Deuteronomy 1:30

Hebrew Bible

28 What is going to happen to us? Our brothers have drained away our courage by describing people who are more numerous and taller than we are, and great cities whose defenses appear to be as high as heaven itself! Moreover, they said they saw Anakites there.” 29 So I responded to you, “Do not be terrified of them! 30 The Lord your God is about to go ahead of you; he will fight for you, just as you saw him do in Egypt 31 and in the wilderness, where you saw him carrying you along like a man carries his son. This he did everywhere you went until you came to this very place.”

Onkelos Deuteronomy 1:30

Targum

28 To what shall we go up? Our brethren have broken our heart, saying: The people are greater and stronger than we; vast are the cities, and walled to the height of heaven, and we saw there also the sons of the giants. 29 But I said to you: Be not broken (hearted), fear them not; 30 the Word of the Lord, who leadeth on before you, will fight for you, according to all that He did for you in Mizraim in your sight; 31 and in the wilderness, where thou hast seen that the Lord thy God carrieth thee, as a man carrieth his child, in all the way you have journeyed until your coming to this place.

 Notes and References

"... The two positions, that the Memra is a being somehow independent from God or that it is only an “idiom of speech,” remain with us today. In favor of the former is the fact that the Memra in the Targums does more work than would be expected if it were simply a way of talking about God’s speaking or commanding. And, as with “glory” and “presence,” there is biblical precedent for the personification of the Word. Nevertheless, the term Memra as a periphrasis for God or his action is confined to the Targums. This fact alone implies that it is a phenomenon of translation, invented by the meturgemanim to render anthropomorphic words and expressions in Scripture, and not a theological category indicating subsidiary divine beings or division of persons in the Godhead. This position is further strengthened when we see different Targums using different terms (or no term) in the same verse ... There are two anthropomorphic expressions in this verse: God is said to “go/ walk (Flh) before you” and also to “fight for you.” All the Targums change “go / walk” to “guide,” but only Onkelos introduces Memra before “fight.” In Neofiti, the “Glory of his Presence” guides, but it is the Lord who fights. Only in Pseudo-Jonathan does the Memra both guide and fight ..."

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

 User Comments

Do you have questions or comments about these texts? Please submit them here.