Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Genesis Reader

And it was when Nimrod had cast Abram into the furnace of fire because he would not worship his idol, and the fire had no power to burn him, that Haran's heart became doubtful, saying, If Nimrod overcome, I will be on his side: but if Abram overcome, I will be on his side. And when all the people who were there saw that the fire had no power over Abram, they said in their hearts, Is not Haran the brother of Abram full of divinations and charms, and has he not uttered spells over the fire that it should not burn his brother? Immediately (min yad, out of hand) there fell fire from the high heavens and consumed him; and Haran died in the sight of Terah his father, where he was burned in the land of his nativity, in the furnace of fire which the Kasdai had made for Abram his brother.

And Abram and Nahor took to them wives: the name of Abram's wife was Sara, and the name of the wife of Nahor, Milcha, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcha and the father of Iska, who is Sara.

And Terah took Abram his son, and Lot bar Haran, the son of his son, and his daughter-in-law Sara the wife of Abram his son, and went forth with them from Ura of the Kasdai, to go to the land of Kenaan. And they came unto Haran, and dwelt there.

AND the Lord said to Abram, Go thou from thy land; separate thyself from thy kindred; go forth from the house of thy father; go into the land which I will show thee.

And I will bless the priests who will spread forth their hands in prayer, and bless thy sons; and Bileam, who will curse them, I will curse, and they shall slay him with the mouth of the sword; and in thee shall be blessed all the generations of the earth.

And Abram went, according as the Lord had spoken with him, and Lot went with him. And Abram was the son of seventy and five years at his going forth from Haran.

And Abram took Sara his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all the substance which they had acquired, and the souls whom they had proselyted in Haran, and went forth to go to the land of Kenaan. And they came to the land of Kenaan.

And Abram passed through the land unto the place of Shekem, unto the plain which had been showed. And the Kenaanites were then in the land; for the time had not yet come that the sons of Israel should possess it.

And the Lord was revealed unto Abram, and said, To thy sons will I give this land. And he builded there an altar before the Lord, who was revealed to him.

And he went up from thence to a mountain which was eastward of Bethel, and outspread his tent, having Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; and he builded there an altar before the Lord, and prayed in the Name of the Lord.

And it was, as he approached to enter the limit of Mizraim, and they had come to the river, and were uncovering their flesh to pass over, that Abram, said to Sara his wife, Behold, until this I have not beheld thy flesh; but now I know that thou art a woman of fair aspect.

It will be, therefore, when the Mizraee see thee, and view thy beauty, that they will say, This is his wife; and they will kill me, and thee will keep alive.

Why saidst thou, She is my sister? When I would take her to me to wife, plagues were at once sent against me, and I went not unto her. And now behold thy wife, take (her) and go.

And he proceeded in his journeyings from the south unto Bethel, and returned to the place where he had outspread his tabernacle at the first, between Bethel and Ai,

And contentions arose between the shepherds of Abram's flock, and the shepherds of the flocks of Lot; for the shepherds of Abram had been instructed by him not to go among the Kenaanaee and the Pherizaee, who, as yet, had power in the land, and to restrain the cattle that they should make no depredation in going to the place of their pasture: but the shepherds of Lot would go and feed in the grounds of the Kenaanaee and Pherizaee who yet dwelt in the land.

And Lot uplifted his eyes towards (the place of) fornication; and beheld all the plain of Jardena that it was altogether well watered, before the Lord in his wrath had destroyed Sedom and Amorah; a land admirable for trees, as the garden of the Lord, and for fruitage, as the land of Mizraim as thou goest up to Zoar.

And the men of Sedom were depraved in their wealth one with another, and they sinned in their bodies; they sinned with open nakedness, and the shedding of innocent blood, and practiced strange worship, and rebelled greatly against the name of the Lord.

And the Lord said to Abram, after that Lot had separated from him, Lift up now thine eyes, and look, from the place where thou art, to the north and to the south, to the east and to the west:

And I will make thy sons manifold as the dust of the earth, as that, as it is impossible for a man to number the dust of the earth, so also it shall be impossible to number thy sons.

And Abram stretched his tent (and made folds) for oxen and sheep, and came and dwelt in the vale of Mamre which is in Hebron, and builded there an altar before the Lord.

made war with Bera, whose deeds were evil, king of Sedom, and with Birsha, whose deeds were with the wicked, king of Amora: Shinab, who had hated his father, king of Admah, and Shemebar, who had corrupted himself with fornication, king of Zeboim; and the king of the city which consumed (Bela) the dwellers thereof, which is Zoar.

All these were joined in the vale of the gardens (paredesaia), the place that produced the streamlets of waters that empty themselves into the sea of salt.

And in the fourteenth year came Kedarlaomer and the kings who were with him, and smote the Giants (gibboraia) which were in Ashtaroth-Karniam, and the Strong who were in Hametha, and the Terrible who were in the plain of Kiriathaim,

and the Choraee (dwellers in caverns) who were in the high mountains of Gebala, unto the valley of Pharan, which was nigh upon the edge of the desert.

And they returned, and came to the place where was rendered the judgment of Mosheh the prophet, to the fountain of the waters of Strife, which is Requam. And they smote all the fields of the Amalkaee, and also the Emoraee, who dwelt in En-gedi.

And the king of Sedom, and the king of Amorah, and the kind of Admah, and the king of Zeboim, and the king of the city which consumed its inhabitants, which is Zoar, went forth, and set the array of battle against them in the valley of the gardens;

with Kedarlaomer king of Elam, and Thidal king of the nations obedient to him, and Amraphel king of Pontos, and Ariok king of Thelasar; four kings arrayed in battle against five.

And the valley of the gardens had many pits filled with bitumen: and the kings of Sedom and Amora fled away, and fell there; and they who were left fled to the mountains.

And Og came, who had been spared from the giants that died in the deluge, and had ridden protected upon the top of the ark, and sustained with food by Noah; not being spared through high righteousness, but that the inhabitants of the world might see the power of the Lord, and say, Were there not giants who in the first times rebelled against the Lord of the world, and perished from the earth? But when these kings made war, behold, Og, who was with them, said in his heart, I will go and show Abram concerning Lot, who is led captive, that he may come and deliver him from the hands of the kings into whose hands he has been delivered.

And he arose and came, upon the eve of the day of the Pascha, and found him making the unleavened cakes. Then showed he to Abram the Hebrew, who dwelt in the valleys of Mamre Amoraah, brother of Eshkol and brother of Aner, who were men of covenant with Abram.

And when Abram heard that his brother was made captive, he armed his young men who were trained for war, grown up in his house; but they willed not to go with him. And he chose from them Eliezer the son of Nimrod, who was equal in strength to all the three hundred and eighteen; and he pursued unto Dan.

And he divided them at night in the way; a part were to engage with the kings, and a part were hidden to smite the firstborn of Egypt. And he arose, he and his servants, and smote them, and pursued them which remained of them unto (the place) of the memorial of sin which was to be in Dan, from the north of Darmesek.

And the king of Sedom came forth, after that he returned from destroying Kedarlaomer and the kings who were with him, to meet him at the plain of Mephana, which was the king's race-course.

And Malka Zadika, who was Shem bar Noah, the king of Yerushalem, came forth to meet Abram, and brought forth to him bread and wine; and in that time he ministered before Eloha Ilaha.

And blessed be Eloha Ilaha, who hath made thine enemies as a shield which receiveth a blow. And he gave to him one of ten, of all which he brought back.

And Abram said to the king of Sedom, I have uplifted my hands in an oath before the Lord God the Most High, who for the just possesseth his possession of the heavens and the earth,

if from a thread to the latchet of a sandal I receive any thing of all that is thine; lest thou magnify thyself in saying, I have enriched Abram from mine own.

Have I not power over all the spoil?--Apart from what the young men have eaten, and the portion of the men who went with me, Aner, Eshkol, and Mamre, they also receiving their portion.

And Abram said, Lord God, great blessings hast Thou given me, and great (are they which it is) before Thee to give me: nevertheless, what profit is to me, when I pass from the world without children, and Eliezer the manager (bar pharnasath, the son of sustenance) of my house, by whose hands signs were wrought for (or to) me in Darmasek, expects to be my heir?

And He brought him forth without, and said, Look up now to the heavens, and number the stars, if thou art able to number them: and he said, So will be thy sons.

And he believed in the Lord, and had faith in the (Memra) Word of the Lord, and He reckoned it to him for righteousness (lizeku), because he parleyed not before him with words.