The Aramaic Bible · the Torah
Targum Onkelos Genesis · chapter 33
Aramaic public domain · English 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.
Tap any Aramaic word to trace it to its Jastrow dictionary entry.
Now Jacob looked up and saw Esau coming toward him with four hundred men. So he divided the children among Leah, Rachel, and the two maidservants.
He put the maidservants and their children in front, Leah and her children next, and Rachel and Joseph at the rear.
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But Jacob himself went on ahead and bowed to the ground seven times as he approached his brother.
Esau, however, ran to him and embraced him, threw his arms around his neck, and kissed him. And they both wept.
When Esau looked up and saw the women and children, he asked, “Who are these with you?” Jacob answered, “These are the children God has graciously given your servant.”
Then the maidservants and their children approached and bowed down.
Leah and her children also approached and bowed down, and then Joseph and Rachel approached and bowed down.
“What do you mean by sending this whole company to meet me?” asked Esau. “To find favor in your sight, my lord,” Jacob answered.
“I already have plenty, my brother,” Esau replied. “Keep what belongs to you.”
But Jacob insisted, “No, please! If I have found favor in your sight, then receive this gift from my hand. For indeed, I have seen your face, and it is like seeing the face of God, since you have received me favorably.
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Please accept my gift that was brought to you, because God has been gracious to me and I have all I need.” So Jacob pressed him until he accepted.
Then Esau said, “Let us be on our way, and I will go ahead of you.”
But Jacob replied, “My lord knows that the children are frail, and I must care for sheep and cattle that are nursing their young. If they are driven hard for even a day, all the animals will die.
Please let my lord go ahead of his servant. I will continue on slowly, at a comfortable pace for the livestock and children, until I come to my lord at Seir.”
“Let me leave some of my people with you,” Esau said. But Jacob replied, “Why do that? Let me find favor in the sight of my lord.”
So that day Esau started on his way back to Seir,
but Jacob went on to Succoth, where he built a house for himself and shelters for his livestock; that is why the place was called Succoth.
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After Jacob had come from Paddan-aram, he arrived safely at the city of Shechem in the land of Canaan, and he camped just outside the city.
And the plot of ground where he pitched his tent, he purchased from the sons of Hamor, Shechem’s father, for a hundred pieces of silver.
There he set up an altar and called it El-Elohe-Israel.
Aramaic. Targum Onkelos, Aramaic: 'Onkelos Genesis' (public domain), served by the Sefaria v3 API (sefaria.org)
English. The Masoretic Torah verse (Berean Standard Bible, public domain), shown for reference, Targum Onkelos 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.