Parashat Toldot — Second Aliyah

Torah with Onkelos · Bereshit 26:6 – 26:12 · פרשת תולדות, שני

Yitzchok in Gerar, Avimelech’s rebuke and the hundredfold harvest, read through Targum Onkelos

Contents

• Orientation
• How this page is laid out
• Unit 1 — Bereshit 26:6–12: Yitzchok in Gerar: “She is my sister”
• Conclusion of the aliyah
• Aramaic word list for the aliyah
• Source note

Orientation

What happens in this aliyah. Yitzchok settles in Gerar. When the local men ask about his wife, he says that she is his sister, because he is afraid that they will kill him for Rivkah, who is beautiful. After he has been there a long while, Avimelech, king of the Philistines, looks out from a window and sees Yitzchok amusing himself with Rivkah. He summons Yitzchok and confronts him: she is his wife, so how could he have said that she is his sister? Yitzchok answers that he was afraid he might die because of her. Avimelech protests that one of the people might easily have slept with her and brought guilt upon them all, and he commands the whole people that whoever touches this man or his wife shall be put to death. Yitzchok then sows in that land, and in that same year he reaps a hundredfold, for Hashem has blessed him.

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.

• Killing gathered under one root. The Hebrew ‘kill’ (יַֽהַרְגֻ֜נִי, 26:7) and ‘put to death’ (מ֥וֹת יוּמָֽת, 26:11) are both rendered with the Aramaic root קטל, while Yitzchok’s own ‘I might die’ (אֵימוּת, 26:9) keeps the root of ‘die’ in the printed text.
• A wordplay that does not survive. In the Hebrew, מְצַחֵ֔ק echoes the name יִצְחָק֙. Onkelos keeps the name but renders the verb מְחַיִּיךְ (mehayyikh), from a different root, so the play on the name is lost.
• Avimelech’s words reshaped. ‘One of the people’ becomes ‘the one singled out among the people’ (26:10), which may point to someone of rank, and ‘whoever touches’ becomes ‘whoever harms’ (26:11).
• The hundredfold harvest explained. The obscure Hebrew ‘a hundred שְׁעָרִ֑ים’ becomes ‘one hundred times over what they had estimated for it’ (26:12).
• A double rendering in the printed text. In 26:7 the printed Onkelos gives the literal לְאִתְּתֵהּ together with a bracketed alternative, עַל עֵיסַק אִתְּתֵהּ, ‘about the matter of his wife’. The Yemenite text has only the alternative.
• Prepositions made explicit. The Hebrew אֵ֖ת becomes עִם, ‘with’, in 26:8 and 26:10, and ‘through the window’ (בְּעַ֖ד הַֽחַלּ֑וֹן) becomes ‘from the window’ (מִן חֲרַכָּא, 26:8).
• Printed and Yemenite texts. Variant notes mark the places where the Yemenite text reads differently (26:7, 26:9, 26:10, 26:11); in three of them the difference removes a feature remarked on in the printed text.

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 26:6–12: Yitzchok in Gerar: “She is my sister”

Yitzchok settles in Gerar and, fearing the local men, says that Rivkah is his sister. Avimelech sees the truth through a window, rebukes him and places the couple under his protection, and Yitzchok’s sowing yields a hundredfold.

Bereshit 26:6

Torah

Translation

Yitzchok [thus] settled in Gerar.

Onkelos

Onkelos in English

Yitzchok settled in Gerar.

What Onkelos tells us

• “Settled”. A literal rendering. The Hebrew וַיֵּשֶׁב is matched by וִיתֵב (vitev), from the Aramaic root יתב, ‘sit, dwell’.

Words to note: וִיתֵב vitev — settled (וַיֵּשֶׁב)

Bereshit 26:7

Torah

Translation

The local men asked about his wife, and he said, She is my sister. He was afraid to say, [she is] my wife, lest the local men kill me for Rivkah, for she is so good looking.

Onkelos

Onkelos in English

The local men asked (another version: about the matter of his wife) about his wife, and he said, She is my sister. For he was afraid to say, My wife, lest the local men kill me for Rivkah, for she is beautiful of appearance.

What Onkelos tells us

• “The local men”. The Hebrew ‘men of the place’ (אַנְשֵׁי הַמָּקוֹם) becomes אֲנָשֵׁי אַתְרָא (anashei atra). The Aramaic atra, ‘place’, is used for the Hebrew הַמָּקוֹם both times it occurs in the verse.
• “(Another version: about the matter of his wife) about his wife”. The printed text gives two renderings side by side. The word outside the parentheses, לְאִתְּתֵהּ (le-itteteh), copies the Hebrew לְאִשְׁתּוֹ with its bare preposition. The bracketed phrase, עַל עֵיסַק אִתְּתֵהּ (al eisak itteteh), ‘about the matter of his wife’, seems meant to spell out the sense of the Hebrew preposition: the men asked about her, not asked her.
• “For he was afraid”. The Hebrew כִּי is rendered אֲרֵי (arei), and the adjective יָרֵא by the participle דְחִיל (dehil), ‘afraid’.
• “Kill me”. The Hebrew verb יַהַרְגֻנִי (root הרג) is rendered יִקְטְּלֻנַּנִי (yiktelunnani), from the Aramaic root קטל, ‘kill’.
• “Beautiful of appearance”. The Hebrew says Rivkah is ‘good of appearance’ (טוֹבַת מַרְאֶה). Onkelos has שַׁפִּירַת חֵיזוּ (shappirat hezu), ‘beautiful of appearance’, choosing a word specific to beauty in place of the general Hebrew ‘good’.
• Textual note. The Yemenite text has only עַל עֵיסַק אִתְּתֵיהּ, ‘about the matter of his wife’, without the literal לְאִתְּתֵהּ. What the printed text marks as another version is the only reading there.

Words to note: אַתְרָא atra — place (the local) (הַמָּקוֹם) · עֵיסַק eisak — matter · דְחִיל dehil — afraid (יָרֵא) · יִקְטְּלֻנַּנִי yiktelunnani — they kill me (יַהַרְגֻנִי) · שַׁפִּירַת shappirat — beautiful (of) (טוֹבַת) · חֵיזוּ hezu — appearance (מַרְאֶה)

Bereshit 26:8

Torah

Translation

Once, after [Yitzchok] had been there a long while, Avimelech, king of the Philistines, looked at the window, and he saw, and behold, Yitzchok was amusing himself with Rivkah, his wife.

Onkelos

Onkelos in English

Once, after the days had grown many for him there, Avimelech, king of the Philistines, looked out from the window, and he saw, and behold, Yitzchok was amusing himself with Rivkah, his wife.

What Onkelos tells us

• “The days had grown many for him”. The Hebrew idiom אָרְכוּ, ‘the days were long for him’, is rendered סְגִיאוּ (segi’u), ‘were many’. A long stay is expressed as a large number of days.
• “Looked out from the window”. The Hebrew וַיַּשְׁקֵף is matched by וְאִסְתְּכִי (ve-istekhi), ‘looked’. The Hebrew בְּעַד הַחַלּוֹן, ‘through the window’, becomes מִן חֲרַכָּא (min harakka), ‘from the window’: Onkelos uses a different word for the opening and the preposition ‘from’.
• “Amusing himself”. The Hebrew מְצַחֵק comes from the same root as the name יִצְחָק (צחק), so the verse plays on the name: Yitzchok was ‘yitzchok-ing’. Onkelos keeps the name as it is but renders the verb מְחַיִּיךְ (mehayyikh), from a different root meaning ‘laugh, jest’, so the wordplay is lost in the Aramaic.
• “With Rivkah”. The Hebrew אֵת is rendered עִם (im), ‘with’, making the preposition explicit.
• “King of the Philistines”. The Hebrew construct מֶלֶךְ פְּלִשְׁתִּים becomes מַלְכָּא דִּפְלִשְׁתָּאֵי (malka di-flishta’ei), ‘the king of the Philistines’, with the relative particle ד in place of the construct.

Words to note: סְגִיאוּ segi’u — had grown many (אָרְכוּ) · וְאִסְתְּכִי ve-istekhi — looked (וַיַּשְׁקֵף) · חֲרַכָּא harakka — window (הַחַלּוֹן) · מְחַיִּיךְ mehayyikh — amusing himself (laughing, jesting) (מְצַחֵק) · עִם im — with (אֵת)

Bereshit 26:9

Torah

Translation

Avimelech called Yitzchok and he said, But she is your wife. How could you have said, She is my sister? Yitzchok said to him, Because I said, I might die because of her.

Onkelos

Onkelos in English

Avimelech called Yitzchok and he said, But behold, she is your wife. How could you have said, She is my sister? Yitzchok said to him, Because I said, I might die because of her.

What Onkelos tells us

• “But behold”. The Hebrew אַךְ הִנֵּה is rendered word for word: בְּרַם (beram), ‘but’, and הָא (ha), ‘behold’.
• “How”. The Hebrew וְאֵיךְ is rendered וְאֶכְדֵּין (ve-ekhdein), ‘and how’.
• “I might die”. Here Onkelos keeps the root of the Hebrew אָמוּת: אֵימוּת (eimut), ‘I will die’. Contrast 26:7 and 26:11, where Hebrew verbs of killing and putting to death are rendered with קטל. Otherwise the verse is a literal rendering.
• Textual note. The Yemenite text reads אֶתְקְטִיל (etketil), ‘I will be killed’, instead of אֵימוּת, ‘I will die’. In that text Yitzchok’s fear is put in the same terms as 26:7, and the remark above that Onkelos keeps the root of ‘die’ holds for the printed text only.

Words to note: בְּרַם beram — but (אַךְ) · הָא ha — behold (הִנֵּה) · וְאֶכְדֵּין ve-ekhdein — how (וְאֵיךְ) · אֵימוּת eimut — I might die (אָמוּת)

Bereshit 26:10

Torah

Translation

Avimelech said, What have you done to us? One of the people could have easily slept with your wife, and you would have brought guilt upon us.

Onkelos

Onkelos in English

Avimelech said, What is this you have done to us? In a little more, perhaps the one singled out among the people would have slept with your wife, and you would have brought guilt upon us.

What Onkelos tells us

• “In a little more, perhaps”. The Hebrew כִּמְעַט, ‘almost’, is rendered by two words: כִּזְעֵיר (kiz’eir), ‘like a little’, and פּוֹן (pon), ‘perhaps’. The added ‘perhaps’ may soften Avimelech’s claim, presenting the danger as a near possibility.
• “The one singled out among the people”. The Hebrew says simply ‘one of the people’ (אַחַד הָעָם). Onkelos has דִּמְיָחֵד בְּעַמָּא (di-myahed be-amma), ‘the one who is singled out among the people’. The participle comes from יחד, a root related to the Hebrew word for ‘one’, so the idea of ‘one’ is still present, but it now describes a distinguished person. This may indicate that Onkelos understood Avimelech to be speaking of someone of rank, perhaps himself.
• “With your wife”. The Hebrew אֶת before אִשְׁתֶּךָ is rendered עִם (im), ‘with’.
• “Guilt”. The Hebrew אָשָׁם becomes חוֹבָא (hova), ‘guilt, sin’. The rest of the verse is literal, including מָה דָא for מַה זֹּאת, ‘what is this’.
• Textual note. The Yemenite text reads יָת, the direct-object marker matching the Hebrew אֶת, instead of עִם, ‘with’. The note on ‘with your wife’ holds for the printed text only.

Words to note: כִּזְעֵיר kiz’eir — in a little (almost) (כִּמְעַט) · פּוֹן pon — perhaps · דִּמְיָחֵד di-myahed — the one singled out (אַחַד) · בְּעַמָּא be-amma — among the people (הָעָם) · חוֹבָא hova — guilt (אָשָׁם)

Bereshit 26:11

Torah

Translation

Avimelech [then] commanded all his people, saying, Whoever touches this man or his wife, shall die.

Onkelos

Onkelos in English

Avimelech commanded all the people, saying, Whoever harms this man or his wife shall surely be killed.

What Onkelos tells us

• “Whoever harms”. The Hebrew הַנֹּגֵעַ means ‘whoever touches’. Onkelos renders it דְּיַנְזֵק (de-yanzek), ‘whoever harms’. This suggests that he read Avimelech’s command as a ban on injuring the couple, not on mere physical contact.
• “This man or his wife”. The Hebrew uses the same preposition for both (בָּאִישׁ, וּבְאִשְׁתּוֹ). The printed Onkelos has לְ before the man, לְגַבְרָא (le-gavra), but בְּ before the wife, וּבְאִתְּתֵהּ (u-ve-itteteh).
• “Shall surely be killed”. The Hebrew מוֹת יוּמָת, ‘shall surely be put to death’, keeps its doubled form in the Aramaic, אִתְקְטָלָא יִתְקְטֵּל (itketala yitketel), but the root changes from מות, ‘die’, to קטל, ‘kill’. The same Aramaic root rendered the Hebrew יַהַרְגֻנִי in 26:7.
• Textual note. The Yemenite text reads וּלְאִתְּתֵיהּ, with לְ before the wife as before the man, so the difference of prepositions noted above holds for the printed text only.

Words to note: וּפַקִּיד u-fakkid — commanded (וַיְצַו) · דְּיַנְזֵק de-yanzek — whoever harms (הַנֹּגֵעַ) · לְגַבְרָא le-gavra — man (בָּאִישׁ) · אִתְקְטָלָא itketala — surely (מוֹת) · יִתְקְטֵּל yitketel — shall be killed (יוּמָת)

Bereshit 26:12

Torah

Translation

Yitzchok planted in that land, and in that year he reaped a hundred fold, for Hashem had blessed him.

Onkelos

Onkelos in English

Yitzchok planted in that land, and in that year he reaped one hundred times over what they had estimated for it, for Hashem had blessed him.

What Onkelos tells us

• “Reaped”. The Hebrew וַיִּמְצָא, literally ‘found’, is rendered וְאַשְׁכַּח (ve-ashkah), ‘found’.
• “One hundred times over what they had estimated for it”. The Hebrew מֵאָה שְׁעָרִים, literally ‘a hundred measures’, is expanded to עַל חַד מְאָה בִדְשַׁעֲרוֹהִי (al had me’ah vid-sha’arohi), ‘one hundred times over what they had estimated for it’. The Aramaic word comes from the same letters as the Hebrew שְׁעָרִים (שער), which in Aramaic means to estimate or reckon. Onkelos seems to have read the Hebrew noun in that sense: the harvest was a hundred times its estimated yield, not a hundred units of grain. The form is probably a verb with an object suffix, ‘they estimated it’, though it could also be read as a noun, ‘its estimates’.
• “Hashem had blessed him”. A literal rendering: וּבָרְכֵהּ ה׳ for וַיְבָרְכֵהוּ ה׳.

Words to note: וְאַשְׁכַּח ve-ashkah — reaped (found) (וַיִּמְצָא) · חַד had — one · מְאָה me’ah — hundred (מֵאָה) · בִדְשַׁעֲרוֹהִי vid-sha’arohi — what they had estimated for it (שְׁעָרִים)

Unit 1 summary

Onkelos follows the narrative closely, and most of his changes are matters of vocabulary. One Aramaic root, קטל, ‘kill’, covers the Hebrew ‘kill’ (יַהַרְגֻנִי, 26:7) and the Hebrew ‘put to death’ (מוֹת יוּמָת, 26:11), while in Yitzchok’s own words he keeps the root of ‘die’ (אֵימוּת, 26:9), where the Yemenite text again has קטל. The wordplay between Yitzchok’s name and the verb מְצַחֵק is lost, since Onkelos renders the verb with a different root. The most interpretive touches are in Avimelech’s speech: ‘one of the people’ becomes ‘the one singled out among the people’ (26:10), and ‘whoever touches’ becomes ‘whoever harms’ (26:11), which may reflect a reading of the command as a ban on doing them harm rather than on physical contact. Finally, the obscure Hebrew ‘a hundred measures’ is expanded into ‘one hundred times over what they had estimated’ (26:12), which suggests that Onkelos read שְׁעָרִים as an estimate of the expected yield.

Conclusion of the aliyah

The movement of the aliyah

The aliyah falls into three parts: Yitzchok’s claim that Rivkah is his sister (26:6-7), its discovery and Avimelech’s rebuke and decree (26:8-11), and the blessed harvest (26:12). Onkelos follows the story closely, and much of it is rendered literally, from ‘settled’ in 26:6 to ‘Hashem had blessed him’ in 26:12. Most of his changes are matters of vocabulary and idiom: ‘good of appearance’ becomes ‘beautiful of appearance’, ‘the days were long’ becomes ‘the days had grown many’, and the Hebrew אֵ֖ת becomes ‘with’. The more interpretive touches gather in Avimelech’s speech, where the man who might have lain with Rivkah becomes ‘the one singled out among the people’ and the ban on touching the couple becomes a ban on harming them, and in the last verse, where the hundred measures become a harvest a hundred times its estimate. Along the way the language of death shifts: killing and execution share the root קטל, while in the printed text Yitzchok’s own fear keeps the Hebrew root of dying.

What Onkelos tells us in this aliyah

1. “The local men” (26:7). אֲנָשֵׁי אַתְרָא (anashei atra) renders ‘men of the place’, and atra stands for הַמָּקוֹם֙ both times it occurs in the verse.
2. “About the matter of his wife” (26:7). The printed text’s bracketed alternative, עַל עֵיסַק אִתְּתֵהּ, seems meant to spell out that the men asked about Rivkah, not asked her; in the Yemenite text it is the only reading.
3. “Kill me” (26:7). יִקְטְּלֻנַּנִי (yiktelunnani) renders the Hebrew root הרג with the Aramaic קטל.
4. “Beautiful of appearance” (26:7). שַׁפִּירַת חֵיזוּ (shappirat hezu) chooses a word specific to beauty in place of the general Hebrew ‘good’.
5. “The days had grown many” (26:8). סְגִיאוּ (segi’u) expresses a long stay as a large number of days.
6. “Amusing himself” (26:8). מְחַיִּיךְ comes from a different root from מְצַחֵ֔ק, so the play on Yitzchok’s name is lost in the Aramaic.
7. “I might die” (26:9). אֵימוּת (eimut) keeps the Hebrew root of ‘die’. The Yemenite text reads אֶתְקְטִיל, ‘I will be killed’, putting Yitzchok’s fear in the same terms as 26:7.
8. “In a little more, perhaps” (26:10). כִּזְעֵיר פּוֹן renders ‘almost’ with two words, and the added ‘perhaps’ may soften Avimelech’s claim into a near possibility.
9. “The one singled out among the people” (26:10). דִּמְיָחֵד בְּעַמָּא (di-myahed be-amma) keeps the idea of ‘one’ through the root יחד, but may indicate that Avimelech is speaking of someone of rank, perhaps himself.
10. “Whoever harms” (26:11). דְּיַנְזֵק (de-yanzek) for הַנֹּגֵ֜עַ suggests that the command was read as a ban on injuring the couple rather than on mere physical contact.
11. “Shall surely be killed” (26:11). אִתְקְטָלָא יִתְקְטֵּל keeps the doubled form of מ֥וֹת יוּמָֽת but changes the root from מוֹת, ‘die’, to קטל, ‘kill’.
12. “One hundred times over what they had estimated” (26:12). עַל חַד מְאָה בִדְשַׁעֲרוֹהִי suggests that Onkelos read שְׁעָרִ֑ים in the Aramaic sense of estimating: the harvest was a hundred times its expected yield.

Recurring features

• Close, literal rendering. The notes call 26:6, the rest of 26:9 and the closing words of 26:12 literal, and phrases such as אַ֣ךְ הִנֵּ֤ה are matched word for word (בְּרַם הָא).
• Standard particles. The causal כִּ֤י is rendered אֲרֵי each time it occurs (twice in 26:7, once in 26:9), while the temporal כִּ֤י of 26:8 becomes כַּד, ‘when’; פֶּן, ‘lest’, is rendered דִּלְמָא in both 26:7 and 26:9.
• Verbs of killing under קטל. The Hebrew ‘kill’ (26:7) and ‘shall be put to death’ (26:11) both become forms of קטל; in the printed text only Yitzchok’s ‘I might die’ (26:9) keeps מוֹת.
• The Hebrew אֵ֖ת as ‘with’. After the verbs of amusing (26:8) and lying (26:10) the printed text has עִם, ‘with’; where אֵ֖ת marks the people commanded in 26:11 it is יָת. In 26:10 the Yemenite text also has יָת.
• Interpretation at the points of difficulty. The few expansions fall where the Hebrew is open or obscure: who ‘one of the people’ was (26:10), what ‘touching’ the couple meant (26:11), and what a hundred measures were (26:12). Each is presented in the notes as what Onkelos may or seems to have understood.
• Printed and Yemenite readings. In 26:9, 26:10 and 26:11 the Yemenite text lacks a feature noted in the printed text (the root of ‘die’, the preposition ‘with’, the mixed prepositions before ‘man’ and ‘wife’); in 26:7 it has only the reading the printed text brackets.

Aliyah takeaway

In this short episode Onkelos is above all a careful translator: the story of Yitzchok, Rivkah and Avimelech reads in the Aramaic much as it does in the Hebrew, with idioms turned into ordinary Aramaic and prepositions made explicit. His few interpretive choices come where the Hebrew can be read in more than one way: who ‘one of the people’ was, what it meant to touch the couple, and what a hundred שְׁעָרִ֑ים could be. Alongside them, the gathering of killing and execution under one root, and the small differences between the printed and Yemenite texts, show how much of the Targum’s character lies in individual word choices.

Aramaic word list for the aliyah

Source note

Aliyah boundary. Bereshit 26:6 – 26:12, following the aliyah divisions in Sefaria’s index of Bereshit (the next aliyah begins at Bereshit 26:13).

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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