Herein we continue, from part 1, part 2, part 3, considering Angels in the Targumim. The Targumim, plural of Targum (Strong’s H8638 meaning interpret as in Ezra 4:7), are Aramaic paraphrases of the Old Testament that began to be produced beginning at the time of the Second Temple period (530 BC and 70 AD). The fuller complete result consists of quotations of those sections within the text that refer to Angels, Cherubim, Seraphim, Devil, Satan, demons, serpent and dragon. The point is not to elucidate these references but to provide relevant partial quotations and citations. See my section on Angels here, Cherubim and Seraphim here, Satan here and Demons here.
Targum to Song of Songs, to Ruth, to Lamentations & Isaiah.
Angels in the Aramaic Targum to Song of Songs
1:5 And when they turned in repentance and their guilt was pardoned them, the splendor of their faces’ glory increased like the Angels, because they made the curtains for the Tabernacle and the Presence of YY dwelt among them.
1:15 When the Children of Israel did the will of their King, He praised them with His Word in the household of the holy Angels.
2:3 “Just as the citron is beautiful and is praised among ornamental trees and all the world acknowledges it, in the same way the Master of the World was praised among the Angels when He revealed Himself on Mount Sinai, at the time He gave the Law to His people.
2:9 “…He had mercy on us and did not allow the Destroying Angel to destroy us.
3:6 …through the piety of Jacob, with whom an Angel wrestled until the break of dawn and who prevailed over him and was spared, both he and twelve tribes.
4:12 And your women who are married to husbands are as chaste as a chaste bride and like the Garden of Eden which no man is permitted to enter except the righteous whose souls are sent into it by the hand of the Angels…
5:10 And His banner is over a myriad myriads of Angels who minister before Him.
8:8 At that time, the Angels will say to one another, “We have one people on Earth and her merits are clear, but she has no kings or rulers to go forth and wage war against the camp of Gog. What will we do for our sister in the day when the nations speak of going up against her for war?”
Angels in the Targum to Ruth
1:6 Then she arose with her daughters-in-law and returned from the field of Moab, for she was informed by an Angel, in the field of Moab, that the Lord had remembered his people.
4:22 Now Oved begot Jesse, who was called Nahash, because no corruption and perversion, for which he might be delivered into the hands of the Angel of death, who would take his life from him, were found in him.
Angels in the Targum “Chaldee paraphrase on the prophet Isaiah” by Jonathan b. Uzziel
Isaiah X:5 Woe to the Assyrian, the government of my fury, an Angel is sent from me again them for a curse!
Isaiah XXXVII:36 Then the Angel of the Lord went forth, and slew in the camp of the Assyrians.
Angels in the Targum Lamentations Note that “Memra” is, generally speaking, the Aramaic counterpart to the Greek term Logos; word.
1:20 Look, O Lord, for I am in anguish. Therefore my bowels are piled up and my heart turns within me, for I have surely transgressed the decree of the Memra of the Lord. Consequently, outside the sword bereaves and inside the agony of starvation, like the Destroying Angel who is appointed over death.
3:57 You brought the Angel near to save me, in the day that I prayed to you. You said by your Memra, “Do not fear.”
In the next segment, we will consider Cherubim and Seraphim in the Targumim.
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