Texts in Conversation
Exodus 14 describes God disrupting the Egyptian army, saying that he fights for Israel. The Aramaic translation in Targum Onkelos changes this to make it more abstract and removes the interpretive possibility that God has a body and physically fights.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Exodus 14:25
Hebrew Bible
24 In the morning watch the Lord looked down on the Egyptian army through the pillar of fire and cloud, and he threw the Egyptian army into a panic. 25 He jammed the wheels of their chariots so that they had difficulty driving, and the Egyptians said, “Let’s flee from Israel, for the Lord fights for them against Egypt!” 26 The Lord said to Moses, “Extend your hand toward the sea, so that the waters may flow back on the Egyptians, on their chariots, and on their horsemen!”
Date: 750–400 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
Onkelos Exodus 14:25
Targum
24 And in the morning watch the Lord looked down on the army of the Egyptians from the pillar of fire and cloud, and threw the army of the Egyptians into confusion. 25 And He removed the wheels of their chariots, so that they drove them with difficulty; and the Egyptians said, Let us flee from Israel; for this is the power of the Lord which does battle for them against Egypt. 26 And the Lord said to Moses, Stretch out your hand over the sea, so that the waters may come back over the Egyptians, over their chariots and their horsemen.
Date: 50–500 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... Our targumist adds this entire phrase, which is absent in the biblical text, in order to avoid having God involved directly in undignified fighting. It is possible that he does not change 'Egypt' into 'Egyptians' (against the Egyptians) as is done elsewhere in the chapter because the Mekhilta, from which he draws his understanding of Scriptures, suggests that just as Egyptians were struck at the sea, so were they struck throughout Egypt ..."
Israel Drazin and Stanley M. Wagner, Onkelos on the Torah, Exodus: Understanding the Bible Text (Jerusalem: Gefen, 2006), 85.
* 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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