Parashat Noach — Fifth Aliyah

Torah with Onkelos · Bereshit 9:8 – 9:17 · פרשת נח, חמישי

The covenant with Noach and the bow in the cloud, read through Targum Onkelos

Contents

• Orientation
• How this page is laid out
• Unit 1 — Bereshit 9:8–12: The covenant with Noach and every living creature
• Unit 2 — Bereshit 9:13–17: The bow in the cloud
• Conclusion of the aliyah
• Aramaic word list for the aliyah
• Source note

Orientation

What happens in this aliyah. After the flood, Hashem speaks to Noach and his sons. He establishes His covenant with them, with their descendants and with every creature that left the ark: never again will a flood destroy the earth. He then gives a sign of the covenant: His bow set in the cloud. When He brings clouds over the earth and the bow is seen, He will remember the covenant, and the waters will never again become a flood. The aliyah closes with Hashem repeating to Noach that this is the sign of the covenant He has established between Himself and all flesh.

What Onkelos is. Targum Onkelos is the classical Aramaic translation of the Torah, read for centuries alongside the Hebrew; the Talmud speaks of reviewing the weekly portion “twice in the Hebrew and once in the Targum”. Because it is a translation, it rarely adds explanation in so many words. Its interpretation lies in its choices: which Aramaic word it uses, where it adds or omits a word, how it handles a difficult phrase, and where it departs from a word-for-word rendering.

How this page reads Onkelos. The notes compare the Aramaic with the Hebrew and nothing else. No later commentators are brought in. Where a note draws a conclusion about what Onkelos meant, it is stated as an inference from the text, not as established fact.

What to look out for in this aliyah.

• Keyam for berit. Onkelos renders the Hebrew word for covenant as keyam, from the root of kum, ‘stand, establish’, the same root as the verb of establishing.
• Between My Memra. Where the Hebrew has Hashem say ‘between Me’, the Aramaic reads ‘between My Memra’, and ‘between Elokim’ in 9:16 becomes ‘between the Memra of Hashem’.
• Hashem for Elokim. Where the Hebrew has Elokim, the printed Onkelos writes ה׳.
• Tofana for mabbul. The flood is tofana throughout.
• Plain words for images. ‘Your seed’ becomes ‘your sons’ and ‘be cut off’ becomes ‘be destroyed’.
• Shared roots across verses. One verb, le-habbala, renders ‘destroy’ in 9:11 and 9:15, and the root חזי renders both ‘be seen’ and ‘see’.

How this page is laid out

For each verse:

• Torah — the Hebrew verse, with vowels and cantillation, followed by an English Translation of the Hebrew (Metsudah Chumash).
• Onkelos — the Aramaic of Targum Onkelos, followed by Onkelos in English, a close translation of the Aramaic. It uses the same wording as the Torah translation wherever the Aramaic says the same thing, so that the differences from the Hebrew can be seen. Words in square brackets are added for sense.
• What Onkelos tells us — editorial notes comparing the Aramaic with the Hebrew: what is translated literally, what is changed or added, and what that suggests about how Onkelos read the verse. Selected Aramaic words are listed with their Hebrew equivalents.

Each unit ends with a short Unit summary. The page ends with a review of the aliyah and an Aramaic word list.

Divine Names in the Hebrew and Aramaic are printed as ה׳ and אלקים. In English, God’s proper Name is rendered Hashem, and Elokim is rendered God.

Unit 1 — Bereshit 9:8–12: The covenant with Noach and every living creature

Hashem tells Noach and his sons that He is establishing His covenant with them, their descendants and every creature that left the ark: never again will a flood destroy the earth. He then announces that a sign of this covenant is to follow.

Bereshit 9:8

Torah

Translation

God said to Noach and to his sons with him, saying,

Onkelos

Onkelos in English

Hashem said to Noach and to his sons with him, saying,

What Onkelos tells us

• “Hashem said”. Where the Hebrew has Elokim (אֱלֹקִים), the printed Onkelos writes ה׳, Hashem. The same happens in 9:12 and 9:17. Otherwise the verse is a literal rendering, with the Hebrew preposition el, ‘to’, expressed by the prefix le- (le-Noah).

Words to note: וְלִבְנוֹהִי ve-livnohi — and to his sons (בָּנָיו) · לְמֵימָר lemeimar — saying (לֵאמֹר)

Bereshit 9:9

Torah

Translation

Behold, I am making a covenant with you and with your offspring after you.

Onkelos

Onkelos in English

And I, behold I, am making My covenant with you and with your sons after you.

What Onkelos tells us

• “Behold I”. The Hebrew hineni is rendered as two words, ha ana, ‘behold I’.
• “Making My covenant”. Hebrew berit is rendered keyam (keyami, ‘My covenant’), a noun from the root of kum, ‘stand, establish’. The verb mekim is from the same root, as is the Hebrew mekim; so in the Aramaic Hashem literally ‘establishes His establishment’, a sound-link that the Hebrew, with two different roots, does not have.
• “And with your sons”. Two changes:
  • The Hebrew repeats et (ve-et zar’akhem), a word that can be either the object marker or the preposition ‘with’. Onkelos writes ve-‘im, ‘and with’, taking it as the preposition.
  • The Hebrew zera’, ‘seed, offspring’, becomes beneikhon, ‘your sons’. This may reflect a preference for a plain word over the metaphor of seed.

Words to note: הָא אֲנָא ha ana — behold I (הִנְנִי) · מֵקִים mekim — am making (מֵקִים) · קְיָמִי keyami — My covenant (בְּרִיתִי) · וְעִם ve-‘im — and with (וְאֶת) · בְּנֵיכוֹן beneikhon — your sons (זַרְעֲכֶם) · בַּתְרֵיכוֹן batreikhon — after you (אַחֲרֵיכֶם)

Bereshit 9:10

Torah

Translation

And with every living creature that is with you, with the birds, the animals, and all the beasts of the earth with you, all who departed from the ark, including every living creature on earth.

Onkelos

Onkelos in English

And with every living creature that is with you, with the birds, the animals, and all the beasts of the earth that are with you, all who departed from the ark, including every living creature on earth.

What Onkelos tells us

• “And with every living creature”. As in 9:9, the Hebrew ve-et is rendered ve-‘im, ‘and with’.
• “That are with you”. At the second ‘with you’ the Hebrew has only ittekhem, but the printed Onkelos adds the relative particle: de-‘immekhon, ‘that are with you’, matching the first de-‘immekhon earlier in the verse.
• “All who departed from the ark”. A literal rendering: Hebrew יצא, ‘go out’, is rendered by its usual Aramaic equivalent נפק (nafkei), and tevah, ‘ark’, by tevota.
• Textual note. At the second ‘with you’ the Yemenite text reads עִמְּכוֹן, without the relative particle, exactly like the Hebrew. The added ‘that are’ holds for the printed text only.

Words to note: נַפְשָׁא חַיְתָא nafsha hayta — living creature (נֶפֶשׁ) · דְּעִמְּכוֹן de-‘immekhon — that are with you (אִתְּכֶם) · נַפְקֵי nafkei — who departed (יֹצְאֵי) · תֵבוֹתָא tevota — the ark (הַתֵּבָה)

Bereshit 9:11

Torah

Translation

I will keep My covenant with you, that never again will all flesh be cut off by flood waters, never again will flood waters destroy the earth.

Onkelos

Onkelos in English

I will keep My covenant with you, that never again will all flesh be destroyed by flood waters, and never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.

What Onkelos tells us

• “I will keep My covenant”. The verb ve-akem is from the root of kum, ‘stand’, the same root as the Hebrew va-hakimoti and as keyami, ‘My covenant’. The Hebrew converted perfect becomes a plain Aramaic future.
• “Be destroyed”. The Hebrew yikkaret, ‘be cut off’, is rendered yishteitzei, ‘be destroyed, be wiped out’. Onkelos perhaps prefers a literal verb of destruction to the image of cutting.
• “Flood”. Hebrew mabbul is rendered tofana both times in the verse.
• “To destroy”. Hebrew le-shahet is rendered le-habbala, from חבל; the same pair recurs in 9:15.

Words to note: וְאָקֵם ve-akem — I will keep (וַהֲקִמֹתִי) · יִשְׁתֵּיצֵי yishteitzei — be destroyed (יִכָּרֵת) · טוֹפָנָא tofana — flood (הַמַּבּוּל) · לְחַבָּלָא le-habbala — to destroy (לְשַׁחֵת)

Bereshit 9:12

Torah

Translation

God said, This is the sign of the covenant that I pledge between Myself and you, and between every living creature that is with you, for the generations of all time.

Onkelos

Onkelos in English

Hashem said, This is the sign of the covenant that I pledge between My Memra and you, and between every living creature that is with you, for the generations of all time.

What Onkelos tells us

• “Hashem said”. As in 9:8, Elokim is rendered ה׳.
• “The sign of the covenant”. Hebrew ot ha-berit is rendered at keyam; at, ‘sign’, is the Aramaic cognate of ot.
• “I pledge”. Hebrew noten, ‘give’, is rendered yahev, the ordinary Aramaic verb for giving; it recurs as yehavit in 9:13 for natatti.
• “Between My Memra and you”. Where the Hebrew has beini, ‘between Me’, Onkelos writes bein meimri, ‘between My Memra’ (memra is literally ‘word, utterance’). The same substitution recurs in 9:13, 9:15 and 9:17. It may suggest a reluctance to speak of God Himself as one party standing ‘between’.

Words to note: אָת at — sign (אוֹת) · קְיָם keyam — covenant (הַבְּרִית) · יָהֵב yahev — pledge (נֹתֵן) · מֵימְרִי meimri — My Memra (בֵּינִי) · עַלְמָא ‘alma — all time (עוֹלָם)

Unit 1 summary

Onkelos follows the Hebrew closely here, using his standard equivalents: keyam for berit (covenant), tofana for mabbul (flood), and the same root as the Hebrew for the verb of establishing (the root of kum, ‘stand’), so that in the Aramaic Hashem literally ‘establishes His keyam’. Where the Hebrew’s particle et could be read as either an object marker or ‘with’, he writes ve-‘im, ‘and with’. He turns ‘your offspring’ (literally ‘seed’) into ‘your sons’, and ‘be cut off’ into the plainer ‘be destroyed’. Elokim is rendered by Hashem, and in 9:12 the Hebrew ‘between Me’ becomes ‘between My Memra’, a pattern that runs through the whole passage.

Unit 2 — Bereshit 9:13–17: The bow in the cloud

Hashem sets His bow in the cloud as the sign of the covenant: when He brings clouds over the earth and the bow appears, He will remember His covenant, and the waters will never again become a flood. He repeats to Noach that this is the sign of the covenant.

Bereshit 9:13

Torah

Translation

I have set My [rain] bow in the clouds, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between Myself and the earth.

Onkelos

Onkelos in English

I have set My bow in the clouds, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between My Memra and the earth.

What Onkelos tells us

• “I have set”. Hebrew natatti is rendered yehavit, from the same verb used for noten in 9:12.
• “Between My Memra and the earth”. As in 9:12, beini, ‘between Me’, becomes bein meimri. Otherwise a literal rendering: kashti, ‘My bow’, is the cognate of the Hebrew.

Words to note: קַשְׁתִּי kashti — My bow (קַשְׁתִּי) · יְהָבִית yehavit — I have set (נָתַתִּי) · בַּעֲנָנָא ba-‘anana — in the clouds (בֶּעָנָן)

Bereshit 9:14

Torah

Translation

At a time when I bring clouds over the earth, the [rain] bow will be seen in the clouds.

Onkelos

Onkelos in English

And it shall be, when I bring clouds over the earth, the bow will be seen in the clouds.

What Onkelos tells us

• “When I bring clouds”. The Hebrew joins a verb and its cognate noun, be-‘anani ‘anan, literally ‘when I cloud a cloud’. Onkelos keeps the repetition of the root but appears to use a noun in place of the verb: ba-‘ananuti ‘anana, ‘in my clouding of clouds’.
• “Will be seen”. The Hebrew passive ve-nir’atah, from the Hebrew verb ‘see’, is rendered by the Aramaic passive ve-tithazei, from חזי, ‘see’. The same root renders ‘I will see it’ in 9:16.

Words to note: בַּעֲנָנוּתִי ba-‘ananuti — when I bring clouds (בְּעַנְנִי) · וְתִתְחֲזֵי ve-tithazei — will be seen (וְנִרְאֲתָה) · קַשְׁתָּא kashta — the bow (הַקֶּשֶׁת)

Bereshit 9:15

Torah

Translation

I shall remember My covenant that is between Myself and you, and between every living soul in all flesh, that never again will flood waters destroy all flesh.

Onkelos

Onkelos in English

I remember My covenant that is between My Memra and you, and between every living soul in all flesh, and the water will never again become a flood to destroy all flesh.

What Onkelos tells us

• “I remember”. The Hebrew converted perfect ve-zakharti, ‘I shall remember’, is rendered by a participle with the pronoun attached, ve-dakhirna, which can express present or future. The root דכר is the Aramaic equivalent of Hebrew זכר.
• “Between My Memra and you”. As in 9:12, ‘between Me’ becomes ‘between My Memra’.
• “The water will never again become a flood”. A literal rendering of the Hebrew construction ‘the water will not again be for a flood’ (mayya le-tofana), with le-habbala for le-shahet, ‘to destroy’, as in 9:11.

Words to note: וְדָכִירְנָא ve-dakhirna — I remember (וְזָכַרְתִּי) · מֵימְרִי meimri — My Memra (בֵּינִי) · לְטוֹפָנָא le-tofana — a flood (לְמַבּוּל) · לְחַבָּלָא le-habbala — to destroy (לְשַׁחֵת)

Bereshit 9:16

Torah

Translation

The [rain]bow shall be in the clouds, and I will see it to remember the eternal covenant between God and between every living soul that is in all flesh that is on the earth.

Onkelos

Onkelos in English

The bow shall be in the clouds, and I will see it to remember the eternal covenant between the Memra of Hashem and between every living soul in all flesh that is on the earth.

What Onkelos tells us

• “I will see it”. Hebrew u-re’itiha, ‘and I will see it’, is rendered ve-ehazinnah, from חזי, the root used for ‘will be seen’ in 9:14.
• “To remember the eternal covenant”. Hebrew lizkor, an infinitive, is rendered by the infinitive le-midkar; berit ‘olam becomes keyam ‘alam.
• “Between the Memra of Hashem”. Here the Hebrew has God speak of Himself in the third person, ‘between Elokim’. Onkelos keeps the third person but writes bein meimra da-Hashem, ‘between the Memra of Hashem’, the third-person form of the ‘My Memra’ found in 9:12, 9:13, 9:15 and 9:17.
• Textual note. For le-midkar, ‘to remember’, the Yemenite text reads לְדוּכְרַן, a noun, ‘for a remembrance of’. The point that Onkelos renders the Hebrew infinitive with an infinitive holds for the printed text only.

Words to note: וְאֵחֲזִנַּהּ ve-ehazinnah — and I will see it (וּרְאִיתִיהָ) · לְמִדְכַּר le-midkar — to remember (לִזְכֹּר) · קְיַם עָלָם keyam ‘alam — the eternal covenant (בְּרִית עוֹלָם) · מֵימְרָא דַּה׳ meimra da-Hashem — the Memra of Hashem (אֱלֹקִים)

Bereshit 9:17

Torah

Translation

God said to Noach, This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between Myself and between all flesh that is on the earth.

Onkelos

Onkelos in English

Hashem said to Noach, This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between My Memra and between all flesh that is on the earth.

What Onkelos tells us

• “Hashem said”. As in 9:8 and 9:12, Elokim is rendered ה׳.
• “That I have established between My Memra”. A literal rendering, apart from ‘My Memra’ for ‘Me’ as in 9:12. The verb akemit, from the root of kum, ‘stand’, matches the Hebrew hakimoti from the same root, and echoes keyam, ‘covenant’.

Words to note: אֲקֵמִית akemit — I have established (הֲקִמֹתִי) · מֵימְרִי meimri — My Memra (בֵּינִי)

Unit 2 summary

In this unit Onkelos is again close to the Hebrew, and the one systematic change is in the language about God. Every time the Hebrew has Hashem say ‘between Me’ (9:13, 9:15, 9:17), the Aramaic reads ‘between My Memra’, and where the Hebrew says ‘between Elokim’ (9:16) it reads ‘between the Memra of Hashem’. This may suggest a reluctance to place God Himself as one side of a ‘between’. Elsewhere he keeps the Hebrew’s sound-play of ‘when I cloud clouds’, apparently with a noun and a cognate noun, renders ‘see’ and ‘be seen’ with the root חזי, and uses one verb, le-habbala, for ‘destroy’ in 9:11 and 9:15.

Conclusion of the aliyah

The movement of the aliyah

The aliyah moves from the promise to its sign. The first unit (9:8-12) sets out the covenant and its parties: Noach, his sons, their descendants and every living creature, with the promise that no flood will again destroy the earth. The second unit (9:13-17) gives the bow in the cloud as the sign, describes how its appearance will lead Hashem to remember the covenant, and closes by restating that this is the sign of the covenant. Onkelos follows the Hebrew closely throughout; his changes are few and consistent, concentrated on the language of the covenant and on how God is spoken of.

What Onkelos tells us in this aliyah

1. “Hashem said” (9:8). Where the Hebrew has Elokim, the printed Onkelos writes ה׳, as again in 9:12 and 9:17.
2. “Making My covenant” (9:9). Mekim yat keyami uses one root for both verb and noun, so that Hashem literally ‘establishes His establishment’, a sound-link the Hebrew, with two different roots, does not have.
3. “And with your sons” (9:9). Onkelos reads the Hebrew et as ‘with’ (ve-‘im) and turns ‘seed’ into ‘sons’, which may reflect a preference for a plain word over the metaphor.
4. “That are with you” (9:10). The printed text adds the relative particle at the second ‘with you’; the Yemenite text does not.
5. “Be destroyed” (9:11). Yikkaret, ‘be cut off’, becomes yishteitzei, perhaps a preference for a literal verb of destruction over the image of cutting.
6. “Between My Memra and you” (9:12). Beini, ‘between Me’, becomes bein meimri, which may suggest a reluctance to speak of God Himself as one party standing ‘between’.
7. “I have set” (9:13). Natatti is rendered yehavit, from the same verb used for noten in 9:12.
8. “When I bring clouds” (9:14). Onkelos keeps the repetition of the root in be-‘anani ‘anan but appears to use a noun in place of the verb: ba-‘ananuti ‘anana.
9. “I remember” (9:15). The Hebrew converted perfect becomes the participle ve-dakhirna, which can express present or future.
10. “Between the Memra of Hashem” (9:16). Where the Hebrew has God speak of Himself in the third person, Onkelos keeps the third person: bein meimra da-Hashem.
11. “To remember” (9:16). The printed text renders the infinitive with an infinitive, le-midkar; the Yemenite text has a noun, ‘for a remembrance of’.
12. “That I have established” (9:17). Akemit matches the Hebrew hakimoti from the same root and echoes keyam, ‘covenant’.

Recurring features

• The covenant as keyam. Wherever the Hebrew has berit in this aliyah, the Aramaic has keyam, and the verbs of establishing (mekim, akem, akemit) share its root.
• The Memra in the ‘between’ phrases. ‘Between Me’ becomes ‘between My Memra’ in 9:12, 9:13, 9:15 and 9:17, and ‘between Elokim’ becomes ‘between the Memra of Hashem’ in 9:16.
• Elokim rendered as ה׳. In 9:8, 9:12 and 9:17 the printed text writes ה׳ where the Hebrew has Elokim.
• Standard equivalents. Mabbul is tofana, le-shahet is le-habbala (9:11, 9:15), noten/natatti are from the verb yehav, and ‘see’ and ‘be seen’ are from חזי.
• Close rendering elsewhere. Apart from these features, the notes repeatedly describe the Aramaic as a literal rendering of the Hebrew.

Aliyah takeaway

This aliyah shows Onkelos at his most literal, which makes his few changes stand out. The covenant becomes a keyam, tied by root to the verbs that establish it, so the Aramaic draws the promise and its establishing together more tightly than the Hebrew. And at each point where God is named as one side of the covenant, ‘between Me’ or ‘between Elokim’, the Aramaic places His Memra there instead, a pattern that may suggest a reluctance to set God Himself as one party standing ‘between’. Everything else, from the bow in the cloud to the waters that will not again become a flood, is carried over word for word.

Aramaic word list for the aliyah

Source note

Aliyah boundary. Bereshit 9:8 – 9:17, following the aliyah divisions in Sefaria’s index of Bereshit (the next aliyah begins at Bereshit 9:18).

Torah text. Miqra according to the Masorah (CC-BY-SA), the Masoretic text based on the Aleppo Codex, from Wikisource via Sefaria .

Targum Onkelos. The Aramaic is the commonly printed text, from the Torat Emet edition (Public Domain), via Sefaria .

Comparison text. “Targum Onkelos, vocalized according to the Yemenite Taj” (CC-BY-SA), from Wikisource via Sefaria. Its readings were compared with the printed text word by word; only differences that change a word or the meaning are noted.

Translation of the Torah. Metsudah Chumash, Metsudah Publications, 2009 (CC-BY), via Sefaria, with the Divine Names rendered Hashem and God.

Translation of Onkelos, notes and summaries. New, prepared for this page. The Onkelos translation follows the wording of the Torah translation wherever the Aramaic agrees with the Hebrew, so that the differences stand out.

Divine Names. In the Hebrew and Aramaic, the Tetragrammaton and the Aramaic abbreviation of the Name are printed as ה׳, and Elokim as אלקים.

Notes. The notes compare the Aramaic with the Hebrew only. No later commentaries on Onkelos have been used. Where a note suggests why Onkelos translated as he did, this is presented as an inference from the text.

Licence. The Hebrew and Aramaic texts are shared under their own licences as stated above; CC-BY-SA material remains under CC-BY-SA.

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