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"Uplift thy hand towards the height of the heavens," the Lord says to Moses (Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 9:2)2), "and there shall be hail on all the land of Mizraim, upon men...
When Moses raised his rod, heaven answered with a miracle that defied nature itself. The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 9:23) describes it: "Mosheh lifted up his rod toward the ...
The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 9:24) reaches for superlatives: "There was hail, and fire darting among the hail with exceeding force: unto it had never been the like in all ...
The hail did not simply fall. It worked. The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 9:25), the Aramaic paraphrase preserved in the tradition of Yonatan ben Uzziel, records the damage wi...
Mid-storm, with hail hammering the roof of the palace and fire leaping through the ice, Pharaoh finally says the words. "He said to them, This time I have sinned. I know that the L...
Confession is easy when the sky is falling on you. "Intercede before the Lord," Pharaoh pleads to Moses, "that with Him it may be enough, and there may be no more maledictory thund...
Moses does not pray inside Pharaoh's palace. He does not pray inside the city at all. "When I have gone out from thee into the city," he tells the king, "I will outspread my hands ...
Moses and Aaron walked out of the palace, past the gates, into the suburb of the city. And there, in the open, Moses did exactly what he had promised. The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on...
The sky cleared. And Pharaoh immediately went back on his word. The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 9:34), the Aramaic paraphrase preserved in the tradition of Yonatan ben Uzziel...
By the eighth plague, the Torah's language has shifted. Before, it was Pharaoh who hardened his own heart. Now, the Lord takes a share of the responsibility. "The Lord spake to Mos...
The plagues are not only punishment. They are curriculum. The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 10:2) records the Holy One's own reason: "In the hearing of thy sons and of thy chil...
"Thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel," Moses and Aaron declare, "How long wilt thou refuse to humble thyself before Me? Let My people go, that they may worship before Me" (Targu...
The warning for the eighth plague is as graphic as anything the Torah has yet described. "They shall cover the face of the ground," the Lord tells Moses through the Targum Pseudo-J...
"They shall fill thy house, and the houses of all thy servants, and the houses of the Mizraee," the Lord declares through Moses, "(the like of) which neither thy fathers nor thy fo...
It is a remarkable moment. After eight plagues, the ones who crack first are not Pharaoh — but his own courtiers. "The servants of Pharoh said, How long shall this man be a stumbli...
When Pharaoh asks who will be going to worship, Moses answers without hesitation. "With our children and with our old men will we go; with our sons and with our daughters we will g...
Pharaoh responds with a sarcasm that reveals his actual intention. "He said to them, So may the Word of the Lord be a help to you: (but) how can I release (both) you and your child...
"(It shall be) not so as ye devise; but the men only shall go and worship before the Lord; for that it was which ye demanded. And he drave them out from before the face of Pharoh" ...
"Lift up thy hand over the land of Mizraim for the locust, that he may come up over the land of Mizraim, and destroy every herb of the earth, whatsoever the hail hath left" (Targum...
The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 10:13) describes the delivery mechanism with quiet care. "Mosheh lifted up his rod over the land of Mizraim, and the Lord brought an east wind...
"The locust came up over all the land of Mizraim, and settled in all the limits of Mizraim exceedingly strong. Before him there had been no locust so hard, nor will there be like h...
"He covered the face of all the land, until the land was darkened, and every herb of the ground was consumed, and all the fruit of the tree that the hail had left; and nothing gree...
The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 10:19) records one of the most curious details in the entire plague narrative. "The Lord turned a wind from the west of exceeding strength, an...
The Lord instructs Moses to bring the ninth plague at an unusual hour. "Lift up thy hand towards the height of the heavens," the Lord says (Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 10:2)1...
The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 10:23) reveals a secret buried in the ninth plague that the plain Torah only hints at. "No man saw his brother, and none arose from his place ...
After three days of darkness, Pharaoh calls Moses back. "Go, worship before the Lord; only your sheep and your oxen shall abide with me: your children also may go with you" (Targum...
Moses's answer to Pharaoh's last offer is one of the most famous lines in Exodus. "Our flocks, moreover, must go with us; not one hoof of them shall remain; for from them we are to...
Pharaoh's patience finally breaks. "Pharoh said to him, Go from me. Beware that thou add not to see my face to speak before me one of these words that are so hard: for in the day t...
Moses's reply to Pharaoh's death-threat is magnificently calm — and the Targum reveals why. "Thou hast spoken fairly. While I was dwelling in Midian, it was told me in a word from ...
Before the final plague falls, the Lord gives Israel an instruction that would change the entire theology of the Exodus. "Speak now in the hearing of the people, That every man sha...
The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 11:3) notes a transformation that had happened gradually, almost without anyone noticing. "The Lord gave the people favour before the Mizraee;...
The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 11:5) announces the tenth plague in language that is almost merciless in its precision. "Every firstborn in the land of Mizraim shall die: fro...
There is a grief so total it sets a boundary in time. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 11:6) frames the final plague not only as a wound inflicted but as an unrepeatable event. Mi...
The strangest detail in the tenth plague is not what happens, but what does not. On the night when all of Mizraim wails, no dog in Israel so much as growls. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan ...
Moses almost never loses his temper in the written text, but on this night he does. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 11:8) describes him warning Pharaoh that the day is coming whe...
Few verses in the Hebrew Bible have troubled readers as much as the one that says God hardened Pharaoh's heart. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 11:10) offers a subtle reading: th...
Until the night before the Exodus, time belonged to Egypt. The calendar that mattered was the calendar of Pharaoh, its new year set by the flooding of the Nile. Targum Pseudo-Jonat...
One of the most useful things a targum does is flag which commandments were meant to last forever and which were meant only for a single moment. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 1...
Some commandments are famous for their grandeur. This one is famous for its neighborliness. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 12:4) addresses a perfectly mundane problem: what if y...
The most dangerous sentence in the Passover story is the one where Israel was told to tie a lamb to a post and wait. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 12:6) turns those four days o...
The original Passover meal was not symbolic. The bitter herbs on the first seder plate were real bitter herbs, eaten in a real hurry on a real night. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exo...
One reason the first Passover feels archaic to modern readers is that it was archaic even to the people eating it. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 12:9) piles up the restrictions...
Leftovers are rarely a theological problem, but in the Pesach laws they become one. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 12:10) addresses what to do with any remnant of the lamb that ...
Some of the most famous images of Passover — the belted tunic, the shoes on the feet, the staff in the hand — were never meant to continue. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 12:11)...
Scale matters in apocalyptic theology. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 12:12) opens the heavens over Mizraim and reveals something the plain verse leaves hidden: the Lord descend...
One of the most striking interpretive moves in Targum Pseudo-Jonathan happens quietly on (Exodus 12:13). The verse states that the blood on the doorposts will be a sign for Israel,...
The law of unleavened bread contains one of the sharpest penalties in the Torah. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 12:15) says that anyone who eats leavened bread during the seven ...
Passover has two names. The night of deliverance is Pesach. The week that follows is Chag haMatzot — the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 12:17) preserv...
