2.1 Exodus 1:6

Masoretic Text

‮וַיָּ֤מָת יֹוסֵף֙ וְכָל־אֶחָ֔יו וְכֹ֖ל הַדֹּ֥ור הַהֽוּא׃‬‎

‘And Joseph died, and all his brethren, and all that generation.’

TO

‮וּמִית יוֹסֵף וְכָל אַחוֹהִי וְכֹל דָרָא הַהוּא׃‬‎

‘Then Joseph and all of his brothers, as well as that entire generation died.’

JP text

‮ובי מורד יוסף והמה בראדראן אוי והמה דארא אוי׃‬‎

wby mwrd ywsp whmh brʾdrʾn ʾwy whmh dʾrʾ ʾwy

wa bi=murd Yōsef² wa-hama barādarān=i ōy wa-hama dārā=yi ōy

‘And died Joseph, and all his brothers, and all his generation.’

TO

The Targum’s translation being identical to the Masoretic Text, nothing much can be said here.

Although it is conventionally left untranslated in most Bible translations, both the Masoretic Text verse and the Targum’s translation start with ‮ו‬‎ ‘and,’ which is reproduced in the Judeo-Persian translation. It is noteworthy that the Judeo-Persian sentence follows the Hebrew or Aramaic word order and writes “and died Joseph,” instead of, we can assume, the more common Persian syntactic order “and Joseph died” (*wa Yōsef bi=murd). Indeed, the Masoretic Text and Targum Onqelos say ‮וַיָּ֤מָת יֹוסֵף֙‬‎ and ‮וּמִית יוֹסֵף‬‎, respectively, ‘and dies Yosef’/‘and died Yosef,’ which are the default word orders in both of these languages. The JP translator chooses to follow the order of the Hebrew and Aramaic rather than typical JP word order. This word-by-word translation mode can be observed throughout the entire manuscript, although some details make it difficult to consider the manuscript to simply be a “word-by-word” translation of either the Masoretic Text of the Torah or Targum Onqelos.

We might expect the 3sg clitic =š to render the Hebrew and Aramaic possessive pronominal clitic found in the word for ‘brothers,’ so *wa-hama barādarān=iš. The absence of pronominal clitics in the entirety of our corpus shows it was not a conventional way to render possession for the translator, and it might perhaps indicate that it was not very common in the spoken language of the authors of Vat. Pers. 61; or, conversely, that the translator(s) wanted to avoid colloquialisms, if these were perceived as such.

The word dārā ‘generation’ is a borrowing from Aramaic ‮דָרָא‬‎ ‹drʾ›, ‮דארא‬‎ dārā in plene spelling, of identical meaning (see Sokoloff 2002:349; it is a cognate of Hebrew ‮דּ֥וֹר‬‎ dōwr, Ugaritic dr ‘generation’). This word is also found in § 3.4 of the present paper. The Persian equivalent is the originally Arabic word nasl, so one cannot invoke phonetic closeness here to explain why the translator resorted to using this word. Most likely it was the common word for ‘generation’ in the speech of the translator—he uses it in other places in the whole of Vat. Pers. 61 to translate Hebrew ‮דּ֥וֹר‬‎—, and this might perhaps be an even older loanword. It was borrowed, for instance, in Iraqi Arabic dāra (Sokoloff 2002:349), although the time of the borrowing is unclear to me. This is the only clear Aramaic loanword of our corpus; the word qaṭl ‹qṭl› ‘murder’ might be considered Aramaic, however, I believe it is more economical to view qaṭl as the adaptation of an Arabic loanword (see § 3.4; § 7). The inherited word for ‘generation’ in Judeo-Persian is ʾwʾd (e.g. Paul 2013:74), which is found in a Southwestern variant of Early Judeo-Persian.

2.2 Exodus 1:7

Masoretic Text

‮וּבְנֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵ֗ל פָּר֧וּ וַֽיִּשְׁרְצ֛וּ וַיִּרְבּ֥וּ וַיַּֽעַצְמ֖וּ בִּמְאֹ֣ד מְאֹ֑ד וַתִּמָּלֵ֥א הָאָ֖רֶץ אֹתָֽם׃‬‎

‘And the children of Israel were fruitful, and increased abundantly, and multiplied, and waxed exceeding mighty; and the land was filled with them.’

TO

‮וּבְנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל נְפִישׁוּ וְאִתְיַלָדוּ וּסְגִיאוּ וּתְקִיפוּ לַחֲדָא לַחֲדָא וְאִתְמְלִיאַת אַרְעָא מִנְהוֹן׃‬‎

‘Now the Israelites became numerous and prospered, and became great and exceedingly powerful; and the land was filled with them.’

JP text

‮ופוסראן יִשְׁרֵָאֵל ברמנד שודנד ותוולוד כרדנד ובסיאר שודנד ופאדיאונד שודנד בגאית בגאית ופור שודה אמד אן זמין אז אישאן׃‬‎

wpwsrʾn yⁱś^ǝr^āʾ^el brmnd šwdnd wtwwlwd krdnd wbsyʾr šwdnd wpʾdyʾwnd šwdnd bɣʾyt³ bɣʾyt wpwr šwdh ʾmd ʾn zmyn ʾz ʾyšʾn

wa-pusarān=i Yiśrāel barmand šudand wa-tawallud kardand wa-bisyār šudand wa-pādyāwand šudand baɣāyat baɣāyat wa-purr šuda āmad ān zamīn az ēšān

‘And the sons of Israel became fertile, and gave birth, and became many, and became crafty (or mighty) enormously enormously and (= so) that land had come full of them.’

TO

In the translation of this verse, the Targum of Onqelos does not diverge much from the Hebrew Masoretic Text, and the Judeo-Persian translation is thus close to both. However, the Judeo-Persian version is closer to the Masoretic Text in its translation of ‮פָּר֧וּ‬‎ pārū as barmand ‘fruitful,’ whereas the Targum of Onqelos has ‮נְפִישׁוּ‬‎ nǝfīšū ‘they increased (lit. extended).’ Here it is useful to make a table in order to compare the Hebrew original and the translation directly, as the original verse uses many synonyms (see Table 1).

A note on pādyāwand: MacKenzie (1971:63) writes it as Judeo-Persian pʾdywnd (as is found in Early Judeo-Persian, cf. Paul 2013:45), but here we have pʾdyʾwnd, which is even closer to the Middle Persian form. This word occurs in two published Early Judeo-Persian manuscripts: SP Yevr.-Arab. 1682 (Gindin 2007), where it occurs under the form ‮פאדיאונד‬‎, as in Vat. Pers. 61, and Or. 8659 (MacKenzie 1968), where the form ‮פאדיונד‬‎ is attested.⁴ The fact that this word is attested only in Judeo-Persian texts, apparently, is important and relevant to the questions that occupy us here, as one can surmise that the translator did not draw from Muslim New Persian literature and its resources—at least not entirely—but rather on his own Judeo-Persian language. The only other occurrence of pādyāwand is found in the Syriac script, in the Syriac-New Persian Psalter, spelled as ‹wpādyāwandst zōhrš› “und mächtig ist seine Gewalt” (Müller 1915:219), namely u=pādyāwand-ast zōhr=(a/i)š. The Psalter can be dated from the late ninth century (Thomas 2015:61), perhaps somewhat later. In any case, this form, pādyāwand, is very old, and its occurrence in Vat. Pers. 61 is not trivial.

The Hebrew word yⁱś^ǝr^āʾ^el ‘people of Israel’ is entirely vocalized, which does not occur systematically (for instance, see § 2.4, § 3.1, § 4).

The two Arabic loanwords in this translation are ‹twwlwd› and baɣāyat. The first one, tawallud, means ‘birth,’ and the spelling with ‹ww› is a usual spelling to indicate that the /w/ is a consonant, and not a mater lectionis (as in gwwʾhy /gawāhī/, cf. section 3.9).

The other word, baɣāyat, originally ba-ɣāyat ‘by ɣāyat,’ derives from Arabic ɣāya ‘utmost, extreme, extent, term, limit, point’ (Lane 1865:2312). Interestingly, the first Hebrew adverb, bi-mʾōd, is composed of the adverb mʾōd and the prefix bi‑ ‘by,’ which is similar in form and function to Persian ba‑, but they are not cognates: Persian ba‑ is inherited and is derived irregularly from Old Iranian *pati‑.

2.3 Exodus 1:8

Masoretic Text

‮וַיָּ֥קָם מֶֽלֶךְ־חָדָ֖שׁ עַל־מִצְרָ֑יִם אֲשֶׁ֥ר לֹֽא־יָדַ֖ע אֶת־יֹוסֵֽף׃‬‎

‘Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who knew not Joseph.’

TO

‮וְקָם מַלְכָּא חַדְתָּא עַל מִצְרָיִם דְלָא מְקַיֵם גְזֵרַת יוֹסֵף׃‬‎

‘Now there arose a new king over Egypt who did not implement the law of Joseph.’⁵

JP

‮וברכ֜אסת מליכי נוו אבר מצר אנצ֗י נה אנגיזאניד רסם יֹוספ׃‬‎

wbr xʾst mlyky nww ʾbr mṣr ʾnč nh ʾngyzʾnyd rsm yōsp:⁶

wa-barxāst malik=ē=i naw aꞵar Miṣr ānči na angēzānīd rasm=i Yōsef

‘And rose a new king over Egypt, who did not hold to the law of Joseph.’

TO

The Vat. Pers. 61 translation closely follows the Targum, and not the original Masoretic Text (on the meaning of rasm, see below). Here, ‘hold to’ should be understood in the meaning of ‘fulfill, respect, observe.’

The first Arabic word is malik ‘king.’ This is not the most common word for ‘king’ in Persian, which is šāh, although it is definitely part of Persian vocabulary. Perhaps the translator chose this word because this is not a Persian king or a king in an Iranian context, but more likely, the reason behind this choice is that the original Hebrew text and the Targum have respectively ‮מֶֽלֶךְ‬‎ meleḵ and ‮מַלְכָּא‬‎ malkā, and the Arabic word is much more similar to those than Persian šāh. This choice suggests that, whenever an Arabic word, despite being less usual for a specific meaning in Persian, sounded more similar to the Hebrew, the translator could choose it, perhaps in order to show cognacy, or simply to facilitate the back and forth between the original and the translation. Here we should remember that for this verse, the Hebrew text stands above the translation in the original manuscript.

The second Arabic word found in this verse is Miṣr (or Maṣr) ‘Egypt,’ instead of Hebrew ‮מִצְרַ֖יִם‬‎ Miṣrayim (du. ‘the two Egypts’). This is simply the Persian word for ‘Egypt’: as far as I know, we do not know the Middle Persian word for ‘Egypt,’ but it is likely to have been close to the Arabic or to the Hebrew one (cf. Parthian mycrym ‘Egypt’).

The third Arabic word here is rasm, from r-s-m ‘to draw,’ which can be translated in many ways. In Persian, as in Arabic, it means ‘drawing, writing; law, canon, rule, regulation; habit, custom, mode’ (cf. Steingass 1892:576; Lane 1865:1085). Here it corresponds to the Targum’s ‮גְזֵרַת‬‎, gzērat ‘decree.’

2.4 Exodus 1:9

Masoretic Text

‮וַיֹּ֖אמֶר אֶל־עַמֹּ֑ו הִנֵּ֗ה עַ֚ם בְּנֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל רַ֥ב וְעָצ֖וּם מִמֶּֽנּוּ׃‬‎

‘And he said unto his people: “Behold, the people of the children of Israel are too many and too mighty for us.” ’

TO

‮וַאֲמַר לְעַמֵהּ הָא עַמָא בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל סָגָן וְתַקִיפִין מִנָנָא׃‬‎

‘So he said to his people, “Here the Israelite people are more numerous and powerful than we are.” ’

JP

‮וגופ֜ת בקוום אוי אינך קוום פוסראן ישראל בסיארתר שוואן ופאדיאונתר שוואאן אז אימא׃‬‎

wgwft bqwwm ʾwy ʾynk qwwm pwsrʾn yśrʾl bsyʾrtr šwwʾʾn wpʾdyʾwntr šwwʾʾn ʾz ʾymʾ:

wa-guft ba-qawm=i ōy īnak qawm=i pusarān=i Yiśrāel bisyārtar šawān wa-pādyāwantar šawān az ēmā

‘And he said to his people: “Behold! the sons of Israel (are) becoming more and stronger than we.” ’

TO

The Targum and the Judeo-Persian are identical in meaning to the Hebrew original.

Translating Hebrew ‮עַמּ֑וֹ‬‎ ʿammō ‘the people,’ the Arabic word qawm ‘people’ is used. It is also very commonly used in Persian to mean ‘people,’ in the sense of a specific ethnic group, for instance.

2.5 Exodus 1:10

Masoretic Text

‮הָ֥בָה נִֽתְחַכְּמָ֖ה לֹ֑ו פֶּן־יִרְבֶּ֗ה וְהָיָ֞ה כִּֽי־תִקְרֶ֤אנָה מִלְחָמָה֙ וְנֹוסַ֤ף גַּם־הוּא֙ עַל־שֹׂ֣נְאֵ֔ינוּ וְנִלְחַם־בָּ֖נוּ וְעָלָ֥ה מִן־הָאָֽרֶץ׃‬‎

‘ “Come, let us deal wisely with them, lest they multiply, and it come to pass, that, when there befalleth us any war, they also join themselves unto our enemies, and fight against us, and get them up out of the land.” ’

TO

‮הָבוּ נִתְחַכַּם לְהוֹן דִלְמָא יִסְגוּן וִיהֵי אֲרֵי יְעַרְעִנָנָא קְרָב וְיִתּוֹסְפוּן אַף אִנוּן עַל סַנְאָנָא‬‎

‮וִיגִיחוּן בָּנָא קְרָב וְיִסְקוּן מִן אַרְעָא׃‬‎

‘ “Come let us be wise to them lest they become great; then it will be if a war should befall us, they will then be added to our enemies and wage war against us and will ascend from the land.” ’

JP

‮ביאייד חילת סאזים באישאן תא נה בסיאר באשנד ובאשד כי פ֜ראז‬‎

‮רסד אימא רא כארזאר אבזודאינד אניז אישאן‬‎

‮אבר דושמנאן אימא ובי אראינד באימא כארזאר ובר שוונד אזאן זמין׃‬‎

by ʾyyd ḥylt sʾzym bʾyšʾn tʾ nh bsyʾr bʾšnd wbʾšd ky frʾz rsd ʾymʾ rʾ kʾrzʾr wʾbzwdʾynd ʾnyz ʾyšʾn ʾbr dwšmnʾn ʾymʾ wby ʾrʾynd bʾymʾ kʾrzʾr wbr šwwnd ʾzʾn zmyn

bi=āyēd ḥīlat sāzīm ba-ēšān tā na bisyār bāšand, wa bāšad kay farāz rasad ēmā rā kārzār wa-abzūdāyand (aꞵzūdāyand?) anīz ēšān aꞵar dušmanān=i ēmā wa-bi ārāyand ba-ēmā kārzār wa-bar šawand azān zamīn

‘ “Come, let us make a scheme about them, so they do not become too many [so that], when it happens (that) a conflict reaches us, they increase so much, adding themselves to the [numbers of] our enemies, and they would prepare (against) us a war and would go out of that land.” ’

TO

The JP rendering is quite literal and close to the MT and TO texts.

The word ḥīlat means ‘a scheme, a plot, a contrivance.’

2.6 Exodus 1:11

Masoretic text

‮וַיָּשִׂ֤ימוּ עָלָיו֙ שָׂרֵ֣י מִסִּ֔ים לְמַ֥עַן עַנֹּתֹ֖ו בְּסִבְלֹתָ֑ם וַיִּ֜בֶן עָרֵ֤י מִסְכְּנֹות֙ לְפַרְעֹ֔ה אֶת־פִּתֹ֖ם וְאֶת־רַעַמְסֵֽס׃‬‎

‘Therefore they did set over them taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens. And they built for Pharaoh store-cities, Pithom and Raamses.’

TO

‮ו וּמַנִיאוּ עֲלֵיהוֹן שִׁלְטוֹנִין מַבְאִישִׁין בְּדִיל לְעַנוֹאֵהוֹן בְּפָלְחָנְהוֹן וּבְנוֹ קִרְוֵי בֵית אוֹצָרָא‬‎

‮ְפַרְעֹה יָת פִּיתוֹם וְיָת רַעַמְסֵס׃‬‎

‘So they appointed over them cruel supervisors in order to afflict them by their hard work; and they built the treasure house cities for the Pharaoh—Pithom and Raamses.’

JP

‮ובי גומאשתנד אבר אישאן סולטאנאן בדי כונאאן בג֗אדה ברנג֗אנידן‬‎

‮אישאן רא בכ֝צ֗מת פרמודן אישאן רא ואבדאן כרדנד שהרהא‬‎

‮כ֝אנה אמבאר ג֗אי בפרעה מר פיתם ומר רעמסס׃‬‎

wby gwmʾštnd ʾbr ʾyšʾn swlṭʾnʾn bdy kwnʾʾn bǰʾdh brnǰʾnydn ʾyšʾn rʾ bxẓmt

frmwdn ʾyšʾn rʾ wʾbdʾn krdnd šhrhʾ xʾnh ʾmbʾr ǰʾy bprʿh mr pytm wmr rʿmss:

wa bi=gumāštand aꞵar ēšān sulṭānān=i badī-kunā-ān, ba-ǰādda-yi bi=ranǰānīdan ēšān rā ba-xiẓmat farmūdan ēšān rā, wa-ābadān kardand šahrhā xāna-ambār-ǰāy ba-Parǝʿōh mar Pītom wa mar Raʿamsēs

‘And they appointed upon them evil-doing sultans, so that they make them suffer by ordering them to serve, and they built towns housing supplies for Pharaoh, Pitom and Ramses.’

TO

The plural agreement (‘upon them’, etc.) agrees with the Targum, while the Masoretic text has a 3sg agreement with a plural meaning as in ‮עָלָיו‬‎ ‘on him,’ referring to the Israelite people as a whole.

In the Judeo-Persian translation, the word sultān ‹swlṭʾn› ‘sultan’ is a cognate of ‮שִׁלְטוֹנִ‬‎ šilṭōn ‘officer,’ an Aramaic word, borrowed into Hebrew (hence the Hebrew CiCōC root pattern) and re-borrowed into Judeo-Aramaic, so, while the meaning of the former does not correspond to the latter, it was likely chosen for its etymological and formal proximity to the Targum word, while the Masoretic Text uses the word ‮מִסִּ֔ים‬‎ ‮שָׂרֵ֣י‬‎ śārē missīm ‘task masters.’ The JP text further follows TO by qualifying the ‘sultans’ as ‘evil doing’ (with a pluralized present participle), similar to TO’s ‘cruel’ vs. the Masoretic Text, which uses no adjective. Furthermore, the expression ‘to afflict them by their hard work’ of TO or ‘with burdens’ of the MT is not rendered, so that this translation does not fully correspond to either the MT or to Targum Onqelos.

The expression ba-ǰādda‑, literally ‘by (the) way’ or ‘by the road,’ from Persian ba‑ ‘by, to, at’ and Arabic ǰādda ‘road, way,’ means ‘so that’ or ‘for’ throughout the JP translation. It is also found in Exodus 20:12 (see below), ba-ǰādda‑ dirāz kašand rōzigārān=i tū ‘so that your days extend’ and in Exodus 20:17 (see section 3.13). To my knowledge, there is no non-Jewish equivalent to this expression in Persian, but it is not a calque of the forms found in the Biblical text: the Hebrew text has ‮לְמַ֗עַן‬‎ lǝmaʿan ‘that’ and Targum Onqelos says ‮בְּדִיל‬‎ bǝdīl ‘so that.’ Nonetheless, it is, in my view, a calque of post-Biblical Hebrew ‮בשביל‬‎ which originally meant ‘in the way of’ and took the meaning of ‘for.’ If this is correct, it would be a very interesting piece of evidence on the formation of Early Judeo-Persian. Since this word is post-Biblical, it could show that Hebrew influenced even spoken Early Judeo-Persian to the point that its speakers calqued Hebrew grammatical words in their language.

The word ‹xẓmt›, certainly /xizmat/, is from Arabic ‮خدمة‬‎ ‘service,’ which took the meaning of ‘work’ in some Arabic dialects (e.g., Tunisian xedma ‘work’). Here a translation ‘work’ would be slightly inadequate, as the idea is that the taskmasters order the Hebrews to do serving work, or perhaps rather servitude work. I discuss the form xizmat more in detail in § 6 and § 7.

3.1 Exodus 20:2

Masoretic Text

‮אָֽנֹכִ֖י֙ יְהוָ֣ה אֱלֹהֶ֑֔יךָ אֲשֶׁ֧ר הֹוצֵאתִ֛יךָ מֵאֶ֥רֶץ מִצְרַ֖יִם מִבֵּ֣֥ית עֲבָדִֽ֑ים׃‬‎

‘I am the Lord thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.’

TO

‮אֲנָא יְיָ אֱלָהָךְ דִי אַפֵּיקְתָּךְ מֵאַרְעָא דְמִצְרַיִם מִבֵּית עַבְדוּתָא׃‬‎

‘I am Adonai, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of slavery.’

JP

‮מנם כ֜ודאי כ֜אלק תו אן אנצ֜י אב֜ורדם תורא אז זםין םצר אז כ֜אןה בנדיגי׃‬‎

mnm xwdʾy xʾlq tw ʾnčy byrwn ʾꞵwrdm twrʾ ʾz zmyn mṣr ʾz xʾnh bndygy

man-am xudāy xāliq=i tū ānčē bērūn āꞵurdam tū=rā az zamīn=i Miṣr az xana=i bandigī

‘I am the Lord thy Creator, what brought thee outside of the land of Egypt, from the house of slavery.’

TO

The JP text corresponds to Targum Onqelos as they agree in having the expression “house of slavery” instead of the Masoretic Text’s “house of slaves” (bēt ʿaḇādīm).

While ‮יהוה‬‎ Yahweh is rendered as xudāy, ‘God,’ ‮אֱלֹהֶ֑֔יךָ‬‎ elōheḵā ‘thy God’ is translated by the phrase xʾlq tw xāliq=i tū ‘thy Creator’ with the Arabic word xāliq. One can remark the following: 1. since neither ‮יְהוָ֣ה‬‎ (because of the prohibition of the Tetragrammaton) nor its equivalent exists in Persian, the translators chose to render it by the general Persian word for ‘God, Lord,’ xudāy (var. xudā), and not by the Arabic word Allāh, which could be perceived as markedly Muslim in a Persian context. 2. In order to not repeat the word xudāy twice, the Jewish translator searched for a synonymous word and decided that the notion of ‘Creator’ corresponded to the original word elōheḵā. In my view this is because the word ‮אֱלֹהִ֑ים‬‎ elōhīm, and not ‮יהוה‬‎, is associated with the act of Creation in Genesis.⁷ 3. The translator chose the Arabic word xāliq rather than the Persian equivalents (āfarīdagār, āfarīnanda, dādār).

An extremely similar formula is used in the Shemaʿ Yiśraēl of Vat. Pers. 61 (Paper 1968:66):

by ʾšnww yśrʾl xwdʾy xʾlq ʾymʾ xwdʾy yky

bi=ašnaw Yiśrael: xudāy xāliq-i ēmā, xudāy yakē

‘Listen Yiśrael: God (is) our Creator, God (is) one.’

From this it is absolutely clear that xāliq is used with the precise meaning of ‘god’ and that ‮יְהוָ֣ה‬‎ is translated by xudāy. This leads us to wonder if xudāy could be translated by its original (and sometimes maintained) meaning of ‘lord’: ‘I am the Lord, thy God,’ ‘Listen Yiśraēl, the Lord is our God, the Lord is one.’ This could correspond to the use of Adonai ‘the Lord’ in the Hebrew recitation to replace ‮יהוה‬‎ Yahweh.

3.2 Exodus 20:3

Masoretic Text

‮לֹֽ֣א יִהְיֶֽה־לְךָ֛֩ אֱלֹהִ֥֨ים אֲחֵרִ֖֜ים עַל־פָּנָֽ֗יַ׃‬‎

‘Thou shalt have no other gods before me.’

TO

‮לָא יְהֵי לָךְ אֱלָהּ אָחֳרָן בַּר מִנִי׃‬‎

‘You must not have any other god besides Me.’

JP

‮נה באשד בתו מעבודאן דִיגראן ג֗וד אז מן׃‬‎

nh bʾšd btw mʿbwdʾn dīgrʾn ǰwd ʾz mn

na bāšad ba-tū maʿbūdān=i dīgarān ǰud az man

‘There shall be to thee no gods others apart from me.’

TO

The JP text corresponds to the TO by having the translation ‘apart from me,’ which corresponds to ‮בַּר מִנִי‬‎ bar minī ‘besides me,’ and not to the Masoretic Text’s ‮עַל־פָּנָֽ֗יַ‬‎ ʿal-pānāya literally ‘on my face’; however, ‘on my face’ simply means ‘besides me’ (< ‘in front of me’ as in French devant moi, implying doing something wrong in front of the concerned person) and it is unlikely that it would have been translated literally as it would certainly not have made sense to the Judeo-Persian speaking readers.

More interestingly, while the Targum uses a singular for ‘god,’ the JP text reproduces the Hebrew plural. This is a case of the JP text choosing the MT over the TO, which is rare enough to be noted, however minor the difference is.

The dalet of ‘dygrʾn’ has a ḥiriq (not noted in Paper’s edition), which is useful in that it indicates a reading /dīgarān/ instead of, for example, */dēgarān/. It also indicates—and possibly this is the reason why it was used—that it is a full ī and not a mater lectionis for i (cf. Classical New Persian digar, alongside dīgar, Dari diga ‘other; then’ instead of *dīga). Although this corresponds to what we expect etymologically, this type of vocalic data from earlier New Persian texts is always useful to the philologist. The use of dīgarān in the plural, instead of the singular, as would be grammatical, mirrors the Hebrew original (and not the Aramaic version, which has oḥorān ‘other.sg’). The Hebrew word is ‮אֲחֵרִ֖֜ים‬‎ aḥērīm ‘others’ in the plural in the Masoretic Text.⁸

Interestingly, ‮אֱלֹהִ֥֨ים‬‎ elōhīm is rendered by mʿbwdʾn, an Arabic word in Persian that either means ‘worshipped one’ or ‘god,’ the literal Arabic meaning being ‘worshipped (being).’ Here it is ‘gods’ (with the ‑ān plural suffix), but in the sense of worshipped being, to differentiate it from the notion of existing, real ‘god(s).’

It seems that, through this distinction, the translation tries to imply that there is only one god, and the other ones are simply worshipped beings, a notion which the original Hebrew does not clearly have. On the other hand, Shaked wrote that

the use of mʿbwdy to designate a deity (a usage not confined to Judeo-Persian) may possibly represent an Arabic calque on the Persian word yazad ‘worthy of worship.’ As far as I know, there is nothing semantically analogous in Jewish or Christian usage.

Shaked 2003:211

This is possible, of course, but in a context with non-Jews worshipping multiple deities, one can think that this simply designated worshipped beings that are not the God of the Jews. To note, the word maʿbūd is used to designate God in a piece of Classical Judeo-Persian literature such as ʿImrānī (ʿEmrāni)’s Ganǰnāmeh (cf. Yeroushalmi 1995:130 n. 11).

3.3 Exodus 20:4

Masoretic Text

‮לֹֽ֣א תַֽעֲשֶׂ֨ה־לְךָ֥֣ פֶ֣֙סֶל֙ ׀ וְכָל־תְּמוּנָ֡֔ה אֲשֶׁ֤֣ר בַּשָּׁמַ֣֙יִם֙ ׀ מִמַּ֡֔עַל וַֽאֲשֶׁ֥ר֩ בָּאָ֖֨רֶץ מִתַָּ֑֜חַת וַאֲשֶׁ֥֣ר בַּמַּ֖֣יִם ׀ מִתַּ֥֣חַת לָאָֽ֗רֶץ׃‬‎

‘Thou shalt not make unto thee a graven image, nor any manner of likeness, of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth;’

TO

‮לָא תַעְבֵּד לָךְ צְלֵם וְכָל דְמוּת דִי בִשְׁמַיָא מִלְעֵלָא וְדִי בְאַרְעָא מִלְרָע וְדִי בְמַיָא מִלְרַע לְאַרְעָא׃‬‎

‘Do not make for yourself an image or any likeness ⟨of anything⟩ that is in the heavens above or ⟨of anything⟩ that is on earth below, or ⟨of anything⟩ that is in the waters below the earth.’

JP

‮נה כוני בתו תראשידה והיצ֨ צורת אנצ֨י דר אסמאן אז באלא ואנצ֨י דר זמין אז‬‎

‮זיר ואנצ֨י דר אב אז זיר בזמינ׃‬‎

nh kwny btw trʾšydh whyč ṣwrt ʾnčy dr ʾsmʾn ʾz bʾlʾ wʾnčy dr zmyn ʾz

zyr wʾnčy dr ʾb ʾz zyr bzmyn

na kunī⁹ ba-tū tarāšīda¹⁰ wa-hēč ṣūrat ānčī dar āsmān az bālā wa-ānčī dar zamīn az zēr wa-ānčī dar āb az zēr ba-zamīn

‘Do not make for thee engraved (things) and no image of what (is) in the sky from above, of what (is) in the earth from under and what is in the sea under [of] the earth.’

TO

As the Targum’s translation corresponds to the Masoretic Text here, and the JP translation does not deviate from either, there is no question of a closer translation to either source.

‮תְּמוּנָ֡֔ה‬‎ tǝmūnah, translated here as ‘form’ and ‘likeness,’ is rendered by the Arabic borrowing ṣūrat ‘image, portrait; face.’

3.4 Exodus 20:5–6

Masoretic Text

‮לֹֽא־תִשְׁתַּחְוֶ֥֣ה לָהֶ֖ם֮ וְלֹ֣א תָעָבְדֵ֑ם֒ כִּ֣י אָֽנֹכִ֞י יְהוָ֤ה אֱלֹהֶ֙יךָ֙ אֵ֣ל קַנָּ֔א פֹּ֠קֵד עֲוֹ֨ן אָבֹ֧ת עַל־בָּנִ֛ים עַל־שִׁלֵּשִׁ֥ים וְעַל־רִבֵּעִ֖ים לְשֹׂנְאָֽ֑י׃‬‎

‘Thou shalt not bow down unto them, nor serve them; for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate Me;’

‮וְעֹ֥֤שֶׂה חֶ֖֙סֶד֙ לַאֲלָפִ֑֔ים לְאֹהֲבַ֖י וּלְשֹׁמְרֵ֥י מִצְוֹתָֽי׃ ס‬‎

‘and showing mercy unto the thousandth generation of them that love Me and keep My commandments.’

TO

‮לָא תִסְגֻד לְהוֹן וְלָא תִפְלְחִנוּן אֲרֵי אֲנָא יְיָ אֱלָהָךְ אֵל קַנָא מַסְעַר חוֹבֵי אֲבָהָן עַל בְּנִין מָרָדִין עַל דַר תְּלִיתַי וְעַל דַר רְבִיעַי לְשָׂנְאָי כַּד מְשַׁלְמִין בְּנַיָא לְמֶחֱטֵי בָּתַר אֲבָהָתְהוֹן׃‬‎

‘Do not bow down to them nor worship them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, avenging the sins of the fathers upon the rebellious children, upon the third generation and upon the fourth generation of those who hate Me, when the children follow their fathers in sinning.’

‮וְעָבֵד טִיבוּ לְאַלְפֵי דָרִין לְרַחֲמַי וּלְנָטְרֵי פִקוֹדָי׃‬‎

‘But performing kindness to thousands of generations of those who loved Me.’

JP

‮נה סג֗דה ברי באישאן ונה פרסתי אישאן רא כי מנם כ֜ודאי כ֜אלק תו כ֜ודאי כינאור^‭11‬‬‎

‮עוקובת כונא גונאה פדראן אב֜ר פוסראן עאציאן אב֜ר דארא סהומין ואבר דארא צ֜הארומין בדושמן דאראאן מן צ֜ונאנצ֜י באז תוזאאן פוסראן בכ֜אטאגאר שודן פס פדראן אישאן וכונא פ֜צ֗ל בהזאראן דארא בדוסת דאראאן מן ובניגאה דאראאן פ֜רמאנהא מן׃‬‎

nh sǰdh bry bʾyšʾn wnh prsty ʾyšʾn rʾ ky mnm xwdʾy xʾlq tw xwdʾy kynʾwr ʿwqwbt [kwnʾ gwnʾh pdrʾn ʾꞵr pwsrʾn] ʿʾṣyʾn ʾꞵr dʾrʾ shwmyn wʾbr dʾrʾ čhʾrwmyn [bdwšmn dʾrʾʾn mn čwnʾnčy] bʾz twzʾʾn pwsrʾn bxṭʾgʾr šwdn ps pdrʾn ʾyšʾn | 20:6 | [wkwnʾ fẓl bhzʾrʾn dʾrʾ b]dwst dʾrʾn mn wbnygh dʾrʾʾn frmʾnhʾ mn

na saǰda barī ba-ēšān wa-na parastī ēšān=rā ki man-am xudāy xāliq-i tū xudāy kīnāwar ʿuqūbat kunā(=i) gūnāh-i padarān¹² aꞵar pusarān=i ʿāṣīyān aꞵar dārā-yi sihumīn wa-bar dārā-yi čahārumīn ba-dušman dārān=i man čūnānčī¹³ bāz tūzān pusarān ba-xaṭāgār šudan pas padarān=i ēšān | 20:6| wa-kunā(=yi) faẓl ba-hazārān dārā ba-dōst dārān=i man wa-ba-nigāh dārān=i farmānhā=yi man

‘Do thou not prostrate¹⁴ to them and do thou not worship them, because I am God thy Creator, a revengeful god, chastising the sin of the fathers on their rebellious sons, until (lit. ‘on’) the third generation and until (lit. ‘on’) the fourth generation for my enemies (lit. “the ones who hold me as an enemy”), I am retributing the sons becoming sinful after their fathers | 20:6 | and (I am a god) bringing graces to thousands of generations to those who love me and to those who keep my commandments.’

TO

The JP text is closer to the Targum in: 1. having translated the word ‘generation’ (on which see section 2.1). This word is quite obviously implied by the original Biblical text. 2. by translating the word ‘rebellious,’ which is a Targumic addition, and 3. by rendering the Targumic addition ‘follow their fathers in sinning’ as ‘the sons becoming sinful after their fathers,’ which is also lacking from the original Masoretic text. Besides, as one anonymous reviewer points out, bāz tūzān, the pluralized present participle form of bāz tūza, from bāz tūxtan ‘retribute, recompense,’ is equivalent to the Aramaic ‮משלמין‬‎ of the Targum.

The inherited word for ‘prostration’ in Persian is namāz, which is also the word for prayer, originally in a Zoroastrian context. In Pahlavi, this word was sometimes transcribed as ‹OSGDE› from Aramaic sgdh ‘prostration’ (cf. CPD:57). Here, to render Aramaic ‮תִסְגֻד‬‎ tisgud from the root s-g-d ‘to prostrate oneself, bow down (in prayer)’ (cf. Arabic s-ğ-d, Ge’ez sagada ‘to prostrate oneself,’ Leslau 1987:490), the translator chose the Arabic word sağda ‘prostration,’ possibly because it is closer in meaning and form to the Aramaic word.

The Arabic loanword ʿuqūbat (‮عقوبة‬‎), spelled here ‹ʿwqwbt› ‘punishment, chastisement,’ is ultimately from the root ʿ-q-b (cf. Lane 1874:2098 f.), whose base verb ʿaquba means ‘to follow, to come at the end,’ but by extension ʿuqbā ‘the final outcome’ has also taken on the meaning ‘the result’ and ‘the resultant (Divine) punishment,’ cf. also ʿaqqaba ‘to punish.’

The word ʿʾṣyʾn is the Persian plural of Arabic ʿāṣī ‘disobedient, sinful.’ The Judeo-Persian phrase pusarān=i ʿāṣīyān translates the Aramaic ‮בְּנִין מָרָדִין‬‎ bnīn maradīn ‘disobedient sons.’

The word xaṭāgār is composed of Arabic xaṭāʾ ‘sin’ and ‑gār ‘doer’ < ‑kār. In fact, this word (also found in 20:17, see section 3.13) is an interesting testimony to the variant ‑gār of the suffix ‑kār: Early New Persian in Arabic script rarely if ever differentiates k from g, so this is indeed useful evidence for its existence.

The word faẓl ‘grace’ (Ar. ‮فضل‬‎) represents a grace that is produced and given, as opposed to luṭf (Ar. ‮لُطف‬‎): it thus corresponds perfectly semantically to the original text.

3.5 Exodus 20:7

Masoretic Text

‮לֹ֥א תִשָּׂ֛א אֶת־שֵֽׁם־יְהוָ֥ה אֱלֹהֶ֖יךָ לַשָּׁ֑וְא כִּ֣י לֹ֤א יְנַקֶּה֙ יְהוָ֔ה אֵ֛ת אֲשֶׁר־יִשָּׂ֥א אֶת־שְׁמֹ֖ו לַשָּֽׁוְא׃ פ‬‎

‘Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh His name in vain.’

TO

‮לָא תֵימֵי בִּשְׁמָא דַיְיָ אֱלָהָךְ לְמַגָנָא אֲרֵי לָא יִזַכֵּי יְיָ יָת דִיֵימֵי בִשְׁמֵהּ לְשִׁקְרָא׃‬‎

‘Do not swear in vain with the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not acquit the one who swears falsely with His name.’

JP

‮[נה סווגנד כ֜וורי ב]נאם כ֜ודאי כ֜אלק תו בגזאפ֜ת כי נה ב֜יזא כונד כ֜ודאי‬‎

‮‮[מר אנצ֗י סווגנד כ֜וורד בנאם א]^‭15‬וי בדורוג֜‬‎‬‎

[nh swwgnd xwwry b]nʾm xwdʾy xʾlq tw bgzʾft ky nh ꞵyzʾ kwnd xwdʾy

[mr ʾnčy swwgnd xwwrd bnʾm ʾ]wy bdwrwɣ

na sawgand xwarī ba-nām=i xudāy xāliq=i tū ba-gazāft (or guzāft, or gizāft)¹⁶ ki na *ꞵēzā¹⁷ kunad xudāy mar ānčī sawgand xwarad ba-nām=i ōy ba-duruɣ

‘Do not take an oath in the name of God thy Creator in falsehood, because God does not make him innocent, whoever takes an oath in his name while lying.’

TO

The Judeo-Persian translation follows the Targum more closely than the Masoretic text, by adopting the idea that it is swearing in the name of God which is particularly abhorrent, and not a more general “misuse” of God’s name (although it can be argued that the intended meaning of the Hebrew original was along the lines of “swearing/making an oath”).¹⁸ One can compare this to the literal Arabic translation provided in or 2493, a Judeo-Arabic Karaite manuscript from the British Library, f. 24^v (transliteration, transcription, and translation mine):

or 2493

‮לא תרפע אסם אללה אלאהך ללבאטל לאן אללה לא יברי מן ירפע אסמה ללבאטל‬‎

lʾ trpʿ ʾsm ʾllh ʾlʾhk llbʾṭl lʾn ʾllh lʾ ybry mn yrpʿ ʾsmh llbʾṭl

lā tarfaʿ ism allāh ʾilāhika li-l-bāṭil li-anna allāh lā yubarrī man yarfaʿ ʾismahu li-l-bāṭil

‘Raise not the name of Allah thy god in falsehood, for Allah does not make innocent whoever raises his name in falsehood.’

Although it is true that bāṭil can secondarily mean ‘in vain,’ it first and foremost means ‘false, untrue’ as opposed to ḥaqq (cf. Lane 1863:219). Further, the Karaite translation remains faithful to the Masoretic Text by translating ‮תִשָּׂ֛א‬‎ as ‘raise’ (its literal meaning), not adopting the interpretive meaning of ‘swear.’

3.6 Exodus 20:8–11

Masoretic Text

‮זָכֹ֛ור֩ אֶת־יֹ֥֨ום הַשַּׁבָּ֖֜ת לְקַדְּשֹֽׁ֗ו׃‬‎

‮שֵׁ֤֣שֶׁת יָמִ֣ים֙ תַּֽעֲבֹ֔ד֮ וְעָשִׂ֖֣יתָ כָּל־מְלַאכְתֶּֽךָ֒ ׃‬‎

‮וְיֹ֙ום֙ הַשְּׁבִיעִ֔֜י שַׁבָּ֖֣ת ׀ לַיהוָ֣ה אֱלֹהֶ֑֗יךָ לֹֽ֣א־תַעֲשֶׂ֣֨ה כָל־מְלָאכָ֡֜ה אַתָּ֣ה ׀ וּבִנְךָֽ֣־וּ֠בִתֶּ֗ךָ עַבְדְּךָ֤֨ וַאֲמָֽתְךָ֜֙ וּבְהֶמְתֶּ֔֗ךָ וְגֵרְךָ֖֙ אֲשֶׁ֥֣ר בִּשְׁעָרֶֽ֔יךָ ׃‬‎

‮כִּ֣י שֵֽׁשֶׁת־יָמִים֩ עָשָׂ֨ה יְהוָ֜ה אֶת־הַשָּׁמַ֣יִם וְאֶת־הָאָ֗רֶץ אֶת־הַיָּם֙ וְאֶת־כָּל־אֲשֶׁר־בָּ֔ם וַיָּ֖נַח בַּיֹּ֣ום הַשְּׁבִיעִ֑י עַל־כֵּ֗ן בֵּרַ֧ךְ יְהוָ֛ה אֶת־יֹ֥ום הַשַּׁבָּ֖ת וַֽיְקַדְּשֵֽׁהוּ׃ ס‬‎

8‘Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.

9Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work;

10but the seventh day is a sabbath unto the Lord thy God, in it thou shalt not do any manner of work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates;

11for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested on the seventh day; wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.’

TO

‮הֲוֵי דְכִיר יָת יוֹמָא דְשַׁבְּתָא לְקַדָשׁוּתֵהּ׃‬‎

‮שִׁתָּא יוֹמִין תִּפְלָח וְתַעְבֵּד כָּל עִבִדְתָּךְ׃‬‎

‮וְיוֹמָא שְׁבִיעָאָה שַׁבְּתָא קֳדָם יְיָ אֱלָהָךְ לָא תַעְבֵּד כָּל עִבִדְתָּא אַתְּ וּבְרָךְ וּבְרַתָּךְ עַבְדָךְ וְאַמְתָךְ וּבְעִירָךְ וְגִיוֹרָךְ דִי בְקִרְוָךְ׃‬‎

‮אֲרֵי שִׁתָּא יוֹמִין עֲבַד יְיָ יָת שְׁמַיָא וְיָת אַרְעָא יָת יַמָא וְיָת כָּל דִי בְהוֹן וְנָח בְּיוֹמָא שְׁבִיעָאָה‬‎

‮עַל כֵּן בָּרִיךְ יְיָ יָת יוֹמָא דְשַׁבְּתָא וְקַדְשֵׁהּ׃‬‎

8‘Remember the Sabbath day by sanctifying it.

9Six days you shall labor and perform all your work.

10But on the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God; ⟨on it⟩ you shall not perform any work—you, your son, your daughter, your servant, your maid, your beast, or your alien who is in your city.

11For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and everything that is in it; then He rested on the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the seventh day and sanctified it.’

JP

‮באש יאד כונא מר רוז שבת בכ֜אץ כרדן אוי רא שש רוזהא כאר כוני וביכוני המה כאר תו ורוז הפ֜תומין שבת דר פיש כ֜ודאי כ֜אלק תו נה כוני היץ֜ כאר תו ופוסר תו ודוכ֜תר תו בנדה תו ופרסתאר תו וצ֗הארפאי תו וג֜ריב תו אנצ֜י בדרואז תו כי בשש רוזהא אפ֜ריד כ֜ודאי מר אן אסמאן ומר אן זמין מר אן דריאב ומר המה אנצ֜י באישאן ואסאישת פ֜רמוד ברוז הפ֜תומין אבר אין סבב אפ֜רין כרד כ֜ודאי מר רוז שבת וכ֜*^‭19‬אץ כרד אוירא׃‬‎

bʾš yʾd kwnʾ rwz šbt bxʾṣ krdn ʾwyrʾ šš rwzhʾ kʾr kwny wby kwny hmh kʾr tw [wrwz hftwmyn šbt dr pyš xwdʾy xʾlq tw nh kwny hyč kʾr tw wpwsr tw wdwxtr tw wbndh tw wprstʾr tw wčhʾr pʾy tw wɣryb tw ʾnčy bdrwʾz tw ky bšš rwzhʾ ʾfryd xwdʾy mr ʾn ʾsmʾn wmr ʾn zmyn mr ʾn dryʾb wmr hmh ʾnčy bʾyšʾn wʾsʾyšt frmwd brwz hftwmyn ʾbr ʾyn sbb ʾfryn krd xwdʾy mr rwz šbt wxʾṣ krd ʾwyrʾ

bāš yād kunā(=i) rōz=i šabbat ba-xāṣ kardan ōy=rā. | 20:9 | Šaš rōzhā kār kūnī wa-bi=kunī hama kār=i tū | 20:10 | wa-rōz=i haftomīn, šabbat dar pēš=i xudāy xāliq=i tū na kunī hēč kār=i tū, wa-pusar=i tū, wa-duxtar=i tū, wa-banda=yi tū, wa-parastār=i tū, wa-čahārpāy=i tū, wa-ɣarīb=i tū ānčī ba-darwāz=i tū. | 20:11 | Ki ba-šaš rōzhā āfarīd xudāy mar ān āsmān wa-mar ān zamīn mar ān daryāb wa-mar hama ančē ba-ēšān wa-āsāyišt farmūd ba-rōz=i haftomīn. Aꞵar īn sabab āfarīn kard xudāy mar rōz=i šabbat, wa-xāṣ kard ōy=rā.

‘Be thou a rememberer of the day of Shabbat by making it special. | 20:9 | Six days thou shalt work, and do all thy work | 20:10 | and on the seventh day, Shabbat, in front of God thy Creator, do none of thy works, [nor] thy son, [nor] thy daughter, [nor] thy male slave, [nor] thy female slave, nor thy cattle (lit. ‘four-legged’), nor the stranger that [is] in thy gates. | 20:11 | For in six days God created that sky and that earth and that sea and all that [is], and he ordered rest on the seventh day.²⁰ For this reason God blessed the day of Shabbat, and made it special.’

TO

The only variation between the Masoretic Text and the Targum of Onqelos is the use of ‮קֳדָם‬‎ ‘before’ (20: 10), instead of Hebrew ‑‮לַ‬‎ la‑ ‘to’ in ‮לַיהוָ֣ה‬‎ ‘to YHWH’ and the use of ‮בְקִרְוָךְ‬‎ ‘in your city’ instead of the Hebrew expression ‘in your gates’ (which both mean the same thing). The Judeo-Persian text follows the TO by adopting the phrase dar pēš=i xudāy “in front of God” (pēš also has the meaning ‘before’), but it follows the Masoretic Text with translating ‮בִּשְׁעָרֶֽ֔יךָ‬‎ as “in your gates,” instead of “in your city.”

The Hebrew loanword, šbt ‘Shabbat’ (‮שׁבת‬‎), differs from the Persian name of Saturday, šanbe ~ šanba, although they are etymologically related. As the Persian word simply designates the day itself, without any religious connotation attached to it, it appears natural that the translator would have used the Hebrew word for it. This is more or less the case in every culture where Jews are a minority: French sabbat (/saba/) ~ chabat (/ʃabat/) ‘Shabbat’ vs. samedi ‘Saturday,’ etc. I wonder if this is also the case in Arabic speaking countries, where the word for ‘Saturday,’ as-sabt, etymologically means ‘Shabbat.’

The expression xāṣ kardan ōy=rā (‮כ֜אץ כרדן אוירא‬‎) is repeated twice in the text to render either the Targum Onqelos word ‮לְקַדָשׁוּתֵהּ‬‎ lǝqdišūtahu or the Hebrew one ‮לְקַדְּשֽׁ֗וֹ‬‎ lǝqaddǝšōw ‘to make it holy,’ from the root q-d-š ‘holy; to make holy.’ This root exists in Arabic as well: q-d-s ‘holy,’ while the root x-ṣ means ‘special, specific; to set apart.’ The question is thus why the translator chose this Arabic word and not a word related to the root q-d-s ‘holy,’ such as muqaddas kardan ōy=rā, for instance, or even closer to the Hebrew and the Targum, qadīs kardan ōy=rā. Of course, xāṣ here carries a very laudatory meaning: it is special in an absolute good manner, in the same way in modern Persian one could tell another xeyli xås hastin šomå “you are very special” with the implication that that person has good qualities which are seldom found.

The Hebrew text implies a separation between Shabbat and all other days of the week. This fits very well with the meaning ‘to set apart’ of the root x-ṣ. One could thus think it is because the idea in the original text is not that of making Shabbat holy, as it is God that makes things holy or not, but of separating it from the rest, of making it a specific day of high value. However well this would work the first time it appears, it is perhaps less efficient for the last sentence, which literally says ‘For this reason God blessed the day of Shabbat, and made it special.’

Another time when the word ‘holy’ is found in Exodus is chapter 28 verse 36, which I will add to this study for comparison purposes, see § 3.14.

The Hebrew expression ‮וְגֵרְךָ֖֙ אֲשֶׁ֥ר בִּשְׁעָרֶֽ֔יךָ‬‎ wə-ġērəḵā ʾašer bi-šʿāreḵā, literally ‘and thy stranger who (ʾašer) in thy gates (bi-šʿāreḵā),’ is translated as wa-ɣarīb=i tū ānčī ba-darwāz=i tū, literally ‘and thy stranger who in thy gates,’ which is ungrammatical in Persian. We would expect the copula, but the translation tries to be as literal as possible by not translating the copula. The word ɣarīb is the usual Persian and Arabic word for ‘stranger, foreigner’; it comes from the root ġ-r-b ‘to be strange, foreign.’

The text is a little less literal when the Judeo-Persian text translates the Hebrew expression ‮עַל־כֵּ֗ן‬‎ ʿal-kēn literally ‘on therefore’ as aꞵar īn sabab ‘for this reason.’ The word sabab, originally from Arabic, is one of the Persian words for ‘reason,’ the other most common one being dalīl, also of Arabic origin.

3.7 Deuteronomy 5:12–15

This is the version of the Decalogue from Deuteronomy, which is slightly different from the one in Exodus, mostly in that, in verse 15, it mentions Shabbat as being connected to the exodus from Egypt, while in the Exodus version, it mentions Shabbat as being connected to the seventh day of God’s Creation.

Masoretic Text

‮שָׁמֹ֣֛ור אֶת־יֹ֥ום֩ הַשַּׁבָּ֖֨ת לְקַדְּשֹׁ֑֜ו כַּאֲשֶׁ֥ר צִוְּךָ֖֣ ׀ יְהוָ֥֣ה אֱלֹהֶֽ֗יךָ ׃‬‎

‮שֵׁ֤֣שֶׁת יָמִ֣ים֙ תַּֽעֲבֹ֔ד֮ וְעָשִׂ֖֣יתָ כָּֿל־מְלַאכְתֶּֽךָ֒׃‬‎

‮וְיֹ֙ום֙ הַשְּׁבִיעִ֜֔י שַׁבָּ֖֣ת ׀ לַיהוָ֖֣ה אֱלֹהֶ֑֗יךָ לֹ֣א תַעֲשֶׂ֣ה כָל־מְלָאכָ֡ה אַתָּ֣ה וּבִנְךָֽ־וּבִתֶּ֣ךָ וְעַבְדְּךָֽ־וַ֠אֲמָתֶךָ וְשֹׁורְךָ֨ וַחֲמֹֽרְךָ֜ וְכָל־בְּהֶמְתֶּ֗ךָ וְגֵֽרְךָ֙ אֲשֶׁ֣ר בִּשְׁעָרֶ֔יךָ לְמַ֗עַן יָנ֛וּחַ עַבְדְּךָ֥ וַאֲמָתְךָ֖ כָּמֹֽ֑וךָ׃‬‎

‮וְזָכַרְתָּ֞֗ כִּ֣י־עֶ֤֥בֶד הָיִ֣֙יתָ֙ ׀ בְּאֶ֣רֶץ מִצְרַ֔֗יִם וַיֹּצִ֨אֲךָ֜֩ יְהוָ֤֨ה אֱלֹהֶ֤֙יךָ֙ מִשָּׁ֔ם֙ בְּיָ֤֥ד חֲזָקָ֖ה֙ וּבִזְרֹ֣עַ נְטוּיָ֑֔ה‬‎

‮עַל־כֵּ֗ן צִוְּךָ֙ יְהוָ֣ה אֱלֹהֶ֔יךָ לַעֲשֹׂ֖ות אֶת־יֹ֥ום הַשַּׁבָּֽת׃ ס‬‎

12‘Observe the sabbath day, to keep it holy, as the Lord thy God commanded thee.

13Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work;

14but the seventh day is a sabbath unto the Lord thy God, in it thou shalt not do any manner of work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thine ox, nor thine ass, nor any of thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; that thy man-servant and thy maid-servant may rest as well as thou.

15And thou shalt remember that thou was a servant in the land of Egypt, and the LORD thy God brought thee out thence by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm; therefore the LORD thy God commanded thee to keep the sabbath day.’

TO

‮טַר יָת יוֹמָא דְשַׁבְּתָא לְקַדָּשׁוּתֵיהּ כְּמָא דִי פַקְדָּךְ יְיָ אֱלָהָךְ׃‬‎

‮שִׁתָּא יוֹמִין תִּפְלָח וְתַעְבֵּד כָּל עִבִדְתָּךְ׃‬‎

‮וְיוֹמָא שְׁבִיעָאָה שַׁבְּתָא קֳדָם יְיָ אֱלָהָךְ לָא תַעְבֵּד כָּל עִבִידָא אַתְּ וּבְרָךְ וּבְרַתָּךְ‬‎

‮וְעַבְדָּךְ וְאַמְתָךְ וְתוֹרָךְ וַחֲמָרָךְ וְכָל בְּעִירָךְ וְגִיּוֹרָךְ דִּי בְקִרְוָךְ בְּדִיל דִּי יְנוּחַ עַבְדָּךְ וְאַמְתָךְ כְּוָתָךְ:‬‎

‮וְתִדְכַּר אֲרֵי עַבְדָּא הַוֵיתָא בְּאַרְעָא דְמִצְרַיִם וְאַפְּקָךְ יְיָ אֱלָהָךְ מִתַּמָּן בִּידָא תַקִּיפָא וּבִדְרָעָא‬‎

‮מְרָמָא עַל כֵּן פַּקְּדָךְ יְיָ אֱלָהָךְ לְמֶעְבַּד יָת יוֹמָא דְשַׁבְּתָא׃‬‎

12‘Preserve the day of Shabbat to sanctify it, as Adonai, your God, commanded you.

13Six days will you work and perform all your labor,

14but the seventh day, Shabbat for Adonai, your God, do not perform any labor—you, your son and your daughter, your male slave and your female slave, your ox and your donkey and all your animals, and the non-Jew who dwells midst your cities—in order that your male slave will rest—and your female slave—like you.

15Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and Adonai, your God, took you out of there with a strong hand and an extended arm. That is why Adonai, your God, commanded you to celebrate the Shabbat day.’

JP

‮ניגאה דאר מר רוז שבת בכ֜אץ כרדן אוירא צ֜ צ֜ונאנצ֜י פ֜רמוד תורא כ֜ודאי כ֜אלק תו שש רוזהא כאר כוני וביכוני המה כאר תו ורוז הפ֜תומין שבת דר פיש כ֜ודאי כ֜אלק תו נה כוני היצ֗ כאר תו ופוסר תו ודכ֜תר תו ובנה תו ופוסתאר תו וגאו תו וכ֜ר תו והמה צ֜הארפאי תו וג֜ריב תו‬‎

‮אנץ֗ בדרואז תו בג֗אדה אנץ֜ אסאישת גירד בנדה תו ופרסתאר תו צ֜ון מתל תו ויאד כוני כי בנדה בודי דר זמין מצר ובירון אבורד תורא כ֜ודאי כ֜אלק תו אז אנג֗אי בסולטאנייתי קווי ובבאהו אבראשתה אבר אין סבב פרמוד תורא כ֜ודאי כ֜אלק תו בכרדן מר רוז שבת׃‬‎

nygh dʾr mr rwz šbt bxʾṣ krdn ʾwyrʾ čwnʾn čy frmwd twrʾ xwdʾy xʾlq tw šš rwzhʾ kʾr kwny wby kwny hmh kʾr tw wrwz hftwmyn šbt dr pyš xwdʾy xʾlq tw nh kwny hyč kʾr tw wpwsr tw wdwxtr tw wbndh tw wprstʾr tw wgʾw tw wxr whmh čhʾr pʾy tw wɣryb tw ʾnč bdrwʾz tw bǰʾdh ʾnč ʾsʾyšt gyrd bndh tw wprstʾr čwn mtl tw wyʾd kwny ky bndh bwdy dr zmyn mṣr wbyrwn ʾbwrd twrʾ xwdʾy xʾlq tw ʾz ʾnǰʾy bswlṭʾnyyty qwwy wbbʾhw ʾbrʾšth ʾbr ʾyn sbb prmwd twrʾ xwdʾy xʾlq tw bkrdn mr rwz šbt

nigah dār mar rōz=i šabbat ba-xāṣ kardan ōy=rā čunānčī farmūd tū=rā xudāy xāliq=i tū. | 5:13| Šaš rōzhā kār kunī wa-bi=kunī hama kār=i tū | 5:14 | wa-rōz=i haftūmīn šabbat dar pēš=i xudāy xāliq=i tū na kunī hēč kār: tū, wa-pusar=i tū, wa-duxtar=i tū, wa-banda=yi tū, wa parastār=i tū wa-gāw=i tū wa-xar wa-hama čahārpāy=i tū, wa-ɣarīb=i tū ānči ba-darwāz=i tū, ba-ǰādda‑ ānči āsāyišt girad banda=yi tū wa-parastār čūn mitl=i tū. | 5:15 | Wa-yād kunī ki banda būdī dar zamīn=i Miṣr, wa-bērūn āꞵurd tū=rā xudāy xāliq=i tū az ānǰāy, ba-sulṭaniyat=i qawwī wa-ba-bāhū=yi aꞵrāšta. Aꞵar īn sabab *farmūd tū=rā xudāy xāliq=i tū ba-kardan mar rōz=i šabbat.

‘Keep thou the day of Shabbat by making it special, as has commanded God thy Creator. | 5: 13| Six days thou workest and dost all thy work, | 5:14| and the seventh day (is) Shabbat in front of God thy Creator, work not at all: neither thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy male slave, nor thy female slave, nor thy cow, nor thy ass, nor any of thy four-legged animals, nor thy stranger who is in thy gates, so that thy male slave and thy female slave take rest, like thee. | 5:15 | And remember’st thou that thou was a slave in the land of Egypt, and God thy Lord brought you outside of that place, by a powerful kingship and an extended arm. For this reason God thy Creator ordered thee to make the Shabbat day.’

TO

Here the Judeo-Persian text is closer to the Masoretic text, which has the Hebrew expression wə-ġērəḵā ʾašer bi-šʿāreḵā ‘and thy stranger who (ʾašer) in thy gates bi-šʿāreḵā’ translated as wa-ɣarīb=i tū ānčī ba-darwāz=i tū, literally ‘and thy stranger who in thy gates’ (which is ungrammatical in Persian as we would expect the copula). The Targum has w-giyyōrāḵ dī v-qirwāḵ word by word, ‘the stranger who in thy cities.’ In any case, it appears as a clear example of the JP translation following the Masoretic Text instead of the Targum as in Exodus 20:10 (see section 3.6 above).

The spelling ‹mtl› represents the word miṯl ‘like,’ as in most if not all Early Judeo-Persian texts. Paul (2013:32) believes it was probably pronounced *[mitl] “due to a wide-spread shift of θ > t in many Arabic dialects of the time […].”

The expression ba-sulṭaniyat=ē=yi qawwī ‘by a powerful kingship’ is not a literal translation of the Biblical original or of the Targum. Indeed, the Hebrew text has ‮בְּיָ֤ד חֲזָקָ֖ה֙‬‎ bǝ-yād ḥazāqāh ‘by a mighty hand’ and the Targum says ‮בִּידָא תַקִּיפָא‬‎ b-yadā ṯaqīpā ‘by a strong hand.’ The translation as ‘by a powerful kingship’ was prompted by the common practice of avoiding anthropomorphisms in Biblical translations.²¹ It is worth noting that both Karaite translators and Rabbanite ones, such as Saadia, avoided physical anthropomorphisms in their translations of the Torah (see for instance Polliack 1997:261), yet this specific passage is translated as ‮ביד שדידה וד̇ראע ממדודה‬‎ ‹byd šdydh wḏrʾʿ mmdwdh› by Saadia Gaon, namely ‘with a strong hand and an outstretched arm.’ This is thus a passage where even Jewish scholars who usually avoided anthropomorphisms at all costs did not, yet our Judeo-Persian translation remarkably does so.

3.8 Exodus 20:12

Masoretic Text

‮כַּבֵּ֥ד אֶת־אָבִ֖יךָ וְאֶת־אִמֶּ֑ךָ לְמַ֙עַן֙ יַאֲרִכ֣וּן יָמֶ֔יךָ עַ֚ל הָאֲדָמָ֔ה אֲשֶׁר־יְהוָ֥ה אֱלֹהֶ֖יךָ נֹתֵ֥ן לָֽךְ׃ ס‬‎

‘Honour thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.’

TO

‮יַקַר יָת אָבוּךְ וְיָת אִמָךְ בְּדִיל דְיוֹרְכוּן יוֹמָיךְ עַל אַרְעָא דַיְיָ אֱלָהָךְ יָהֵב לָךְ׃‬‎

‘Honor your father and your mother so that your days may be prolonged in the land which the Lord your God is giving you.’

JP

‮עזיז דאר מר פדר תו ומר מאדר תו בג֗אדה דראז‬‎

‮כשנד רוזיגאראן תו אבר אן זמין אנצ֗י כ֜ודאי כ֜אלק תו דהא בתו׃‬‎

ʿzyz dʾr mr pdr tw wmr mʾdr tw bǰʾdh drʾz kšnd rwzygʾrʾn tw

ʾbr ʾn zmyn ʾnčy xwdʾy xʾlq tw dhʾ btw

ʿazīz dār mar padar=i tū wa-mar mādar=i tū ba-ǰādda‑(=yi?) dirāz kašand rōzigārān=i tū

aꞵar ān zamīn ānčī xudāy xāliq=i tū dahā ba-tū.

‘Hold dear thy father and thy mother so that thy days extend²² on the land that God thy Creator is giving unto thee.’²³

TO

There is no major difference in meaning between the Masoretic Text and the Targum of Onqelos, and the Judeo-Persian text is, obviously, similar to both. However, ʿazīz dāštan means ‘to hold (dāštan) dear (ʿazīz)’ and is closer to the meaning of the Targum of Onqelos ‮יַקַּר‬‎ yaqar ‘to hold dear’ than to the Hebrew ‮יַקַּר‬‎ kabbēd ‘honor.’

The word ʿazīz ‘dear (one)’ is a borrowing from Arabic ‘dear (one)’

3.9 Exodus 20:13

Given the short nature of each of these verses, I will reproduce them exactly as in the original text, namely, first the Hebrew (with the original vocalization of the manuscript) then the Persian translation with the punctuation signs, in Hebrew characters, transcription, and transliteration. The English translation of the corresponding verses is given below. It should be noted that very little space is used to separate the Judeo Persian words in this passage, and that it is all written very compactly, with wide spaces between the Judeo-Persian and the Hebrew, and relatively smaller spaces between the Hebrew and Judeo-Persian. I add the Hebrew and the Targum of Onqelos’ translation afterwards.

‮לא תרצח׃‬‎

‮נה קטל כוני מרדום׃‬‎

nh qṭl kwny mrdwm

na qatl kunī mardum

‘Kill thou no people,’

‮לא תִּֿנְאָ֑ף׃‬‎

‮נה רוסףי באריגי כוני׃‬‎

nh rwspy bʾrygy²⁴ kwny:

na rōspī bārigī kunī

‘Fornicate not (with a prostitute),’

‮לֹא תִּגְנֹֽ֔ב֜׃‬‎

‮נה דוזדי כוני׃‬‎

nh dwzdy kwny

na duzdī kunī

‘Steal thou not,’

‮לֹא תַעֲנֶה בְרֵעֲךָ֜ עֵ֥ד שָֽקֶר׃‬‎

‮נה גווהי דהי ברפיק תו גוואהי דורוג֜׃‬‎

nh gwwʾhy dhy brfyq tw gwwʾhy dwrwɣ

na gawāhī dahī ba-rafīq=i tū gawāhī=yi duruɣ

‘Testify not for thy companion (with) an untruthful testimony.’

Translation of the Hebrew

‘Thou shalt not murder.

Thou shalt not commit adultery.

Thou shalt not steal.²⁵

Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.’

TO

‮לָא תִקְטוֹל נְפָשׁ לָא תְגוּף לָא תִגְנוּב לָא תַסְהֵד בְּחַבְרָךְ סָהֲדוּתָא דְשִׁקְרָא׃‬‎

‘Do not kill any person. Do not commit adultery. Do not steal. Do not testify as a false testimony against your fellow man.’

TO

The JP translation is closer to the Targum Onqelos than to the Masoretic Text with its translation “kill any person” (‮נפש‬‎) and with its repetition of ‘testimony’ twice. In fact, the JP translations seem to follow word-by-word the TO phrase in the present case.

A very interesting transcription is that of Arabic qatl ‘murder’ as ‹qṭl›, with a ‹ṭ› in the sentence

‮נה קטל כוני מרדום‬‎

‹nh qṭl kwny mrdwm›.

This spelling corresponds to the Hebrew and Aramaic spelling of ‘to kill’ and not to the cognate word qatl in Arabic. Now, the question would be why this word should be taken as Arabic, and not as a Hebrew or Aramaic loanword. The answer is that there are no other such loans in our corpus, apart from dārā ‘generation,’ for rather ‘basic’ non-religious notions, so a loanword would be very unexpected here. This spelling is not a one-time mistake: it is also found in the translation of Deuteronomy 5:17. Possibly, the translator, having the Targum in front of him with the form ‮תִקְטוֹל‬‎ taqṭūl, simply recognized both roots as identical, and believed the Arabic form should also be written with a taw, so he might either have believed the word was actually a loanword from either Hebrew or Aramaic, or etymologically “corrected” the Arabic spelling. It is an interesting but difficult question, since, for instance, all the “special characters” of Arabic are preserved correctly, as for instance the ʿayn in ʿazīz, etc.

The word rafīq ‘companion’ renders the Targum’s Aramaic word ‮חָבֵר‬‎ ḥāvēr ‘friend’ (Grossfeld’s “fellow man”) and the Hebrew word ‮רֵעֲ‬‎ reʿa ‘companion.’

3.10 Exodus 20:14

Masoretic Text

‮לֹ֥א תַחְמֹ֖ד בֵּ֣ית רֵעֶ֑ךָ לֹֽא־תַחְמֹ֞ד אֵ֣שֶׁת רֵעֶ֗ךָ וְעַבְדֹּ֤ו וַאֲמָתֹו֙ וְשֹׁורֹ֣ו וַחֲמֹרֹ֔ו וְכֹ֖ל אֲשֶׁ֥ר לְרֵעֶֽךָ׃ פ‬‎

‘Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house; thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor his man-servant, nor his maid-servant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour’s.’

TO

‮לָא תַחְמֵד בֵּית חַבְרָךְ לָא תַחְמֵד אִתַּת חַבְרָךְ וְעַבְדֵהּ וְאַמְתֵהּ וְתוֹרֵהּ וַחֲמָרֵהּ וְכֹל דִי לְחַבְרָךְ׃‬‎

‘Do not envy the house of your fellow man; do not envy the wife of your fellow man; nor his servant nor his maid, nor his ox nor his donkey, nor anything that belongs to your fellow man.’

JP

‮נה ארזוי כוני כ֜אנה [רפ֜יק תו נה ארזוי כוני זן רפ֜יק]‬‎

‮תו ובנדה אוי ופרסתאר אוי וגאו אוי וכ֜ר אוי והמה אנצ֗י [ברפ֜יק תו]׃‬‎

nh ʾrzwy kwny xʾnh [rfyq tw nh ʾrzwy kwny zn rfyq] tw wbndh ʾwy

wprstʾr ʾwy wgʾw ʾwy wxr ʾwy whmh ʾnčy [brfyq tw]

na ārzōy kunī xāna=yi [rafīq=i tū, na ārzōy kunī zan=i rafīq=i] tū wa-banda=yi ōy

wa-parastār=i ōy, wa-gāw=i ōy, wa-xar=i ōy, wa hama ānčī [ba-rafīq=i tū].

‘Desire not the house of [thy friend, desire not the wife of thy friend] nor his slave, nor his female slave, nor his cow, nor his donkey, nor all that (is) of thy friend.’

TO

No notable difference among any of the three versions.

3.11 Exodus 20:15

Masoretic Text

‮וְכָל־הָעָם֩ רֹאִ֨ים אֶת־הַקֹּולֹ֜ת וְאֶת־הַלַּפִּידִ֗ם וְאֵת֙ קֹ֣ול הַשֹּׁפָ֔ר וְאֶת־הָהָ֖ר עָשֵׁ֑ן וַיַּ֤רְא הָעָם֙ וַיָּנֻ֔עוּ וַיַּֽעַמְד֖וּ מֵֽרָחֹֽק׃‬‎

‘And all the people perceived the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the voice of the horn, and the mountain smoking; and when the people saw it, they trembled, and stood afar off.’

TO

‮וְכָל עַמָא חָזָן יָת קָלַיָא וְיָת בָּעוֹרַיָא וְיָת קַל שׁוֹפָרָא וְיָת טוּרָא תָּנֵן וַחֲזָא עַמָא וְזָעוּ וְקָמוּ מֵרָחִיק׃‬‎

‘When the entire people perceived the thunder and the fires, as well as the sound of the horn (= shofar) and the mountain that smoked, and ⟨as⟩ the people saw ⟨all this⟩, they trembled and stood at a distance.’

JP

‮והמה אן קוום בינאאן מר אן אואזהא ומר אן אב֜רוזהא‬‎

‮ומר אואז שופ֜ר ומר כוה דודגין ובידיד אן קוום ובילרזידנד ובי איסתידנד אז דור׃‬‎

whmh ʾn qwwm bynʾʾn mr ʾn ʾw[ʾzhʾ²⁶ wmr ʾn ʾꞵrwzhʾ] wmr

ʾwʾz šwfr wmr kwh dwdgyn wby dyd ʾn qwwm wby lrzydnd

[wby ʾystydnd ʾz] dwr

wa-hama ān qawm bīnān mar ān āwāzhā wa-mar ān aꞵrōzhā wa-mar

āwāz=i šōfar wa-mar kōh=i dūdgīn wa-bi=dīd ān qawm wa-bi=larzīdand

wa-bi=ēstīdand az dūr.

‘And all that people (were) seeing these sounds and these brightnesses, and the sound of the šofar, and the smoky mountain, and that people saw (these) and they shivered, and stood from afar.’

TO

There is no major difference between the Masoretic Text and the Targum’s version: the Hebrew word ‮קּוֹלֹ֜ת‬‎ originally means ‘sound’ and can designate thunder in particular, hence the English translation; it is more or less the same word as the Targum’s ‮קָלַיָא‬‎ and thus corresponds to Judeo-Persian āwāzhā ‘sounds.’

The šōfar being a typically Jewish object, namely, a musical instrument made of a ram’s horn, it does not have a non-Jewish equivalent, so its borrowing is not surprising. Interestingly, it is spelled ‮שופ֜ר‬‎ in the Judeo-Persian text, while in the Hebrew line above, it is spelled ‮הַש֗פּ֗ר‬‎ (with the black dot of the pe written under the circle above it). The difference in spelling could indicate that it was a loanword, and not simply an integrated Hebrew word for lack of a Judeo-Persian equivalent, especially since the scribe indicates the long ō with a vav and writes the ‹p› in the typical Judeo-Persian fashion of the rest of the text.

The form ‹ʾystyd-› ‘stood up,’ is a known Early Judeo-Persian variant of the standard form ēstād‑ (cf. Paul 2013:110). The ‑īd‑ past tense suffix could be likened to the Dari form uftid‑ ~ uftīd‑ ‘fell’—a form which I collected myself and which also differs from the more “standard” form uftād.

3.12 Exodus 20:16

Masoretic Text

‮וַיֹּֽאמְרוּ֙ אֶל־מֹשֶׁ֔ה דַּבֵּר־אַתָּ֥ה עִמָּ֖נוּ וְנִשְׁמָ֑עָה וְאַל־יְדַבֵּ֥ר עִמָּ֛נוּ אֱלֹהִ֖ים פֶּן־נָמֽוּת׃‬‎

‘And they said unto Moses: “Speak thou with us, and we will hear; but let not God speak with us, lest we die.” ’

TO

‮וַאֲמָרוּ לְמשֶׁה מַלֵל אַתְּ עִמָנָא וּנְקַבֵּל וְלָא יִתְמַלֵל עִמָנָא מִן קֳדָם יְיָ דִילְמָא נְמוּת׃‬‎

‘Whereupon they said to Moses, “You speak with us and we shall listen, but let it not be speaking with us from before the Lord lest we shall die.” ’

JP

‮וגופ֜תנד במשה סכ֜ון גוי תו אב֜אז אימא וקבול כונים ונה סכ֜ון גופ֜תאיד אב֜אז אימא אז פיש כ֜ודאי תא נה בימירימ׃‬‎

wgwftnd bmšh sxwn gwy tw ʾꞵʾz ʾymʾ wqbwl kwnym

wnh sxwn gwftʾyd ʾꞵʾz ʾymʾ ʾz pyš xwdʾy tʾ nh by myrym

wa-guftand ba-moše saxun gūy tū aꞵāz ēmā wa-qabūl kunīm

wa-na saxun guftāyīd aꞵāz ēmā az pēš(=i) xudāy tā na bi=mīrīm

‘And they said to Moses: “speak thou again to us, and we (will) accept, and make thou not spoken a speech to us again in front of God, so we die not.” ’

TO

Here, the Judeo-Persian text follows the Targum closely: indeed, instead of the Hebrew ‮וְנִשְׁמָ֑עָה‬‎ we-nišmāʿāh ‘and we listen (to it),’ TO translates ‮וּנְקַבֵּל‬‎ we-niqbǝl ‘and we accept,’ rendered in the Judeo-Persian translation with the Arabic word qabūl (in the phrasal verb qabūl kardan ‘to accept’), a cognate of the Aramaic word. It is not surprising, indeed, that they chose this verbal form, which is closer to the Aramaic, rather than the properly Persian verb padīruftan ‘to accept,’ which is found in other passages (for example Numbers 15:3). Further, the Targum’s ‮קֳדָם‬‎ ‘before, in front of’ is translated as pēš as in Exodus 20:9 (see section 3.6). This is yet again an avoidance of anthropomorphism (cf. Zawanowska 2016:23).

3.13 Exodus 20:17

Masoretic Text

‮וַיֹּ֨אמֶר מֹשֶׁ֣ה אֶל־הָעָם֮ אַל־תִּירָאוּ֒ כִּ֗י לְבַֽעֲבוּר֙ נַסֹּ֣ות אֶתְכֶ֔ם בָּ֖א הָאֱלֹהִ֑ים וּבַעֲב֗וּר‬‎

‮תִּהְיֶ֧ה יִרְאָתֹ֛ו עַל־פְּנֵיכֶ֖ם לְבִלְתִּ֥י תֶחֱטָֽאוּ׃‬‎

‘And Moses said unto the people: “Fear not; for God is come to prove you, and that His fear may be before you, that ye sin not.” ’

TO

‮וַאֲמַר משֶׁה לְעַמָא לָא תִדְחֲלוּן אֲרֵי בְּדִיל לְנַסָאָה יָתְכוֹן אִתְגְלִי לְכוֹן יְקָרָא דַיְיָ וּבְדִיל דִתְהֵי דַחַלְתֵּהּ עַל אַפֵּיכוֹן בְּדִיל דְלָא תְחוּבוּן׃‬‎

‘Then Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid, for the Glory of the Lord was revealed to you only in order to test you, and in order that His reverence should face you, so that you will not sin.” ’

JP

‮וגופ֜ת משה באן קוום מה תרסיד כי בג֗אדה כאוזמאישת כרדן שומא רא אשכארה‬‎

‮שודה אמד בשומא ויקאר כ֜ודאי ובג֗אדה אנץ֗ באשד תרס אוי אבר רויהא שומא‬‎

‮בג֗אדה אנצ֗י נה כ֜טאגאר שוויד׃‬‎

wgwft mšh bʾn qwwm mh trsyd ky bǰʾdh ²⁷kʾwzmʾyšt krdn šwmʾrʾ ʾškʾrh šwdh ʾmd bšwmʾ wyqʾr xwdʾy wbǰʾdh ʾnčy bʾšd trs ʾwy ʾbr rwyhʾ šwmʾ bǰʾdh ʾnčy nh xṭʾgʾr šwwyd

wa-guft moše ba-ān qawm ma=tarsīd kī ba-ǰādda *ba-uzmāyišt kardan šumā=rā āškāra šuda āmad ba-šumā wiqār=i xudāy wa-ba-ǰādda ānčī bāšad tars=i ōy aꞵar rōyhā=yi šumā ba-ǰādda ānčī na xaṭāgār šawēd

‘And Moses said to that people: “Fear ye not, for it was to test you that the Glory of God was revealed to you, and so that there be fear of Him upon your faces so that you do not become sinners.” ’

TO

The JP translation of this verse follows Targum Onqelos by introducing ‘for it was to test you’ and by mentioning the “glory of God” (TO) instead of “God” (MT). Probably in order to avoid the idea that God Himself came to the people, it is His glory that was revealed: Aramaic ‮יְקָרָא‬‎ yqārā, JP ‮ויקאר‬‎ wiqār. However, the latter part of the JP translation is an exact translation of the Masoretic Text: ‘so that there be fear of Him upon your faces so that you do not become sinners’ = ‘and that His fear may be before you, that ye sin not.’

The word wiqār ‘glory’ is a borrowing from Arabic wiqār, a variant of waqār, itself a cognate of Aramaic ‮יְקָרָא‬‎ yqārā.

3.14 Exodus 28:36

As I mentioned in the introduction, I added the verses from Ex. 28: 36 and 37 (§ 3.15) in order to enlarge our corpus.

Masoretic text

‮וְעָשִׂ֥יתָ צִּ֖יץ זָהָ֣ב טָהֹ֑ור וּפִתַּחְתָּ֤ עָלָיו֙ פִּתּוּחֵ֣י חֹתָ֔ם קֹ֖דֶשׁ לַֽיהוָֽה׃‬‎

‘And thou shalt make a plate of pure gold, and engrave upon it, like the engravings of a signet: holy to the Lord.’

TO

‮וְתַעְבֵּד צִיצָא דִּדְהַב דְּכֵי וְתִגְלוֹף עֲלוֹהִי כְּתַב מְפָרַשׁ קֹדֶשׁ לַייָ׃‬‎

‘Then you should make the front plate of pure gold and engrave on it in distinct script: “Sacred to the Lord.” ’

JP

‮ובי כוני גולי זר פאךֽ ונקש כוני אבר אוי נבשתהה שרח כרדה קדש ליהוה׃‬‎

wby kwny gwly zr pʾk wnqš kwny ʾbr ʾwy nbšth šrḥ krdh qdš lyhwh

wa-bi=kunī gūl=ē=yi (?) zarr=i pāk wa-naqš kunī aꞵar ōy nibišta šarḥ karda “qdš lyhwh”

‘And thou shalt do a rose of pure gold, and draw on it a commented writing qadoš l-YHWH (= consecrated to YHWH).’

TO

The JP text follows the Targum in having the expression šarḥ karda ‘commented, explained’ render ‘a script that is clear’: it is likely a way of expressing it, thus ‘commented’ not in the sense of ‘having a commentary’ but in the sense of ‘made evident, clarified, made clear.’

The word ‹gwly›, which occurs multiple times in the Vat. Pers. 61 text for ‘diadem,’ appears mysterious. It could stand for *gūlī, *gūlē, *gŭlē, or gūl + ‑ē suffix (‘one gwl’), etc. It does not appear to be Arabic, nor is it a Hebrew word. In view of the translation ‘rosette’ of the nrsvue²⁸, one could think it is gulē ‘a rose’: after all, a rosette, a flower-like decorative device, derives from ‘rose’ with the French feminine diminutive suffix ‑ette. However, the Hebrew and Aramaic word is ‮צִּ֖יץ‬‎ ṣīṣ, on which Rashi writes: “‮ציץ‬‎—This was a kind of golden Plate, two fingers in breadth, going round the forehead from ear to ear.”²⁹ This is perhaps a mystery that specialists of Hebrew or of the Bible can solve, but for the time being I think the translation ‘rose’ might hold for the Judeo-Persian ‹gwly›.

The word naqš is the usual Arabic word for ‘drawing.’

The expression šarḥ karda means “commented on.” The word šarḥ ‘commentary, explanation’ is Arabic and karda ‘done’ is Persian.

The phrase qdš lyhwh is left untranslated and unvocalized. This is because one is supposed to write it as such on the rosette, in Hebrew, not in Judeo-Persian or any other language.

3.15 Exodus 28:37

Masoretic Text

‮וְשַׂמְתָּ֤ אֹתֹו֙ עַל־פְּתִ֣יל תְּכֵ֔לֶת וְהָיָ֖ה עַל־הַמִּצְנָ֑פֶת אֶל־מ֥וּל פְּנֵֽי־הַמִּצְנֶ֖פֶת יִהְיֶֽה׃‬‎

‘And thou shalt put it on a thread of blue, and it shall be upon the mitre; upon the forefront of the mitre it shall be.’

TO

‮וּתְשַׁוִּי יָתֵיהּ עַל חוּטָא דִתְכֶלְתָּא וִיהֵי עַל מִצְנֶפְתָּא לָקֳבֵל אַפֵּי מִצְנֶפְתָּא יְהֵי׃‬‎

‘And you should place it on a thread of blue wool and it should be upon the turban; opposite the front of the turban should it be.’

JP

‮ובינהי אוירא [אב֜ר רשתה אסמ]נגון ובאשד אבר אן עמימה במוקאבל רוי אן עמימה באשד׃‬‎

wby nhy ʾwyrʾ [ʾꞵr ršth ʾsm]ngwn wbʾšd ʾbr ʾn ʿmymh bmwqʾbl rwy ʾn ʿmymh bʾšd

wa-bi=nahī ōy=rā aꞵar rišta=yi āsmangūn wa-bāšad aꞵar ān ʿimēma ba-muqābil=i rōy=i ān ʿimēma bāšad

‘And thou wilt place it on an azure cord, and it shall be on that turban: in front of the face of that turban it shall be.’

TO

The JP translation seems to be trying to imitate the TO by integrating the word muqābil ‘in front of, in the proximity of’ as corresponding to Aramaic ‮לָקֳבֵל‬‎ lāqōbēl ‘near,’ which is an obvious cognate of the Arabic word (both deriving from the root q-b-l ‘to near, to be near’).

To note, the form āsmangūn instead of expected āsmāngūn (the text has āsmān elsewhere, see for example 2.6; 2.3; also Genesis 1.1 ‮מר אן אסמאן ומר אן זמין׃‬‎) shows an example of an Early New Persian sound change: ā is shortened to a before ‑ng‑ (cf. Lazard 1963:182). Since Vat. Pers. 61 otherwise has the word āsman and this is but a compounded form, it shows that the sound law was still operating when the manuscript was redacted. In that case, the date of the 14th century for the redaction of the manuscript seems rather late, as there are no examples of this sound law after the Early New Persian times (that is, until the 12th century, or early 13th century at the latest).

The word ʿimēma ‘turban’ comes from Arabic ʿimāma ‘turban’ (cf. Lane 1874:2149) with imālah (Arabic ā > ē in the vicinity of i). This imāla phenomenon can be observed in Arabic loanwords in other Judeo-Persian texts (e.g. Shaked 2009:454; Paul 2013) but, as far as I am aware, has not previously been noted for our text, or for this word.

The Arabic term muqābil means ‘in front of, in the proximity of.’ It does not seem to have undergone imāla, unlike the preceding word, although it is difficult to determine.