Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Genesis Reader

And I will multiply thy sons as the stars of the heavens, and will give to thy sons all these lands, and through thy sons shall all the nations of the earth be blessed;

And the man of the place inquired concerning his wife; and he said, She is my sister: for he reasoned in his heart, Lest the men of the place should kill me for Rivekah, because she was of beautiful appearance.

And it was when days had increased to him in abiding there, that Abimelek the king of the Philistaee looked from a window, and beheld, and Izhak was disporting with Rivekah his wife.

And Abimelek called Izhak, and said, Nevertheless she is thy wife; and why hast thou said, She is my sister? And Izhak answered him, Because I said in my heart, Lest they kill me on her account.

And Abimelek said, Why hast thou done this to us? It might have been that the king, who is the principal of the people, had lain with thy wife, and thou wouldst have brought guilt upon us.

And Izhak digged again the wells of water which the servants of his father had digged in the days of Abraham his father, and which the Philistaee had stopped after Abraham was dead; and he called them by the names his father had called them.

And the shepherds of Gerar contended with Izhak's shepherds, saying, The water is ours. And it was the will of Heaven, and it dried. But when they returned to Izhak, it flowed. And he called the name of the well (Esek) Contention, because (etheseku) they had quarrelled with him on account of it.

And he removed from thence and digged another well, and for that they did not contend as formerly, and he called the name of it (Ravchatha) Spaciousness; for he said, Now hath the Lord given us space to spread us abroad in the land.

And the Lord appeared to him that night, and said, I am the God of Abraham thy father: fear not; for My Word is for thy help, and I will bless thee, and multiply thy sons for the righteousness' sake of Abraham My servant.

And when Izhak went forth from Gerar the wells dried up, and the trees made no fruit; and they felt that it was because they had driven him away, all these things had befallen them. And Abimelek went to him from Gerar, and took his friends to go with him, and Phikol the chief of his host.

And they answered, Seeing, we have seen, that the Word of the Lord is for thy help, and for thy righteousness' sake all good hath been to us; but when thou wentest forth from our land the wells dried up, and our trees made no fruit; then we said, We will cause him to return to us. And now let there be an oath established between us, and kindness between us and thee, and we will enter into a covenant with thee,

lest thou do us evil. Forasmuch as we have not come nigh thee for evil, and as we have acted with thee only for good, and have indeed sent thee away in peace; thou art now blessed of the Lord.

And they arose in the morning, each man with his brother; and he broke off from the bridle of his ass, and gave one part to them for a testimony. And Izhak prayed for them, and they were enlarged. And Izhak accompanied them, and they went from him in peace.

And Rivekah spake to Jakob her son, saying, Behold, this night those on high praise the Lord of the world, and the treasures of the dew are opened in it; and I have heard thy father speaking with Esau thy brother, saying,

Go now to the house of the flock, and take me from thence two fat kids of the goats; one for the pascha, and one for the oblation of the feast; and I will make of them food for thy father such as he loveth.

And she said, If with blessings he bless thee, they shall be upon thee and upon thy sons; and if with curses he should curse thee, they shall be upon me and upon my soul: therefore receive from me, and go and take for me.

And Rivekah took the pleasant vestments of Esau her elder son which had formerly been Adam's; but which that day Esau had not worn, but they remained with her in the house, and (with them) she dressed Jakob her younger son.

And Jacob said to his father, I am Esau thy firstborn: I have done as thou spakest with me. Arise now, sit and eat of my venison, that thy soul may bless me.

And Jakob drew near to Izhak his father, who touched him, and said, This voice is the voice of Jakob, nevertheless the feeling of the hands is as the feeling of the hands of Esau.

And he said, Draw near, and I will eat of my son's venison, that my soul may bless thee. And he approached him, and he ate; and he had no wine; but an angel prepared it for him, from the wine which had been kept in its grapes from the days of the beginning of the world; and he gave it into Jakob's hand, and Jakob brought it to his father, and he drank.

and Jakob drew near and kissed him. And he smelled the smell of his vestments, and blessed him, and said, See, the smell of my son is as the smell of the fragrant incense which is to be offered on the mountain of the house of the sanctuary, which shall be called a field which the Lord hath blessed, and that He hath chosen, that therein His Shekinah might dwell.

Therefore the Word of the Lord give thee of the good dews which descend from the heavens, and of the good fountains that spring up, and make the herbage of the earth to grow from beneath, and plenty of provision and wine.

Let peoples be subject to thee, all the sons of Esau, and kingdoms bend before thee, all the sons of Keturah; a chief and a ruler be thou over thy brethren, and let the sons of thy mother salute thee. Let them who curse thee, my son, be accursed as Bileam bar Beor; and them who bless thee be blessed as Mosheh the prophet, the scribe of Israel.

And it was when Izhak had finished blessing Jakob, and Jakob had only gone out about two handbreadths from Izhak his father, that Esau his brother came in from his hunting.

And the Word of the Lord had impeded him from taking clean venison; but he had found a certain dog, and killed him, and made food of him, and brought to his father, and said to his father, Arise, my father, and eat of my venison, that thy soul may bless me.

And Izhak was moved with great agitation when he heard the voice of Esau, and the smell of his food rose in his nostrils as the smell of the burning of Gehennam; and he said, Who is he who hath got venison, and come to me, and I have eaten of all which he brought me before thou camest, and I have blessed him, and he shall, too, be blessed?

When Esau heard the words of his father, he cried with a cry exceeding great and bitter, and said to his father, Bless me, me also, my father! And he said,

And he said, His name is truly called Jakob; for he hath dealt treacherously with me these two times: my birthright he took, and, behold, now he hath received my blessing! And he said, Hast thou not reserved a blessing for me?

And Izhak answered and said to Esau, Behold, I have appointed him a ruler over thee, and all his brethren have I made to be his servants, and with provision and wine have I sustained him: and now go, leave me; for what can I do for thee, my son?

And upon thy sword shalt thou depend, entering at every place: yet thou shalt be supple and credulous, and be in subjection to thy brother; but it will be that when his sons become evil, and fall from keeping the commandments of the law, thou shalt break his yoke of servitude from off thy neck.

And Esau kept hatred in his heart against Jakob his brother, on account of the order of blessing with which his father had blessed him. And Esau said in his heart, I will not do as Kain did, who slew Habel in the life (time) of his father, for which his father begat Sheth, but will wait till the time when the days of mourning for the death of my father come, and then will I kill Jakob my brother, and will be found the killer and the heir.

And the words of Esau her elder son, who thought in his heart to kill Jakob, were shown by the Holy Spirit to Rivekah, and she sent, and called Jakob her younger son, and said to him, Behold, Esau thy brother lieth in wait for thee, and plotteth against thee to kill thee.

until thy brother's anger have quieted from thee, and he have forgotten what thou hast done to him; and I will send and take thee from thence. Why should I be bereaved of you both in one day: thou being slain, and he driven forth, as Hava was bereaved of Habel, whom Kain slew, and both were removed from before Adam and Hava all the days of the life of Adam and Hava?

And Rivekah said to Izhak, I am afflicted in my life on account of the indignity of the daughters of Heth. If Jakob take a wicked wife from the daughters of Heth, such as these of the daughters of the people of the land, what will life be to me?

Arise, go to Padan of Aram, to the house of Bethuel thy mother's father, and take thee from thence a wife from the daughters of Laban mother's brother.

And El Shadai will bless thee with many possessions, and increase thee and multiply thee into twelve tribes, and thou shalt be worthy of the congregation of the sons of the Sanhedrin, the sum of which is seventy, according to the number of the nations.

And He will give the blessing of Abraham to thee, and to thy sons with thee, and cause thee to inherit the land of thy sojourning, which he gave unto Abraham.

And Esau considered that Izhak had blessed Jakob, and had sent him to Padan Aram to take to him from thence a wife, when he blessed him, and commanded him, saying, Thou shalt not take a wife of the daughters of the Kenaanites;

and Esau went unto Ishmael, and took to wife Mahalath, who is Besemath the daughter of Ishmael bar Abraham, the sister of Nebaioth from his mother, besides his other wives.

Five miracles were wrought for our father Jakob at the time that he went forth from Beersheba. The first sign: the hours of the day were shortened, and the sun went down before his time, forasmuch as the Word had desired to speak with him. The second sign: the four stones which Jakob had set for his pillow he found in the morning, had become one stone. Sign the third: the Stone which, when all the flocks were assembled, they rolled from the mouth of the well, he rolled away with one of his arms. The fourth sign: the well overflowed, and the water rose to the edge of it, and continued to overflow all the days that he was in Haran. The fifth sign: the country was shortened before him, so that in one day he went forth and came to Haran.