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Onkelos Exodus

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Craftsmen for the Sanctuary

Chapter 31

1 And the Lord spoke with Moses, saying, 2 Look, I have called by name Bezalel son of Uri son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, 3 and I have filled him with the spirit of prophecy from the Lord's presence,⁠ with wisdom, and with understanding, and with knowledge, and with skill to excel in every kind of work, 4 to teach craftsmen to work in gold, and in silver, and in bronze, 5 and in cutting precious stones for setting, and in carving wood, to do every kind of work. 6 And I, look, I have appointed with him Oholiab son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan; and I have put wisdom in the hearts of all who are skilled, so that they may make all that I have commanded you: 7 the Tent of Meeting, and the ark of the testimony, and the Mercy Seat that is on it, and all the furnishings of the tent; 8 and the table and its vessels, and the pure lampstand and all its vessels, and the altar of incense, 9 and the altar of burnt offering and all its vessels, and the basin and its stand; 10 and the garments for ministry, and the holy garments for Aaron the priest, and the garments of his sons for ministering; 11 and the anointing oil, and the fragrant incense for the sanctuary; they shall make them according to all that I have commanded you.

The Sabbath and the Tablets

12 And the Lord spoke with Moses, saying, 13 And you, speak with the sons of Israel, saying, You shall surely keep My Sabbaths; for it is a sign between My Memra and you throughout your generations, so that you may know that I am the Lord who sanctifies you. 14 And you shall keep the Sabbath, for it is holy to you; whoever profanes it shall surely be put to death; for whoever does any work on it, that person shall be cut off from among his people. 15 For six days work shall be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath, the holy Sabbath before the Lord; whoever does work on the Sabbath day shall surely be put to death. 16 And the sons of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, observing the Sabbath throughout their generations, as a statute forever. 17 It is a sign between My Memra and the sons of Israel forever; for in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed. 18 And when He had finished speaking with Moses on Mount Sinai, He gave Moses two tablets of the testimony, tablets of stone, inscribed with the finger of the Lord.⁠

Texts in conversation

Compare Exodus 31:18 and Onkelos Exodus 31:18

Hebrew Bible · Targum

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Summary

Exodus 31 is a rare case where Targum Onkelos preserves a human-like image of God, describing the tablets written by the finger of God. Unlike other passages that change this language, this was preserved likely to emphasize that God wrote the tablets.

Passages

Exodus 31:18

Hebrew Bible
17 It is a sign between me and the Israelites forever; for in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed.’” 18 He gave Moses two tablets of testimony when he had finished speaking with him on Mount Sinai, tablets of stone written by the finger of God.
750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Exodus

Onkelos Exodus 31:18

Targum
17 It is a sign between My Memra and the sons of Israel forever; for in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed. 18 And when He had finished speaking with Moses on Mount Sinai, He gave Moses two tablets of the testimony, tablets of stone, inscribed with the finger of the Lord.
50–500 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Onkelos Exodus

References

"... In Exodus 31:18, our Targumist retains Scripture's clearly anthropomorphic 'finger of the Lord,' although it is exchanged in 8:15 to 'a plague from before the Lord.' Some Targum interpreters suppose that since 31:18 speaks of the two tablets of the testimony (in contrast to 8:15, which talks of the plague of lice), the targumist kept the anthropomorphic phrase to strengthen the readers' belief that God transmitted the Torah. Actually, Onkelos does not replace all phrases that ascribe human attributes to God. In 32:16, 'work of the Lord' and 'writing...of the Lord' are also left unchanged; they too refer to the tablets. Changing every one of the multitudes of anthropomorphisms would have produced a text radically different and, indeed, unrecognizable from the biblical original and would have distanced the reader from Scripture. The targumist made subjective judgments when translating, and deleted or changed only those words he felt would be misunderstood ..."
Israel Drazin and Stanley M. Wagner, Onkelos on the Torah, Exodus: Understanding the Bible Text (Jerusalem: Gefen, 2006), 216.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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