The Torah says the Levites have no land inheritance. Targum Jonathan goes further, specifying exactly what they receive instead—twenty-four gifts of the priesthood. That number does not appear anywhere in (Deuteronomy 18). The Targum imports it from rabbinic tradition, listing it as divine compensation: the right shoulder, the jaw and cheeks, the maw, the first of grain, wine, oil, and the fleece of sheep "as much as a girdle measureth."
Where the Torah simply forbids sorcery, the Targum catalogs specific forbidden practices with eerie precision. It names "inspectors of serpents," makers of "magical knots and bindings of serpents and scorpions," and those who "consult the oba, the bones of the dead or the bone Jadua." These are not generic prohibitions. They are windows into the actual occult practices the Aramaic-speaking community encountered in daily life.
The Targum then offers a stunning contrast. While the nations rely on snake-inspectors and enchanters, Israel has something better—"the priests shall inquire by Urim and Thummim." The Hebrew Bible never explicitly draws this comparison in this passage. The Targum does, framing Israel's priestly oracle as the legitimate alternative to pagan divination.
The promise of a future prophet "like Moses" receives a critical theological upgrade. The Targum specifies this prophet will carry "the Holy Spirit," language the original Hebrew does not use. And the people's request at Horeb is described vividly—they begged not to "hear the Great Voice of the Word—Dibbura—from before the Lord." That Aramaic term Dibbura turns God's speech into a quasi-independent divine force, a theological concept the Targum quietly builds throughout its translation.