"... One striking characteristic of the Targums is their treatment of anthropomorphic language in speaking of God. It is important to note that this is simply part of the Targumic approach to figurative language in general. We are not sure whether the biblical writers believed their language about God to be figurative, but it is certain that the targumists thought it was. (Some anti-anthropomorphism is implicit in Israelite religion - Exodus 20:4 - but becomes programmatic only in the late Second Temple period) For instance, when the biblical text says that God “sees,” the targumists often substitute some form of the root “to reveal, be manifest” ... The targumists treat the hearing of God somewhat differently. Sometimes they cast the verb into the passive ... In other cases, the verb “receive, accept” is used as a substitute, especially when the idea of “listening to” someone is uppermost. The Targums are not uniform in the ways they avoid figurative speech about God, nor do they always agree on which instances call for paraphrase ..."