face

Targumim (or: Targums) are translations of the Hebrew Bible into Aramaic. They were translated and used when Jewish congregations increasingly could not understand the biblical Hebrew anymore. Targum Onqelos (also: Onkelos) is the name of the Aramaic translation of the Torah (the first five books of the Hebrew Bible) probably composed in Israel/Palestine in the 1st or 2nd century CE and later edited in Babylon in the 4th or 5th century, making it reflect Jewish Babylonian Aramaic. It is the most famous Aramaic translation and was widely used throughout the Jewish communities.

In many, but not all, cases the translation of Targum Onqelos avoids anthropomorphisms (attribution of human traits, emotions, or intentions) as they relate in the original Hebrew text to God.

The Hebrew of Deut. 31:17, 18, and 32:20 that is typically translated in English as “face” is translated in Targum Onqelos as “presence” (note that in Exodus 33:14 and 15, the same translation is made in Targum Onqelos, but in those cases English translations also often have translated the Hebrew as “presence.”) (Source: Schochet 1966, p. 15)

See also face.

Translation commentary on Deuteronomy 31:18

This verse is a summarizing conclusion, using terms and expressions of the previous verses.

I will surely hide: this translates the emphatic Hebrew phrase, the double use of the verb, meaning “I will refuse to help them” (Good News Translation), or “I will pay no attention to them.”

Because they have turned to other gods: this is precisely the evil that they have done; so New Revised Standard Version says “by turning to other gods.” To “turn” to other gods is to abandon Yahweh in order to worship and serve them. So it is possible to express this as “Because they have abandoned me and started worshiping other [or, false] gods.”

Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Deuteronomy. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2000. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .