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.