chaldee-paraphraseapocrypha
Targum Isaiah 30
The Targum renders Isaiah 30 with the Word of the Lord — the Memra — as the active agent of both judgment and salvation, sharpening what the Hebrew leaves as Jehovah's direct speech into an explicit theology of the divine Word. Rebellious Judah is indicted for bypassing prophetic counsel and descending to Egypt for military alliance, a covenant violation that mirrors every generation's temptation to trust imperial shadow over Jehovah's arm. The turnaround hinge is verse 15: return to the law, find rest and redemption. The chapter closes with the Shekinah restored to the sanctuary, amplified cosmic light at the turning of captivity, and the Memra itself consuming Assyria and kindling Gehenna — Word as both fire of judgment and signal of Zion's deliverance.
1
Woe unto the rebellious children, saith the Lord, who take counsel, but not of my WORD, who consult a consultation, but do not ask my prophets, that they may add sin unto the sins of their soul.
2
Who go to descend into Egypt, but ask not the words of my prophets: to strengthen themselves with the strength of Pharaoh, and to trust in the shadow of Egypt.
3
Therefore the strength of Pharaoh shall be unto you for confusion; and confidence in the shadow of Egypt for disgrace.
4
For their princes were in Tanes, and their messengers have reached Taphnes.
5
All of them go unto a people to be confounded, a people that shall not profit them, who shall be of no help, and of no profit, but for a confusion, and reproaches.
6
They carry upon their beasts of burden on the way southward, into a land of oppression and distress, a place of the lion, and the whelps of the lionesses, and serpents, and of the flying basilisks—they carry upon the shoulders of their young cattle their treasures, and they bring upon the bunches of camels whatever is in their treasuries unto a people, that shall not profit them.
7
And as for the Egyptians, their help is vanity and emptiness; therefore I shall meet many of them slain: I will bring armed men upon them.
8
Now go, write it amongst them upon a tablet, and mark it upon lines of a book, that it may be for a witness before me in the day of judgment for ever:
9
That this is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not receive the instruction of the law of the Lord:
10
Who say to the prophets, Prophesy ye not: and as for doctrines, teach us not the doctrine of the law: speak ye with us with signs, relate unto us various things:
11
Turn us from the right path, make us to cease from tradition; put at a distance from us the WORD of the Holy One of Israel.
12
Wherefore thus saith the Holy One of Israel, Because ye have despised this word, and trust in lie and oppression, and stay thereon:
13
Therefore this sin shall be unto you as a city laid waste, and made a ruinous heap, as a bending: wall, whose breaking cometh very suddenly.
14
And its breaking shall be as the breaking of a potter's vessel of clay, who is breaking it without compassion, and among its fragments there shall not be found a potsherd to take fire from the hearth, or to draw water from the cistern.
15
For thus saith the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel: I have said, If ye return to my law, ye shall have rest, and ye shall be redeemed, ye shall be quiet, and ye shall dwell in safety, and be mighty; but ye would not.
16
And ye said: Nay, but we will flee on horses; therefore shall ye flee; and, We will ride upon the swift; therefore shall they be swift that pursue you.
17
One thousand of you shall flee because of the rebuke of one, because of the rebuke of five: till ye be left as a signal fire on the top of a mountain; and as a beacon on a high hill.
18
And therefore the Lord will shew you pity, and He that is mighty will compassionate you; for the Lord is the God who doeth judgment: blessed are the righteous who wait for His salvation.
19
For the people of Zion shall dwell in Jerusalem thou shalt weep no more. He will assuredly shew thee compassion: the voice of thy prayer He will hear, and He will answer thy supplication.
20
And the Lord shall give unto you the treasures of the enemy, and the spoil of the oppressor, and He will no more take away His Shekinah from the house of the sanctuary, and thine eyes shall behold my Shekinah in the house of the sanctuary.
21
And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the right way, walk ye in it, and turn ye not from it to the right, or to the left.
22
And ye shall defile the covering of your idols of silver, and the ornament of thy molten images of gold; ye shall abominate it, as they abominate the impurity of a menstruous woman, thus ye shall abominate it.
23
Then shall He give rain for thy seed, with which thou shalt sow the ground, and corn and fruit shall increase in the land, and there shall be sustenance and goodness; and at that time, the just shall be nourished from their cattle, with the marrow of the tender and the fat ones.
24
And the oxen and the asses, with which they plough the ground, shall eat fattening meslin, which has been winnowed with the shovel and with the fan.
25
And there shall be upon every high mountain, and upon every high and lofty hill, rivers flowing with water at the time of the ruin of the kings and their armies, in the day of the great slaughter, at the falling of the princes.
26
Moreover the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall in future shine three hundred and forty-three times more brightly, as the light of seven days, in the day that the Lord shall turn the captivity of His people, and heal the sickness caused by His blow.
27
Behold, the Name of the Lord shall be revealed, as the prophets of old have prophesied concerning Him: His wrath is mighty, and too heavy to bear. His curse shall go forth from before Him upon the wicked, and His word as a consuming fire.
28
And His word is as an overwhelming river reaching unto the neck: He shall slay the mighty; He will assuredly agitate the nations with the agitation of vanity: and there shall be a bridle of error in the jaws of the people.
29
Ye shall have a song as in the night, as in the night when the festival is sanctified with joy of heart, as when they march with thanksgivings and the pipe, to enter the holy mountain of the Lord, to appear before the mighty One of Israel.
30
And the Lord shall proclaim the brightness of the voice of His WORD, and He shall reveal the strength of His arm in the fury of His anger," and in flames of fire, destroying the graven images with scattering, and storm, and hailstones.
31
For through the voice of the WORD of the Lord the Assyrian shall be broken, he that smote by his power.
32
And it shall come to pass, that the Lord shall cause to rest the vengeance of His might in every pass of their princes and mighty ones, even amongst them. The house of Israel shall praise with tabrets and harps, because of the mighty war which shall be waged for them against the people.
33
For hell is made ready from eternity on account of their sins; yea, the eternal King hath prepared it deep and wide: a fiery pyre as of abundance of fuel burns in it: the WORD of the Lord, like an overwhelming torrent of brimstone, shall kindle it.
