The Hebrew Bible says God "shut him in" the ark (Genesis 7:16)—a strangely intimate image of the Creator personally closing Noah's door. Targum Onkelos renders this as "God protected him." The physical act becomes a spiritual one. God does not have hands to close a door. God has power to shield the righteous from destruction.
Throughout the Flood narrative, Onkelos stays remarkably close to the Hebrew. The clean animals board in sevens, the unclean in pairs. The rain falls for forty days and nights. The waters cover the highest mountains by fifteen cubits. Every living thing on dry land perishes. Onkelos does not soften the catastrophe or theologize it away.
But small adjustments reveal his method. When God commands Noah to bring animals onto the ark, the Hebrew uses the word tahor (ritually clean)—a term that technically belongs to the Levitical system established centuries later at Sinai. Onkelos preserves it without comment, implying that the categories of clean and unclean predate the formal law. Noah already knew which animals were fit for sacrifice.
The Flood's aftermath receives the same careful treatment. When Noah sends out the raven and the dove, Onkelos translates faithfully. When God promises never to destroy the earth again by water, Onkelos renders "between Myself and you" as "between My Word and you"—inserting the mediating concept of God's Word (Memra) between the infinite Creator and finite humanity. The rainbow covenant is not a contract between equals. It is a decree from the divine Word, graciously extended to all flesh.
1. And the Lord said to Noach, Enter thou and all the men of thy house into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous before Me in this generation.
2. Of all clean animals take thou seven and seven, male and female; and of animals not clean, two and two, male and female.
3. Also of the fowls of heaven, seven and seven, male and female, to continue the seed upon the face of all the earth.
4. Because yet a time of seven days and I will cause rain to descend upon the earth forty days and forty nights, and I will blot out every subsistence which I have made upon all the face of the earth.
5. And Noach did according to all that the Lord had instructed him.
6. And Noach was a son of six hundred years; and the deluge of waters was upon the earth.
7. And Noach entered, and his sons, and his wife, and the wives of his sons with him, into the ark from before the water of the deluge.
8. Of animals clean, and of animals not clean, and of birds, and of all which creepeth upon the earth,
9. two and two, they entered with Noach into the ark, male and female, as the Lord had instructed Noach.
10. And it was at the time of seven days, and the waters of the deluge were upon the earth.
11. In the six-hundredth year of the life of Noach, in the second month, in the seven-teenth day of the month, in that day were all the springs of the great abyss upbroken, and the windows of heaven opened,
12. and the rain came down upon the earth forty days and forty nights.
13. In that very day entered Noach, and Shem, Cham, and Yapheth, sons of Noach, and the wife of Noach, and the three wives of his sons with them, into the ark;
14. They, and every animal after his kind, and all cattle after its kind, and every, reptile which creepeth upon the earth after its kind, and every fowl after its kind, every bird, everyone that flieth:
15. And they entered with Noach into the ark, two and two of all flesh in which is the breath of life;
16. And they, entering, male and female of all flesh, entered, as the Lord had commanded him, and the Lord protected them by His Word.
17. And there was a deluge forty days upon the earth, and the waters increased, and took up the ark, and it was lifted up above the earth.
18. And the waters prevailed and increased mightily upon the earth, and the ark went upon the faces of the waters.
19. And the waters prevailed most mightily over the earth, and all the high hills were covered which were under all the heavens.
20. Fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail, and the mountains were covered;
21. And all flesh died which moved upon the earth, of fowl, and of cattle, and of the wild beast, and of every reptile which creepeth upon the earth, and every man.
22. Everything in whose nostrils was the breath of the Spirit of life, of all which was upon the dry ground, died.
23. And every subsistence was blotted out that was upon the faces of the earth, from man to the beast, to the reptile, and to the fowl of heaven, it was blotted out from the earth, and Noach was left alone, and they who were with him in the ark.
24. And the waters prevailed upon the earth an hundred and fifty days.
1. And the Lord remembered Noach, and every living thing, and all the cattle which were with him in the ark; and the Lord caused a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters rested,
2. and the springs of the abyss were shut, and the windows of the heavens, and the rain from the heavens was restrained, and the waters turned from on the earth, going and returning;
3. And the waters diminished from the end of a hundred and fifty days.
4. And the ark rested on the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, upon the mountains of Kardu.
5. And the waters went and diminished until the tenth month: in the tenth, on the first of the mouth, the heads of the mountains appeared.
6. And it was at the end of forty days, and Noach opened the windows of the ark which he had made.
7. And he sent forth a raven, and going he went out, and returned until the waters were dried upon the earth.
8. And he sent forth a dove from (being) with him, to see whether the waters were lightened (or consumed) from the surface of the earth.
9. But the dove found no rest for the dividing of her foot, and she returned unto him into the ark, because the waters were upon all the earth; and he stretched forth his hand, and took her, and brought her to be with him in the ark.
10. And he prolonged yet seven days, and afterward added to send forth the dove from the ark.
11. And the dove came to him at the time of evening, and, behold, a leaf of olive broken off was in her mouth; and Noach knew that the waters were lightened from upon the earth.
12. And he prolonged yet other seven days, and sent forth the dove, and she added not to return to be with him again.
13. And it was in the six-hundredth and first year, in the beginning of the first month, the waters were dried from off the earth; and Noach removed the covering of the ark, and looked, and, behold, the faces of the ground were dry.
14. And in the second month, in the seventeenth day of the month, the earth was fully dry.
15. And the Lord spake with Noach, saying:
16. Go forth from the ark, thou, and thy wife, and thy sons, and the wives of thy sons with thee.
17. Every living thing which is with thee of all flesh, of fowl, and of cattle, and every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth, bring forth with thee, and they shall generate in the earth, and spread abroad and multiply upon the earth.
18. And Noach went forth, and his sons, and his wife, and the wives of his sons with him;
19. Every animal, every reptile and bird, everything which moveth upon the earth after their kind, went forth from the ark.
20. And Noach builded an altar before the Lord, and took of every clean beast and of every clean bird, and uplifted an offering upon the altar.
21. And the Lord received with approval his oblation; and the Lord said in His Word, I will not add to curse again the earth on account of the guilt of man, because the creations of the heart of man are evil from his infancy; and I will not add again to smite every living thing as I have done.
22. Yet all the days of the earth, seed-time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night, shall not cease.
