New Translation of Targum Ruth Available (here!)

Targum Ruth 2:4

I am very (very) pleased to post my translation of Targum Ruth. It can be found here and the opening comments and first verse are below. This is a first draft and the English needs smoothing, but I thought I would do a bit of “crowd sourcing.” Feel free to read it and comment. Short of access to Beattie’s edition (see below) if you have the Accordance Targum module 1This translation will be in the Accordance translation module in due time. then you have the base text or, once it is back online, you may view the Aramaic of TgRuth at CAL.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

This is a translation of Derek Beattie’s critical edition, Targum and Scripture: Studies in Aramaic Translations and Interpretations in Memory of Ernest G. Clarke, SAIS 2, ed. Paul V.M. Flesher (Leiden: Brill, 2002), pp. 231-90. The base text is Sassoon 282 (S), which dates to 1182, the oldest MS available. I am grateful to Dr. Beattie for being will to allow his critical edition to be in my forthcoming book as an appendix. 2The images of a TgRuth MS on this site are of Codex Solger MS 1-7.2° (Solger) and should not be confused with the base text used in the translation which is Sassoon. The Sassoon MS is in private hands and I have only a photocopy of a facsimile available and do not have permission to post the images.

This is a first pass and does not contain various notes that will be present in the final version. In most cases where words are found in [] and are not italicized they are missing in the MS but are necessary to represent the Hebrew vorlage (MT). In some cases, particularly in TgRuth 1:1, there are words or phrases which are not in S (and are part of an aggadic expansion) but are necessarily for the expansion to make sense. If you have any corrections or comments (or corrections, remember, this is a first pass) please contact the me at cbrady@targuman.org.

The copyright is held by C. M. M. Brady. No use of this translation may be made without the author’s permission.

Chapter 1

1 When the judges led there was a [severe] famine in the land of Israel. Ten severe famines were decreed from Heaven to be in the world from the day of the creation of the world until the time when the King Messiah shall come, to reprove through them the inhabitants of the world. The first famine was in the days of Adam. The second famine was in the days of Lamech. The third famine was in the days of Abraham. The fourth famine was in the days of Isaac. The fifth famine was in the days of Jacob. The sixth famine was in the days of Boaz, who was called Ibzan (אבצן) the Righteous, who was from Bethlehem. The seventh famine was in the days of David, the King of Israel. The eighth famine was in the days of Elijah the prophet. The [ninth] famine was in the days of Elisha in Samaria. And the tenth famine will be [in the future], not a famine of eating bread nor a drought of drinking water, rather of hearing the word of prophecy from before the Lord. And when that famine was severe in the land of Israel a great man from Bethlehem of Judah went out and went to dwell in the field of Moab, he and his wife and his two sons.

Read all of Targum Ruth.

  • 1
    This translation will be in the Accordance translation module in due time.
  • 2
    The images of a TgRuth MS on this site are of Codex Solger MS 1-7.2° (Solger) and should not be confused with the base text used in the translation which is Sassoon. The Sassoon MS is in private hands and I have only a photocopy of a facsimile available and do not have permission to post the images.

Leave a Reply to Bob MacDonaldCancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

5 thoughts on “New Translation of Targum Ruth Available (here!)”