The Targum Jonathan on (Deuteronomy 14) transforms a list of dietary laws into a detailed zoological manual. Where the Hebrew names animals and moves on, the Targum adds identifying features, physical descriptions, and practical criteria for telling clean from unclean.
Birds get the most attention. The Hebrew lists forbidden species by name with no descriptions. The Targum adds a general rule that appears nowhere in the biblical text: "Every bird which hath a vesicle or crop which may be picked away, and which is longer than a finger, and not of the rapacious kind, you may eat." Three physical criteria—a removable crop, minimum size, and non-predatory behavior—determine whether a bird is kosher. This is practical rabbinic law inserted directly into the translation.
The forbidden bird list gets specific identifications. The daitha is described as a "bird of prey, a kind of vulture"—either white or black. Storks can be white or black. The cormorant comes in both colors too. The Targum translators were working with real ornithological knowledge, trying to match ancient Hebrew bird names with species their Aramaic-speaking audience could actually identify.
Fish law is similarly precise. The Hebrew says fins and scales. The Targum says "fins to move, as by flying, and scales upon its skin"—and adds that even if some scales fall away, the fish is still kosher if scales remain "under its jaw, another under its fin, and another under its tail." Three specific checkpoints on the fish's body. This is a halakhic ruling embedded in a translation.
The laws of insects are expanded. "All flies, bees, and wasps, and all worms of vegetables and pulse, which come away from food and fly as birds, are unclean." The Hebrew bans flying insects generally. The Targum specifies the common pests of an agricultural society—the bugs people actually encountered in their grain and produce.
The prohibition against cooking meat in milk receives a significant expansion. The Hebrew says "do not boil a kid in its mother's milk." The Targum says "it shall not be lawful for you to boil, much less to eat, flesh with milk when both are mixed together." The Targum turns a specific prohibition (boiling) into a general one (any mixing), reflecting the broader rabbinic interpretation that became standard Jewish law.