Texts in Conversation
Ezekiel 18 uses a metaphor about fathers eating sour grapes and children’s teeth becoming numb to describe inherited punishment. The Aramaic translation in Targum Jonathan replaces this with a literal explanation, following a pattern used in the Targums.
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Ezekiel 18:2
Hebrew Bible
1 The Lord’s message came to me: 2 “What do you mean by quoting this proverb concerning the land of Israel: “‘The fathers eat sour grapes, And the children’s teeth become numb?’ 3 “As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, you will not quote this proverb in Israel anymore!
Date: 6th Century B.C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
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Jonathan Ezekiel 18:2
Targum
1 The word of the prophecy came from before the Lord to me, saying: 2 What is it to you that you utter this proverb concerning the land of Israel, saying: The fathers sin and the children are punished? 3 As I live, says the Lord God, you shall no longer have occasion to use this proverb in Israel.
Date: 200-300 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 ... One final example, from Ezekiel 18:2 ... In thus returning the metaphorical speech to its presumed semantic kernel, the targumists are not, in principle, going beyond the proper job of a translator. Of course, the examples just given are of speech that we, in common with the targumists, would recognize as metaphorical. But the targumists saw figurative language in many places that we would not ..."
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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