Journal of Northwest Semitic Languages 41/1 (2015), pp. xx-xx Gudrun Elisabeth Lier (University of Johannesburg) TRANSLATION TECHNIQUES IN TARGUM MALACHI: A COMPREHENSIVE ANALYSIS ABSTRACT This contribution comprehensively analyses how Targum Jonathan Malachi (TgJ Ma) renders the Hebrew Text (HT) of the book of Malachi. The study shows that this Targum constitutes a mix of technical and exegetical translation techniques in a generally periphrastic rendering to make it theologically acceptable. It furthermore demonstrates how obscure ambiguous passages and idiomatic expressions are remodelled by contemporizing interpolations. Added prepositions bring clarity to imagery and scanty syntactical expressions. Anthropomorphism is rendered indirect to express obvious reverence before the deity. The relative pronoun דis widely employed to express various relationships. Single words are extensively substituted to express the underlying meaning of the biblical text and there is evidence for the use of stock words. 1. INTRODUCTION Scholars have identified a number of translation tendencies in the Targum of the Prophets or Targum Jonathan (TgJ) (cf. Smelik 1998:286-305). 1 Some studies focused on TgJ as a whole; 2 others on the individual prophetic books (Cathcart & Gordon 1989; Chilton 1987; Hayward 1987; Ho 2009; Levey 1987; and Stenning 1949). However, to date no publication has appeared on TgJ Ma’s translation techniques. 3 Churgin only briefly refers to it in his broad study of Targum Jonathan to the Prophets (1907), while Cathcart & Gordon (1989) mainly focus on translating TgJ Ma into English. They refer to some translation techniques in footnotes only. Churgin (1907), in three instances, connects TgJ Ma to the question of TgJ’s historical background: (i) a tradition that TgJ stems from the mouths of the prophets Haggai, Zachariah and Malachi (Churgin 1907:19); (ii) 1 For a definition on Targum, see Komlosh (2007:513). 2 See Churgin (1907). For a general survey on the Targum to the Latter Prophets in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, consult Gordon (1994); see also Levey (1971:186-196). 3 TgJ Ma is the CAL abbreviation for Targum Jonathan Malachi.