The Aramaic Bible · the Torah
Targum Onkelos Genesis · chapter 39
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.
Meanwhile, Joseph had been taken down to Egypt, where an Egyptian named Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh and captain of the guard, bought him from the Ishmaelites who had taken him there.
And the LORD was with Joseph, and he became a successful man, serving in the household of his Egyptian master.
When his master saw that the LORD was with him and made him prosper in all he did,
Joseph found favor in his sight and became his personal attendant. Potiphar put him in charge of his household and entrusted him with everything he owned.
From the time that he put Joseph in charge of his household and all he owned, the LORD blessed the Egyptian’s household on account of him. The LORD’s blessing was on everything he owned, both in his house and in his field.
So Potiphar left all that he owned in Joseph’s care; he did not concern himself with anything except the food he ate. Now Joseph was well-built and handsome,
and after some time his master’s wife cast her eyes upon Joseph and said, “Sleep with me.”
But he refused. “Look,” he said to his master’s wife, “with me here, my master does not concern himself with anything in his house, and he has entrusted everything he owns to my care.
No one in this house is greater than I am. He has withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. So how could I do such a great evil and sin against God?”
Although Potiphar’s wife spoke to Joseph day after day, he refused to go to bed with her or even be near her.
One day, however, Joseph went into the house to attend to his work, and not a single household servant was inside.
She grabbed Joseph by his cloak and said, “Sleep with me!” But leaving his cloak in her hand, he escaped and ran outside.
When she saw that he had left his cloak in her hand and had run out of the house,
she called her household servants. “Look,” she said, “this Hebrew has been brought to us to make sport of us. He came to me so he could sleep with me, but I screamed as loud as I could.
When he heard me scream for help, he left his cloak beside me and ran out of the house.”
So Potiphar’s wife kept Joseph’s cloak beside her until his master came home.
Then she told him the same story: “The Hebrew slave you brought us came to me to make sport of me,
but when I screamed for help, he left his cloak beside me and ran out of the house.”
When his master heard the story his wife told him, saying, “This is what your slave did to me,” he burned with anger.
So Joseph’s master took him and had him thrown into the prison where the king’s prisoners were confined. While Joseph was there in the prison,
the LORD was with him and extended kindness to him, granting him favor in the eyes of the prison warden.
And the warden put all the prisoners under Joseph’s care, so that he was responsible for all that was done in the prison.
The warden did not concern himself with anything under Joseph’s care, because the LORD was with Joseph and gave him success in whatever he did.
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.