Leviticus 12 is one of the shortest chapters in the Torah—just eight verses about purification after childbirth. The Targum Jonathan keeps it concise but adds small details that reshape the meaning.
After bearing a son, a woman is ritually unclean for seven days. On the eighth day, the Targum says, "she shall be loosed, and her child shall be circumcised." The Hebrew Bible separates these two events—the mother's status change and the son's circumcision happen to occur on the same day. The Targum links them with a single conjunction, making the mother's release and the child's covenant entry into one unified moment.
The purification periods differ by the child's sex: thirty-three days for a son, sixty-six for a daughter. The Targum specifies "continuous days," a detail absent from the Hebrew that prevents anyone from arguing the count could be interrupted. During this time, the mother "must not touch things sacred, nor come into the sanctuary." The Targum uses the word "sanctuary" where the Hebrew says "holy place," shifting the focus from abstract holiness to the physical Temple.
When the purification days are complete, the mother brings a year-old lamb for a burnt offering and a pigeon or turtle dove for a sin offering. The Targum adds that the priest makes atonement for her, and she is "purified from either source of her blood." This phrase—"either source"—is a Targum addition, referring to both the blood of birth and the blood of ongoing impurity.
If she cannot afford a lamb, two birds will suffice. The Targum preserves the sliding scale of sacrifice, ensuring that poverty never blocks a woman's return to full participation in sacred life.