The reading of the Torah was accompanied by the oral translation of the text into Aramaic, the vernacular of most Jews in Byzantine Palestine and Sassanian Babylonia. With time, fixed targumic texts grew up which included numerous aggadic expansions of the biblical text. The Ten Commandments are presented here as an example of Palestinian targumic tradition which took final written form only after the end of the Byzantine period.

1 *And God spoke all these statements, saying:*¹²⁵

2 The first statement, when it came out of the mouth of the Holy One—may His name be blessed—like sparks and like lightening and like blazes of fire, a fiery torch to its right and a fiery torch to its left, sprouted and flew in the air of the heavens, returned and appeared over the camp of Israel, and returned and engraved itself on the Tablets of the Covenant that were placed in the hands of Moses, and went around them from one side to the other.¹²⁷ And then it cried out and said: My nation the children of Israel, I am your God who redeemed and took you out redeemed from the land of Egypt, from the house of slaves’ slavery.

3 The second statement, when it came out of the mouth of the Holy One—may His name be blessed—like sparks and like lightening and like blazes of fire, a fiery torch to its right and a fiery torch to its left, sprouted and flew in the air of the heavens, returned and appeared over the camp of Israel, returned and engraved itself on the Tablets of the Covenant, and went around them from one side to the other. And then it cried out and said: My nation the children of Israel, you may have no other gods, except for Me.

4 You may not make for yourselves a sculptured image, a form or any image that is in the heavens above, or that is in the earth below, or that is in the water below the earth.

5 You may not bow down to them and you may not worship before them for I, the Lord your God, am an impassioned and revenging God and I take revenge with passion, visiting the guilt of evil fathers upon rebellious children, upon the third generation and upon the fourth generation, of those who reject Me.

6 [But I] maintain kindness and goodness for a thousand generations of those who love righteous ones and those who observe My commandments and My Torah.

7 My nation the house of Israel: not one of you shall swear by any word of the Lord your God in vain, for on the great day of judgment the Lord will not acquit anyone who swears by His name in vain.

8 My nation the children of Israel: be mindful of the Sabbath day to sanctify it.
9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work.
10 And the seventh day is the Sabbath and rest before the Lord your God.
You shall not do any work—you, your sons, your daughters, your slaves, your handmaidens or your proselytes—in your cities.
11 For in six days the Lord created the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and He rested on the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and sanctified it.

12 My nation the house of Israel: be cautious, each one of you, regarding the honor of his father and the honor of his mother—so that your days will be extended on the land that the Lord your God is giving you.

13 My nation the children of Israel: you shall not be murderers, not friends nor partners with murderers. And you shall not appear in the assemblies of Israel with murderers in order that your children do not arise after you and learn themselves to associate with murderers as well. Because of the sin of murderers, the sword [of destruction] is released against the world.

My nation the children of Israel: you shall not be adulterers, nor the friends nor partners of adulterers. And you shall not appear in the assemblies of Israel with adulterers in order that your children do not arise after you and learn themselves to associate with adulterers as well. Because of the sin of adulterers, death is released against the world.

My nation the children of Israel: you shall not be thieves, nor friends or partners with thieves. And you shall not appear in the assemblies of Israel with thieves in order that your children do not arise after you and learn themselves to associate with thieves as well. Because of the sin of thieves, famine is released to the world.

My nation the children of Israel: you shall not testify against your friends false testimony. And you shall not be friends nor partners with those who testify false testimonies. And you shall not appear in the assemblies of Israel with those who testify false testimonies in order that your children do not arise after you and learn themselves to associate with those who testify false testimonies. Because of the sin of false witnesses, clouds do not fall and drought comes upon the world.

14 My nation the children of Israel: do not be those who covet, not friends nor partners with those who covet. And you shall not appear in the assemblies of Israel with those who covet in order that your children do not arise after you and learn themselves to associate with those who cover. And no one of you shall covet your friend’s wife, nor his servant, nor his handmaiden, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that he has. Because of the sin of those who covet, the government is jealous of people’s property and takes it, and those wealthy in property become poor, and thus exile comes upon the world. 

124. Trans. Leah D. Schiffman.

125. Italicized phrases indicate the words of Exodus which the Targum weaves into its commentary.

126. The Targum follows the midrashic view that only the first two commandments were spoken by God himself.

127. The Targum follows the Rabbinic view that the Tablets of the Covenant were engraved from the surface through to the other side and could be read miraculously from both sides.