6,276 texts · Page 122 of 131
The Torah lists Shimeon's sons with a single odd note about the last one: Shaul, born of a Canaanite woman (Exodus 6:15). The Aramaic paraphrase of Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodu...
The Torah gives Levi's lifespan as a hundred and thirty-seven years (Exodus 6:16), but Targum Pseudo-Jonathan adds a single clause that changes the entire feel of the verse. Levi, ...
Among the quietest bombshells in Targum Pseudo-Jonathan is a single line tucked into a genealogy. Kehath, son of Levi, lived a hundred and thirty-three years, and, the Targum adds,...
The plain verse says only that Amram married Jokeved, fathered Aharon and Moses, and lived a hundred and thirty-seven years (Exodus 6:20). Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 6:20) a...
The Torah says Elazar son of Aharon married a daughter of Putiel, and she bore Phinehas (Exodus 6:25). Who is this Putiel that the Torah mentions nowhere else? Targum Pseudo-Jonath...
When the Torah sums up who stood before Pharaoh to demand Israel's release, it simply says these are they (Exodus 6:27). Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 6:27) supplies the titles...
The plain verse says God made Moses as a god to Pharaoh (Exodus 7:1). The phrase has rattled translators for two thousand years. The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 7:1) handles ...
God tells Moses that Pharaoh will not listen, but that redemption will come anyway — by force. The Hebrew says God will lay His hand upon Egypt (Exodus 7:4). Targum Pseudo-Jonathan...
When Pharaoh demanded a sign, Aharon was to throw down his rod and watch it become a serpent. But Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 7:9) translates the Hebrew tannin with the word ...
The moment arrives. Moses and Aharon enter Pharaoh's court, and Aharon throws down the rod. The Torah says it became a tannin, usually translated serpent or sea-monster (Exodus 7:1...
The Egyptian magicians threw down their rods too, and theirs also became serpents. So far, a tie. But Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 7:12) adds a detail the Hebrew only hints at...
Why did Moses have to meet Pharaoh by the water at sunrise? The plain text only says that Pharaoh went out to the river (Exodus 7:15). Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 7:15) tells...
When Moses delivers the demand at the Nile, the Hebrew has him speak in the name of the God of the Hebrews (Exodus 7:16). Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 7:16) updates the phrase...
Moses stands at the water with the rod lifted, and God's words are simple and total: By this sign thou shalt know that I am the Lord (Exodus 7:17). Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodu...
The first plague is about to reach past the river itself. God tells Aharon to stretch the rod over rivers, trenches, canals, and every place for collecting their waters (Exodus 8:1...
The order was given; now it is done. Aharon lifts the rod, strikes the Nile in full view of Pharaoh and his court, and the whole river turns (Exodus 7:20). Targum Pseudo-Jonathan o...
The plague has a smell. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 7:21) stays close to the Hebrew, but what it describes is the sensory aftermath of a cosmic blow. The fish that were in th...
The first plague had fallen, but Egypt's astrologers refused to concede. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 7:22) gives a detail most translations flatten: So also did the astrologe...
The second plague is announced with an almost comic precision. Frogs will not merely swarm; they will specify. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 7:28) lists the destinations: into ...
God commands Aharon to lift his rod and bring up the frogs upon the land of Mizraim (Exodus 8:1). Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 8:1) echoes the Hebrew faithfully but it is the ...
Here is one of the most tender footnotes in all of Targum Pseudo-Jonathan. Aharon lifts his hand, the frogs swarm up. And the meturgeman pauses to explain why it is Aharon, not Mos...
The frogs finally break him. For the first time, Pharaoh sends for Moses and Aharon and asks them to pray. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 8:4) preserves his exact bargaining pos...
Pharaoh has begged. Now Moses gives him an extraordinary gift: pick the hour. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 8:5) renders the offer with unmistakable dignity to Pharaoh's office...
Moses's promise is exact and generous. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 8:7): The frogs shall depart from thee, and from thy house, and from thy servants, and from thy people; and...
The third plague is lice — venomous insects that emerge from the dust. Again Aharon must wield the rod, not Moses. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 8:12) gives the breathtaking re...
Aharon strikes the dust and every grain of it becomes a biting insect. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 8:13) is emphatic: all the dust of the earth was changed to become insects,...
The Egyptian astrologers had matched the first two plagues. Blood — yes. Frogs — yes. Lice — no. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 8:14) is blunt: The astrologers wrought with thei...
The astrologers finally crack. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 8:15) records their confession: This is not by the power or strength of Mosheh and Aharon; but this is a plague sen...
Before the fourth plague, God sends Moses back to the water. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 8:16) restages the old dawn scene: Arise in the morning, and stand before Pharoh: beh...
The fourth plague is introduced with a vividness the Hebrew keeps restrained. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 8:17) translates the arov — the mixed swarm — as a mixed multitude o...
With the fourth plague, God introduces a distinction that will repeat for the remaining plagues: that day in the land of Goshen where My people dwell, there no swarms of wild beast...
The plague arrives as promised. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 8:20) is terse and terrifying: the Lord did so; and sent the mixed multitude of wild beasts in strength to the hou...
Pharaoh offers a compromise. Bring your sacrifices inside the land. Don't go anywhere. Moses's answer, as Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 8:22) renders it, is a lesson in cultura...
Pressure is working. Pharaoh concedes — partially. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 8:24) records the half-surrender: I will release you to sacrifice before the Lord your God in t...
Moses accepts the deal — warily. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 8:25) preserves the careful language: I will go forth from thee, and pray before the Lord to remove the swarm of ...
The prayer works. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 8:27) delivers the outcome with plain satisfaction: the Lord did according to the word of the prayer of Mosheh, and removed the ...
Plague five begins with the same message that opened the demands at the Nile. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 9:1): Thus saith the Lord, the God of the Jehudaee, Emancipate My pe...
The fifth plague is livestock pestilence, and Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 9:3) renders it with memorable Aramaic precision: the stroke of the Lord's hand shall be as it hath ...
The distinction is now locked in. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 9:4): the Lord will work wonders between the flocks of Israel and the flocks of the Mizraee, that not any of tho...
The final verse of our batch is devastating because it describes a man who investigates the truth and then rejects it. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 9:7): And Pharoh sent certa...
Before the sixth plague breaks on Egypt, the Holy One gives Moses and Aaron a strange instruction. Not a rod to raise. Not a river to strike. Handfuls of fine ash from the kiln. "T...
It happened exactly as the Lord said. Moses and Aaron took the furnace ash in their hands, walked out to meet Pharaoh, and Moses flung the ash skyward. The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan r...
Every earlier plague, Pharaoh's court magicians had something to say. They turned their rods to serpents. They conjured frogs. They strained against lice and failed. But when the s...
After the boils, the Lord does not relent. He sends Moses back to the palace, and the command has not changed. "Arise in the morning, and place thyself before Pharoh, and say to hi...
The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 9:14) preserves a warning that cuts through every illusion Pharaoh ever held. "At this time I will send upon thee a plague from the heavens," ...
It is one of the hardest verses in Exodus. Why didn't the Lord simply strike Pharaoh dead and free the slaves? The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 9:16), the Aramaic paraphrase p...
The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 9:18), the Aramaic paraphrase long attributed to Yonatan ben Uzziel, does something the plain Hebrew text does not. It names the source of the...
Before the seventh plague falls, the Lord gives an instruction that reveals His character. "Now send, gather together thy flocks, and all that thou hast in the field," the warning ...
