204 passages in Other Sources
Individual passages from Targum Jonathan, shown in source order. Page 2 of 5.
The plague of darkness in Exodus chapter 10 is three days of impenetrable blackness across Egypt. The Hebrew Bible says simply that no one could see anyone else and no one rose fro...
Nadab and Abihu, the two eldest sons of Aaron, offered unauthorized incense. And died. The Hebrew Bible says fire "came out from the Lord and consumed them" (Leviticus 10:2). The T...
The Hebrew Bible records that Moses invited Hobab his father-in-law to travel with Israel, and Hobab refused. The Targum Jonathan expands this exchange into a deeply personal plea ...
The Targum Jonathan on (Deuteronomy 10) buries an entire civil war inside what the Hebrew Bible treats as a simple travel itinerary. The Hebrew says Israel "journeyed from Beeroth ...
The Hebrew Bible says God "came down" to see the Tower of Babel and confused humanity's language (Genesis 11:7). But the ancient Aramaic translators of Targum Jonathan told a radic...
The standard Exodus text says God promised one final plague against Egypt. The Targum Jonathan transforms this announcement into something far more personal and humiliating for Pha...
The Targum Jonathan opens Leviticus 11 with a number the Hebrew Bible never provides: Israel must "separate on account of uncleanness eighteen kinds of food to be rejected." The st...
Numbers 11 tells the story of Israel complaining about food in the wilderness. The Targum Jonathan adds a graven image in the camp of Dan, a wind that nearly destroyed the world, a...
The Targum Jonathan on (Deuteronomy 11) turns the promise of rain into a precisely timed agricultural calendar. The Hebrew says God will give "the early rain and the late rain." Th...
Ever stumble across a name in the Bible and wonder, "Who was that person?" The Torah is full of these little mysteries! Let's You find her in (Genesis 11:29), mentioned almost in p...
When God blessed Abraham in (Genesis 12:3), the Hebrew says simply: "I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse." A universal promise. But the ancient Ar...
The Passover story everyone knows has God striking down the Egyptian firstborn. The Targum Jonathan's version of (Exodus 12) is almost unrecognizably more detailed, packed with num...
Leviticus 12 is one of the shortest chapters in the Torah, just eight verses about purification after childbirth. The Targum Jonathan keeps it concise but adds small details that r...
Miriam and Aaron criticized Moses. The Hebrew Bible is vague about why. The Targum Jonathan fills in the backstory with a Cushite queen, a celibate prophet, and a divine rebuke tha...
The Targum Jonathan on (Deuteronomy 12) is obsessed with a single idea: the place where God's Shekinah (שכינה), His divine presence, will choose to dwell. The Hebrew text says "the...
Targum Jonathan turns to The Seven Clouds Of Glory. Well, our tradition offers a beautiful image: the Seven Clouds of Glory. The Targum Pseudo-Yonathan, an ancient Aramaic translat...
In (Genesis 13:10), Lot "lifted up his eyes and saw the whole plain of the Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere." A simple observation about good farmland. But the ancient A...
The Targum Jonathan on (Exodus 13) contains one of the most startling cross-references in all of ancient Aramaic translation. It identifies the famous dry bones from (Ezekiel 37) a...
Leviticus 13 is the longest chapter in the book, a detailed medical manual for diagnosing skin diseases. The Targum Jonathan transforms it from clinical instructions into a color-c...
The Hebrew Bible says Moses sent twelve spies into Canaan. The Targum Jonathan says he sent "keen-sighted men", then reveals how spectacularly their vision failed them. Moses dispa...
The Targum Jonathan on (Deuteronomy 13) confronts one of the most dangerous problems in ancient Israelite religion: the prophet whose miracles actually work. The Hebrew text warns ...
Genesis 14 is a war chapter, four kings against five, a battle in the Valley of Siddim, Lot taken captive, Abraham riding to the rescue. The Hebrew text is spare and military. But ...
The splitting of the Red Sea is dramatic enough in the Hebrew Bible. The Targum Jonathan on (Exodus 14) turns it into something almost mythological, adding details about the Garden...
The purification ritual for a healed leper involved two birds. One was killed. The other was dipped in the dead bird's blood, mixed with spring water, and released over an open fie...
The punishment of the ten faithless spies in the Hebrew Bible is a single verse. The Targum Jonathan turns it into body horror: worms emerging from their navels and consuming their...
The Targum Jonathan on (Deuteronomy 14) transforms a list of dietary laws into a detailed zoological manual. Where the Hebrew names animals and moves on, the Targum adds identifyin...
When Noah was loading up the ark, Og made a deal. He swore to Noah and his sons that if they’d let him come along, he’d be their servant forever. Space on the ark was tight, to say...
Abraham had just defeated four kings and rescued his nephew. In (Genesis 15:1), God simply says "Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great." But the ancien...
The Song of the Sea in (Exodus 15) is one of the oldest poems in the Hebrew Bible. The Targum Jonathan rewrites it with additions so bold they create entirely new theology, includi...
Leviticus 15 deals with bodily discharges, a topic the Targum Jonathan handles with surprising clinical specificity. The Hebrew Bible says a person with an issue becomes unclean. T...
A man gathered wood on the Sabbath and was executed for it. The Hebrew Bible tells this story in three verses. The Targum Jonathan expands it into a legal precedent about judicial ...
The Targum Jonathan on (Deuteronomy 15) contains a bleak prophecy hidden inside a law about debt forgiveness. The Hebrew says "the poor will never cease from the land." The Targum ...
The Hebrew Bible calls Hagar a "maidservant." The Targum Jonathan, an ancient Aramaic translation of the Torah composed in the land of Israel, calls her a daughter of Pharaoh. That...
The manna story in (Exodus 16) raises an obvious question: where did this miracle food come from? The Hebrew Bible says God "rained bread from heaven." The Targum Jonathan gives a ...
Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement). The holiest day. The most dangerous ritual in the entire Torah. And the Targum Jonathan adds details that turn Leviticus 16 into a thriller. Firs...
Korah did not just challenge Moses. According to the Targum Jonathan, he manufactured a theological argument using the very fabric of his clothing, hid treasure he had looted from ...
The Targum Jonathan on (Deuteronomy 16) transforms the three pilgrimage festivals into richly detailed celebrations. The Hebrew describes Passover, Shavuot, and Sukkot (the Festiva...
Genesis 17 records the moment God commands Abraham to circumcise himself at ninety-nine years old. The Hebrew text says Abraham "fell on his face" when God spoke to him. It reads l...
Amalek's attack on Israel at Rephidim is only a few verses in (Exodus 17). The Targum Jonathan expands it into an epic confrontation with backstory, supernatural geography, and a w...
The Targum Jonathan delivers one of its harshest legal rulings in Leviticus 17: anyone who slaughters a sacrificial animal outside the Tabernacle is treated "as if he had shed inno...
The day after Korah's company was swallowed by the earth, the people of Israel accused Moses and Aaron of murder. God sent a plague. And Aaron did something no other priest would e...
The Targum Jonathan on (Deuteronomy 17) puts hard numbers on royal power. The Hebrew says the king shall not "multiply horses" or "multiply wives." But how many is too many? The Ta...
The Hebrew Bible says three "men" appeared to Abraham at the oaks of Mamre (Genesis 18:2). The Targum Jonathan tells you exactly what they were and exactly why each one came. They ...
In the Hebrew Bible, Jethro visits Moses in the wilderness, gives advice about delegating judges, and leaves. The Targum Jonathan on (Exodus 18) transforms this administrative visi...
Leviticus 18 lists the prohibited sexual relationships. The Targum Jonathan frames the entire chapter with a promise and a threat that go far beyond the Hebrew text. The promise co...
Every tribe in Israel received land. The Levites received cities. Aaron and his sons received something stranger: God told them their inheritance was God Himself. The Targum Jonath...
The Torah says the Levites have no land inheritance. Targum Jonathan goes further, specifying exactly what they receive instead, twenty-four gifts of the priesthood. That number do...
The destruction of Sodom in Genesis 19 is swift and merciless. Fire and brimstone rain down, and the city is gone. But the Targum Jonathan inserts a detail that changes everything:...
