CHAPTER 48

In all cases in which the notion of hearing occurs with reference to God, may He be exalted, you will find that Onqelos the Proselyte avoids the expression and has interpreted its meaning as signifying that the matter in question reached Him, may He be exalted, or that He apprehended it. Or if it occurs with regard to a prayer, he interprets its meaning as signifying that He accepted it or did not accept it. Thus when interpreting the words, The Lord heard, he always says, It was heard before the Lord. And with regard to prayer, he translates, I will surely hear his cry,¹ by the phrase, I will surely accept.² This happens continually in his interpretation, and he does not deviate from this usage in any place.

As for the expressions denoting sight that occur with reference to Him, may He be exalted, Onqelos varies with regard to them in a strange way, the purpose and intention of which are not clear to me. For in some place he interprets the words, And the Lord saw, by the words, And the Lord beheld; whereas in other passages he interprets these as follows: [54b] And it was revealed before the Lord. Now the fact that in his interpretation he uses the words, And the Lord beheld, is a clear proof that the word to behold is equivocal in the Syriac3 language, inasmuch as it indicates both the notion of an apprehension of the intellect and that of an apprehension of the senses. This being so, according to his opinion, would that I knew why in some cases he avoids the expression and interprets the Hebrew words as: And it was revealed before the Lord. When I examined the copies of this translation that I could find and withal what I had heard in the course of instruction, I discovered that in the cases in which the word seeing is found in conjunction with wrongdoing or harming and committing an act of aggression, he interprets it as: It was revealed before the Lord. Thus there is no doubt that the word to behold has in that language4 the meaning: to apprehend and to establish the thing apprehended as it is apprehended. Therefore when seeing is mentioned in connection with wrongdoing, he did not say, And He beheld, but, And it was revealed before the Lord. For I found that he used the word to behold to interpret the term seeing in all the passages in the whole of Torah in which the [Hebrew] word is used with reference to God, except in the verses that I am about to cite to you. Because the Lord hath seen my affliction,⁵ translated by him: Because my affliction was revealed before the Lord. For I have seen all that Laban doeth unto thee,⁶ translated by him: For before me it is revealed; although in this case the speaker is but an angel, an apprehension indicative of his establishing the fact apprehended by him cannot be ascribed to him because this fact consists in wrongdoing. And God saw the children of Israel,⁷ translated by him: And the enslavement of the children of Israel was revealed before the Lord. I have surely seen the affliction of My people,⁸ translated by him: The enslavement of My people was surely revealed before Me. And I have also seen the oppression,⁹ translated by him: And the oppression was also revealed before Me. And that He had seen their affliction,¹⁰ translated by him: For their enslavement was revealed before Him. I have seen this people,¹¹ translated by him: This people was revealed before me—for the meaning of this verse is: I saw their disobedience; just as in the verse, And God saw the children of Israel,¹² the meaning is that He saw their misery. And when the Lord saw [it]. He abhorred [them],¹³ translated by him: And it was revealed before the Lord. When He seeth that their power is gone,¹⁴ translated by him: For it was revealed before Him—for this [55a] too is a state when wrong was done to them and when the enemy was dominant. All these passages are consistent and take into account the verse: And Thou canst not look on iniquity.15 Thus it is on this account that [Onqelos] translates every reference to enslavement or disobedience by: It was revealed before Him, or It was revealed before Me.

However, this excellent and lengthy explanation,¹⁶ which is not subject to doubt, is spoilt for me by three passages that, if the analogy held good,¹⁷ ought to have been interpreted by him: And it was revealed before the Lord. But in the copies of his translation we find that he translates: And the Lord beheld. These passages are: And the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great;18 And God saw the earth and, behold, it was corrupt;¹⁹ And the Lord saw that Leah was hated.²⁰ The explanation that seems to me the most probable is that those are mistakes that have crept into the copies of the translation, for we do not have Onqelos’ autograph of these passages; if we had, we should have said that perhaps²¹ he had in mind some interpretation with regard to this. As for his interpreting the verse, God will see for Himself the lamb,²² by the words, The lamb is revealed before the Lord, this is so either because this does not suggest to the estimative faculty that God, may He be exalted, will start to seek the lamb and to bring it into existence, or because from the standpoint of the [Syriac] language it was considered shocking that His apprehension should be connected with such an individual as an animal devoid of reason. As far as these passages are concerned,²³ a careful investigation should be made with a view to correcting the copies of the translation. If, however, the passages are found to have the text we cited, I do not know what purpose [Onqelos] had in translating them in this manner.²⁴