The Targum of Lamentations The Aramaic Bible • THE TARGUMS • PROJECT DIRECTOR Martin McNamara, M.S.C. editors Kevin Cathcart • Michael Maher, M.S.C. Martin McNamara, M.S.C. editorial consultants Daniel J. Harringson, S.J. • Bernard Grossfeld The Aramaic Bible Volume 17B The Targum of Lamentations Translated, with a Critical Introduction, Apparatus, and Notes BY Philip S. Alexander A Michael Glazier Book LITURGICAL PRESS Collegeville, Minnesota www.litpress.org About the Translator Philip Alexander is Professor of Post-Biblical Jewish Studies in the University of Manchester, England, Co-Director of the University’s Centre for Jewish Studies, and a Fellow of the British Academy. He is a former President of the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies. A Michael Glazier Book published by Liturgical Press. Logo design by Florence Bern. © 2007 by Order of Saint Benedict, Collegeville, Minnesota. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by print, microfilm, microfiche, mechanical recording, photocopying, translation, or by any other means, known or yet unknown, for any purpose except brief quotations in reviews, without the previous written permission of Liturgical Press, Saint John’s Abbey, P.O. Box 7500, Collegeville, Minnesota 56321-7500. Printed in the United States of America. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Bible. O.T. Lamentations. English. Alexander. 2007. The Targum of Lamentations / translated, with a critical introduction, apparatus, and notes by Philip S. Alexander. p. cm. — (The Aramaic Bible ; v. 17B) “A Michael Glazier Book.” Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and indexes. ISBN-13: 978-0-8146-5864-2 ISBN-10: 0-8146-5864-4 1. Bible. O.T. Lamentations. Aramaic—Translations into English. 2. Bible. O.T. Lamentations. Aramaic—Criticism, Textual. I. Alexander, Philip S. II. Title. BS1533.A44 2007 224'.3042—dc22 2007017616 CONTENTS Editors’ FOREWORD. vii Preface. ix LIST OF ABBREViations. xi Introduction . .1 1. The Text of Targum Lamentations. 1 2. The Language of Targum Lamentations. 12 3. The Unity and Integrity of Targum Lamentations. 20 4. The Theology of Targum Lamentations. 23 5. Targum Lamentations and the Masoretic Text. 38 6. Targum Lamentations in the History of Exegesis. 51 7. Targum Lamentations and Jewish Liturgy. 71 8. The Provenance and Date of Targum Lamentations. 87 9. Bibliography. 91 Translation . 107 APPENDIX Targum Lamentations in the Yemenite Recension: Translation and Apparatus . 188 INDEX OF SCRIPTURAL AND OTHER ANCIENT REFERENCES . 208 INDEX OF MODERN AUTHORS. 220 GENERAL INDEX. 223 Editors’ FOREWORD While any translation of the Scriptures may in Hebrew be called a Targum, the word is used especially for a translation of a book of the Hebrew Bible into Aramaic. Before the Christian era Aramaic had in good part replaced Hebrew in Palestine as the vernacular of the Jews. It continued as their vernacular for centuries later and remained in part as the language of the schools after Aramaic itself had been replaced as the vernacular. Rabbinic Judaism has transmitted Targums of all books of the Hebrew canon, with the exception of Daniel and Ezra-Nehemiah, which are themselves partly in Aramaic. We also have a translation of the Samaritan Pentateuch into the dialect of Samaritan Aramaic. From the Qumran library we have sections of a Targum of Job and fragments of a Targum of Le- viticus, chapter 16, facts which indicate that the Bible was being translated into Aramaic in pre-Christian times. Translations of books of the Hebrew Bible into Aramaic for liturgical purposes must have begun before the Christian era, even though none of the Targums transmitted to us by Rabbinic Judaism can be shown to be that old and though some of them are demonstrably compositions from later centuries. In recent decades there has been increasing interest among scholars and a larger public in these Targums. A noticeable lacuna, however, has been the absence of a modern English translation of this body of writing. It is in marked contrast with most other bodies of Jewish literature, for which there are good modern English translations, for instance the Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament, Josephus, Philo, the Mishnah, the Babylonian Talmud and Midrashic literature, and more recently the Tosefta and Palestinian Talmud. It is hoped that this present series will provide some remedy for this state of affairs. The aim of the series is to translate all the traditionally-known Targums, that is those transmitted by Rabbinic Judaism, into modern English idiom, while at the same time respecting the particular and peculiar nature of what these Aramaic translations were originally intended to be. A translator’s task is never an easy one. It is rendered doubly difficult when the text to be rendered is itself a translation which is at times governed by an entire set of principles. All the translations in this series have been specially commissioned. The translators have made use of what they reckon as the best printed editions of the Aramaic Targum in question or have themselves directly consulted the manuscripts. The translation aims at giving a faithful rendering of the Aramaic. The introduction to each Targum contains the necessary background information on the particular work. In general, each Targum translation is accompanied by an apparatus and notes. The former is vii viii Editors’ Foreword concerned mainly with such items as the variant readings in the Aramaic texts, the relation of the English translation to the original, etc. The notes give what explanations the translator thinks necessary or useful for this series. Not all the Targums here translated are of the same kind. Targums were translated at dif- ferent times, and most probably for varying purposes, and have more than one interpretative approach to the Hebrew Bible. This diversity between the Targums themselves is reflected in the translation and in the manner in which the accompanying explanatory material is presented. However, a basic unity of presentation has been maintained. Targumic deviations from the Hebrew text, whether by interpretation or paraphrase, are indicated by italics. A point that needs to be stressed with regard to this translation of the Targums is that by reason of the state of current targumic research, to a certain extent it must be regarded as a provisional one. Despite the progress made, especially in recent decades, much work still remains to be done in the field of targumic study. Not all the Targums are as yet available in critical editions. And with regard to those that have been critically edited from known manuscripts, in the case of the Targums of some books the variants between the manuscripts themselves are such as to give rise to the question whether they have all descended from a single common original. Details regarding these points will be found in the various introductions and critical notes. It is recognized that a series such as this will have a broad readership. The Targums con- stitute a valuable source of information for students of Jewish literature, particularly those concerned with the history of interpretation, and also for students of the New Testament, especially for those interested in its relationship to its Jewish origins. The Targums also con- cern members of the general public who have an interest in the Jewish interpretation of the Scriptures or in the Jewish background to the New Testament. For them the Targums should be both interesting and enlightening. By their translations, introductions, and critical notes, the contributors to this series have rendered an immense service to the progress of targumic studies. It is hoped that the series, provisional though it may be, will bring significantly nearer the day when the definitive trans- lation of the Targums can be made. Kevin Cathcart Martin McNamara, m.s.c. Michael Maher, m.s.c. Preface It is with an immense sense of relief that I conclude this study of the Targum of Lamentations, which has occupied my attention on and off for over twenty years—ever since I published my first thoughts on the subject in 1986. Though I have had plenty of time for my ideas to mature and, given the brevity of the biblical book on which it is based, the present volume might be considered full, I am still conscious of having at a number of points only scratched the surface. A complete edition of the Targumic text that adequately presents both the West- ern and the Yemenite recensions remains a desideratum, though we have competent editions of the individual traditions. A comprehensive analysis of the Targum’s Aramaic dialect is lacking, and the basic tools for such an analysis (concordances and a grammar based on the manuscripts) do not exist. Lexically we are still not well off for this Targum. Time and again we have to fall back on Jastrow, who at least had the courage to tackle all the vocabulary in the text, even if his judgments are sometimes questionable. The Targum’s relationship to Lamentations Rabba, and the place it held in the commemoration of the destruction of Jeru- salem in late antiquity, would repay further investigation even after the present study. There are, surely, several potential doctoral dissertations here! Over the years I have come to the settled conviction that a text like this can be understood only by putting it in the widest possible setting, and this is what I have tried to do. No aspect of Judaism in late antiquity can be understood unless it is triangulated with what was happening not only in the contemporary Jewish world but in the Christian and pagan worlds as well. I refer not so much to political events as to developments in the intellectual, religious, literary, and social spheres. The study of the Targum is hampered by too narrow a focus.