# Aramaic: I am the Lord's



## lukebeadgcf

I need a translation into Aramaic of "I am the Lord's," as it occurs in the following context:



> One will say, I am the Lord's; and another will call himself by the name of Jacob; and another will write [even brand or tattoo] upon his hand, I am the Lord's, and surname himself by the [honorable] name of Israel


 (Isaiah 44:5 Amplified).

This verse, if I understand correctly, was originally written in Hebrew, but I'm interested in an Aramaic rendering of "I am the Lord's," in the Aramaic script (although a transliteration would be greatly appreciated as well).

Thank you.


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## berndf

I am afraid you have to be more specific. Aramaic dialect from Biblical to modern times very as much as Latin and Italian and there are several scripts.


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## lukebeadgcf

I'm sorry, I don't know a lot about Aramaic. I am mainly interested in biblical Aramaic, but multiple translations in different varieties and/or scripts of Aramaic would be appreciated too. I was actually hoping there may be an extant translation of the old testament into Aramaic, and that someone could extract the translation from it.

But in the end, the script or variety of Aramaic is not crucial.


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## berndf

Ah I see. Then you'll need the _Targum Jonathan_. for the Jewish tradition and the _Peshitta Tanakh_ (Old Testament) for the Christian tradition. The only freely accessible text I found is here. Click on "Trilinear Targums", then on "Yisheya (Isaiah)". Each verse is presented in there versions: The first is Hebrew, the second Aramaic and the third English. The Hebrew version is the usual Hebrew _Tanakh_. Unfortunately I know too little Aramaic to recognize the Aramaic version and there is no explanation given.

This is the fragment you wanted ("I am the Lord's"):
Hebrew: לַיהוה אָנִי LaYHWH 'aNi
Aramaic: דַיוי אְנָא DaYWY 'eNa

The word-for-word translation is in both cases "of-LORD I". The prefixes ל־ in Hebrew and the prefix ד־ in Aramaic mean "of" (Hebrew ל־ can also mean "to"),  יהוה is the Name of God and יוי the Aramaic transcription (to which there is no pronunciation attached, of course) and אָנִי/אְנָא is the personal pronoun "I".

The script is Judeo-Aramaic which is a variant of Imperial Aramaic, i.e. the official language and script of the Babylonian Empire. The Judeo-Aramaic script is today used to write both Hebrew and Aramaic in the Jewish tradition; it is also the script used to write the modern Hebrew language as used in Israel.

The Aramaic dialect and script used in the Christian tradition is_ Syriac_. The transliteration of דיוי אנא into Syriac script would be ܕܝܘܝ ܐܢܐ.


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## lukebeadgcf

Wow. Thank you for your efforts. This is very helpful.


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## arielipi

Sorry berndf,youre wrong.
Le- prefix can be to...but it also is used as 'of' - in here its of. of lord I = I am of the lord[=belonging] lit. though by-context I can tell you it means one will say Ill give myself to god[= die if i have to in order to protect his name or alike]... something like the clerks say, were giving our lives to worship jesus... in the same meaning.
Though its correct all in all, I do not feel comfortable with how it is said.


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## berndf

arielipi said:


> Le- prefix can be to...but it also is used as 'of' - in here its of.


You are right, of course. In word-by-word translation I represent ל־ as to in order to distinguish it from של־ which I represent as "of". In this case it was probably more misleading that helpful because in Aramaic ל־ and ד־ are distinct and ל־ only means _to_ and ד־ only means _of_.

I changed my post above.


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## origumi

In Jewish Aramaic (such as Unkalos translation of the Pentateuch) it would usually be דיי אנא or even קדם יי אנא.


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## JAN SHAR

Since you are interested in different scripts as you mentioned upper, here is the Syriac version:

ܐܢܐ ܕܐܠܗܐ

The copula can be included if you want:

ܐܢܐ ܕܐܠܗܐ ܐܢܐ

And you can remove the pronoun and just have

ܕܐܠܗܐ ܐܢܐ

I think all three versions are fine.


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