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Onkelos Leviticus

About this book

Burnt Offerings

Chapter 1

1 And the Lord called to Moses, and the Lord spoke with him from the Tent of Meeting, saying: 2 Speak with the sons of Israel, and say to them: When one of you brings an offering before the Lord of the cattle, of oxen or of sheep, you shall offer your offerings. 3 If his offering is a burnt offering from the cattle, it shall be a male, unblemished; he shall offer him at the door of the Tent of Meeting; he shall offer him for acceptance before the Lord. 4 And he shall lay his hand on the head of the burnt offering, so that it may be accepted on his behalf to make atonement for him. 5 And he shall slaughter the young bull before the Lord; and the sons of Aaron the priest shall bring the blood, and sprinkle the blood all around the altar which is at the door of the Tent of Meeting. 6 And he shall remove the skin of the burnt offering, and cut it into pieces. 7 And the sons of Aaron the priest shall put fire on the altar, and lay the wood in order on the fire. 8 And the priests, the sons of Aaron, shall arrange the limbs and the head and the fat on the wood on the fire which is on the altar. 9 But he shall wash its internal organs and legs with water; and the priest shall burn all of it on the altar as an entire burnt offering, an offering to be received with acceptance before the Lord.⁠ 10 And if his offering is from the flock, of the sheep or the young of the goats for a burnt offering, he shall bring an unblemished male. 11 And he shall slaughter it at the north side of the altar before the Lord; and the priests the sons of Aaron shall sprinkle his blood all around the altar. 12 And he shall cut it into pieces, with its head and its feet; and the priest shall lay them on the wood which is on the fire on the altar. 13 But he shall wash the internal organs and the legs with water, and the priest shall bring all of it and burn it on the altar: it is a whole burnt offering, an offering to be received with acceptance before the Lord. 14 But if the burnt offering of his offering before the Lord is from birds, he shall bring his offering from turtledoves or young pigeons. 15 And the priest shall offer it on the altar, and wring off its head, and burn it on the altar, and pour its blood by the side of the altar: 16 and he shall remove its crop with its food, and throw it on the east side of the altar, at the place where they empty the ashes. 17 And he shall take it apart by its wings, but not separate it completely; and the priest shall burn it at the altar on the wood that is on the fire: it is a burnt offering, an offering that shall be received with acceptance before the Lord.

Texts in conversation

Compare Leviticus 1:9 and Onkelos Leviticus 1:9

Hebrew Bible · Targum

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Summary

Leviticus describes the burnt offering producing a “sweet smell,” language that suggests God experiences pleasure like a human. The Aramaic translation in Targum Onkelos changes it so the offering is “accepted,” softening the human depiction of God.

Passages

Leviticus 1:9

Hebrew Bible
8 Then the sons of Aaron, the priests, must arrange the parts with the head and the suet on the wood that is in the fire on the altar. 9 Finally, the one presenting the offering must wash its entrails and its legs in water, and the priest must offer all of it up in smoke on the altar—it is a burnt offering, a gift of a soothing aroma to the Lord. 10 “‘If his offering is from the flock for a burnt offering—from the sheep or the goats—he must present a flawless male,
750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Leviticus

Onkelos Leviticus 1:9

Targum
8 And the priests, the sons of Aaron, shall arrange the limbs and the head and the fat on the wood on the fire which is on the altar. 9 But he shall wash its internal organs and legs with water; and the priest shall burn all of it on the altar as an entire burnt offering, an offering to be received with acceptance before the Lord. 10 And if his offering is from the flock, of the sheep or the young of the goats for a burnt offering, he shall bring an unblemished male.
50–500 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Onkelos Leviticus

References

"... Scripture's anthropopathic 'sweet savor' is introduced in Genesis 8:21 and reappears, among other places, in 1 Samuel 26:19 and Amos 5:21. The phrase expresses divine pleasure with the Israelite performance (Sifra, Ibn Ezra, and Rashi). The Akkadian cognate and the Hebrew root mean 'soothing.' Onkelos and Pseudo-Jonathan's 'that is accepted with pleasure' explains Scripture's metaphor 'sweet savor' and reflects Sifra's interpretation, but it does not remove the portrait of God having a human emotion. Accordingly, Maimonides understands 'pleasure' to refer to the human who must perform the sacrifice in a proper manner. The targumic change reoccurs in verses 13 and 17 ..."
Israel Drazin and Stanley M. Wagner, Onkelos on the Torah, Leviticus: Understanding the Bible Text (Jerusalem: Gefen, 2008), 4–5.

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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Leviticus 1:9 and Onkelos Leviticus 1:9

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