Texts in Conversation
In Isaiah 6:9, God tells the prophet to speak in a way so the people are unable to understand and repent. The Aramaic translation in Targum Jonathan preserves this idiom, maintaining the tone and structure of the original. This is different from the Greek Septuagint translation, which changes the text to soften the portrayal of God.
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Isaiah 6:9
Hebrew Bible
7 He touched my mouth with it and said, “Look, this coal has touched your lips. Your evil is removed; your sin is forgiven.” 8 I heard the voice of the Lord say, “Whom will I send? Who will go on our behalf?” I answered, “Here I am, send me!” 9 He said, “Go and tell these people: “‘Listen continually, but don’t understand. Look continually, but don’t perceive.’ 10 Make the hearts of these people calloused; make their ears deaf and their eyes blind. Otherwise they might see with their eyes and hear with their ears, their hearts might understand and they might repent and be healed.” 11 I replied, “How long, Lord?” He said, “Until cities are in ruins and unpopulated, and houses are uninhabited, and the land is ruined and devastated,
Date: 7th-5th Centuries B.C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
Source
Jonathan Isaiah 6:9
Targum
7 And he placed it in my mouth, and said, Behold, I have put the words of my prophecies in thy mouth, and thy iniquities are put away, and thy sins are expiated. 8 And I heard the voice of the Word of the Lord, which said, Whom shall I send to prophesy? and who will go to teach? Then said I, Here am I, send me. 9 And He said, Go, and tell this people, who are diligently hearing, but understand not, and see diligently, but know not. 10 Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and darken their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and repent, and it shall be forgiven them. 11 Then said I, Lord, how long? And He answered, Until the cities be wasted without an inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land be laid desolate and wasted.
Date: 200-300 C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... Targumim may therefore enable us to find materials that are useful in comparison with the Gospels and the rest of the New Testament. In a scholarly age when comparison based on social models has become common, the Targumim provide insights into the treatment of Scripture among ordinary Jews. Another example illustrates an instance in which Jesus appears to have cited a form of Scripture that is closer to the Targum than to any other extant source. In such cases, an awareness that he does so helps us to understand his preaching better than the general similarity between Luke and Pseudo-Jonathan illustrates. Targum of Isaiah 6:9, 10 is an especially famous instance, and it helps to explain Mark 4:11, 12. The statement in Mark could be taken to mean that Jesus told parables with the express purpose “that” (Greek: hina) people might see and not perceive, hear and not understand, lest they turn and be forgiven ..."
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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