Texts in Conversation
Deuteronomy 28 contrasts honor and shame with the images of being the “head” or the “tail.” The Aramaic translation in Targum Onkelos follows its usual pattern and replaces this metaphor with literal language.
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Deuteronomy 28:13
Hebrew Bible
12 The Lord will open for you his good treasure house, the heavens, to give you rain for the land in its season and to bless all you do; you will lend to many nations but you will not borrow from any. 13 The Lord will make you the head and not the tail, and you will always end up at the top and not at the bottom, if you obey his commandments that I am urging you today to be careful to do. 14 But you must not turn away from all the commandments I am giving you today, to either the right or left, nor pursue other gods and worship them.
Date: 6th Century B.C.E. (Final composition) (based on scholarly estimates)
Source
Onkelos Deuteronomy 28:13
Targum
12 The Lord will open for thee His good treasure, the heavens, to give rain to thy land in its season, and to bless all the works of thy hand; and thou shalt lend unto many nations, but not borrow; 13 and the Lord will make thee strong and not weak, and thou shalt evermore be upper and not under, if thou wilt obey the commandments of the Lord thy God which I command thee this day to keep and to perform. 14 And you shall not go astray from any of the things I command you this day, right or left, to walk after the gods of the Gentiles to serve them.
Date: 100-200 C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... One major trait of the Targums is that they tend to resolve biblical metaphors into nonmetaphorical speech; they rewrite the figurative as the literal ... Another example is in Deuteronomy 28:13 ... In this instance both Onkelos and Neofiti simply substitute literal equivalents for the metaphorical words “head” and “tail.” ..."
Cook, Edward M.
"The Interpretation of the Hebrew Bible in the Targums" in Henze, Matthias (ed.) A Companion to Biblical Interpretation in Early Judaism
(pp. 92-117) William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2012
* 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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