Genesis 21:22

Hebrew Bible

21 He lived in the wilderness of Paran. His mother found a wife for him from the land of Egypt. 22 At that time Abimelech and Phicol, the commander of his army, said to Abraham, “God is with you in all that you do. 23 Now swear to me right here in God’s name that you will not deceive me, my children, or my descendants. Show me, and the land where you are staying, the same loyalty that I have shown you.”

Onkelos Genesis 21:22

Targum

21 And he dwelt in the wilderness of Paran, and his mother took for him a wife from the land of Mizraim. 22 And it was in that time that Abimelek and Phikol, chief of his host, spake to Abraham, saying, The Word of the Lord is thy Helper in everything thou doest; 23 and now swear to me here, by the Word of the Lord, that thou wilt not be false with me, nor with my son, nor with my son's son; and that according to the good which I have done to thee thou wilt do with me and with the land in which thou art a sojourner.

 Notes and References

"... Again, as with “glory,” the targumists use the “Presence” of God as a way of accounting for the wording of the Hebrew text, without the suggestion that God is visible or limited to one place; the Shekhinah both is and is not God. Besides “glory” and “presence,” the targumists use “word,” “command,” or “utterance” (Memra) to render speech by and about God. The use of Memra across the Targums is unsystematic, but the core of its meaning seems to be that God acts in and through his powerful commands, so that in any context of God’s speech or action the Memra, like “glory” and “presence,” can stand for God himself ... The literature on the use of Memra in the Targums is massive, largely because, for many years, many interested parties have wished to assert (or deny) its relevance as background for the Logos concept found in Philo and in the Gospel of John ..."

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

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