A long tradition exists of criticizing translators. The nuance of one language is often difficult to discern much less to transfer to a different tongue. Commentary, conventional wisdom has it, is inherent in translation.
Judaism has a quasi-official translation of the Pentateuch, and it isn’t Artscroll. It is Targum Onkelos, the ancient Aramaic translation attributed to second century Onkelos the convert’s record of a tradition dating back to the biblical Ezra. Often just called Targum, which technically refers to any translation, particularly those in Aramaic, Targum Onkelos was more-or-less canonized in Jewish law as a weekly study requirement. (Oddly, as one scholar pointed out to me, Artscroll’s translation proudly follows Rashi even when he disagrees with Onkelos.)
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