts. “But you ask, ‘How can we return?’

  8. :

    Will a man rob God? Yet you are robbing Me! But you ask, ‘How do we rob You?’ In tithes and offerings.

  9. :

    You are cursed with a curse, yet you— the whole nation— are still robbing Me.

  10. :

    Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in My house. Test Me in this,” says the LORD of Hosts. “See if I will not open the windows of heaven and pour out for you blessing without measure.

  11. :

    I will rebuke the devourer for you, so that it will not destroy the fruits of your land, and the vine in your field will not fail to produce fruit,” says the LORD of Hosts.

  12. :

    “Then all the nations will call you blessed, for you will be a land of delight,” says the LORD of Hosts.

  13. :

    “Your words against Me have been harsh,” says the LORD. “Yet you ask, ‘What have we spoken against You?’

  14. :

    You have said, ‘It is futile to serve God. What have we gained by keeping His requirements and walking mournfully before the LORD of Hosts?

  15. :

    So now we call the arrogant blessed. Not only do evildoers prosper, they even test God and escape.’”

  16. :

    At that time those who feared the LORD spoke with one another, and the LORD listened and heard them. So a scroll of remembrance was written before Him regarding those who feared the LORD and honored His name.

  17. :

    “They will be Mine,” says the LORD of Hosts, “on the day when I prepare My treasured possession. And I will spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him.

  18. :

    So you will again distinguish between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not.”

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Aramaic. Targum Jonathan to the Prophets, Aramaic: 'Mikraot Gedolot' (public domain), served by the Sefaria v3 API (sefaria.org)

English. The Masoretic verse (Berean Standard Bible, public domain), shown for reference, Targum Jonathan is the ancient Aramaic rendering of this verse.

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 Malachi 3: word by word · Bubble Bible