2,651 related texts · 45 related myths · Page 3 of 56
The covenant that God first made with Abraham under the night sky is spoken again, this time to Isaac. The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan renders it with the same thunderous promise. "I wi...
There is no anger in Abimelech's voice, but there is pain. The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan records the king calling Isaac and saying, "Nevertheless she is thy wife. Why hast thou said, ...
Two wells dug, two wells contested. The third well, the Targum Pseudo-Jonathan tells us, was different. "For that they did not contend as formerly, and he called the name of it (Ra...
The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan adds a line that pulls the whole arc of Genesis together in one verse. The vestments Rebekah puts on Jacob, the Targum tells us, "had formerly been Adam'...
The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan quietly drops a cosmic detail into the meal. When Isaac asks for wine, the Hebrew text does not explain where it comes from. The Targum does. "He had no ...
The blessing Isaac pours over Jacob is compact, poetic, and nearly liturgical. The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan renders it in solemn Aramaic. "Therefore the Word of the Lord give thee of...
The closing line of Isaac's blessing, as the Targum Pseudo-Jonathan renders it, reaches beyond Jacob and names two future figures by name. "Let them who curse thee, my son, be accu...
Rebekah's instruction to Jacob is urgent, and the Targum Pseudo-Jonathan adds a Genesis-deep lament to the end of it. "Why should I be bereaved of you both in one day: thou being s...
When Isaac laid his hands on Jacob a second time, this time with full knowledge of whom he was blessing, he called down the name by which the patriarchs had always known the Holy O...
When the warning finally reached Esau, do not marry a Canaanite, he did what a man who has already lost tries to do. He went sideways to find a wife who might count. The Targum Pse...
Book of Jubilees turns to Esau Sells His Birthright for Lentil Soup. Our story unfolds at the Well of the Vision. According to Jubilees, Jacob spent seven years there, right in the...
The familiar story centers on Jacob and Esau. The twins, locked in a sibling rivalry that shaped a nation. But the Book of Jubilees, a fascinating text considered apocryphal by som...
Book of Jubilees turns to Jacob — Isaac's Legacy. Our focus is on the tale of Isaac, Esau, and Jacob. The familiar story is this: Esau, the elder twin, famously sells his birthrigh...
E of those stories out into the light. It’s a dramatic, violent, and frankly, surprising tale found not in the Torah itself, but in a fascinating apocryphal book called the Book of...
Remember the story? Jacob, with a little help from his mother, tricked his aging, blind father Isaac into giving him the blessing meant for Esau, the elder twin. Esau was furious, ...
That, my friends, is Esau in a nutshell. The familiar story is this:. Esau, the elder twin, sells his birthright to his younger brother Jacob for a bowl of lentil stew. But what wa...
These brothers, figures from the very dawn of our tradition, had a sibling rivalry that's… well, legendary. The familiar story centers on Jacob and Esau. Twins, but as different as...
See, Isaac, nearing his end (or so he thought), wanted to bestow his blessing upon his elder son, Esau. All Esau had to do was hunt some game and prepare a tasty meal. Simple enoug...
Rebekah, wife of Isaac and mother of Jacob and Esau, certainly did. Isaac, old and blind, is about to bestow a blessing – a powerful, almost magical blessing – on his eldest son, E...
Legends of the Jews turns to Esau Came Four Hours Late and Lost the Blessing. The story tells us Esau was late. Really late. Four hours, to be exact! Imagine the tension hanging in...
After Jacob, disguised as his brother Esau, received Isaac's blessing, a lesser man might have tried to retract it. But Isaac, despite the deception, understood the weight of what ...
In the story of Jacob and Esau, as told in (Genesis 27:23), that sense of smell takes on a whole new, almost mystical, significance. The verse tells us, "He did not recognize him, ...
The Torah tells us the story, of course, but the Rabbis of old, in their infinite wisdom, weren't content with just the surface narrative. They dove deep, poring over every word, e...
Jacob was one of the four righteous people whom God gave a hint about the future. But Jacob, the Mekhilta says, failed to take the hint. And the consequences reveal something profo...
The Hebrew Bible says Jacob dreamed of a ladder "set up on the earth, and the top of it reached toward heaven" (Genesis 28:12). Targum Onkelos says the ladder was "planted in the e...
Joseph's brothers had carried their father's coffin up from Egypt to bury him in the Cave of Machpelah. At the mouth of the cave, Esau was waiting. "This grave is mine," Esau said....
This is one of the Targum's most surprising explanations. Pseudo-Jonathan on (Genesis 25:11) asks the question the Torah leaves hanging: why, in all the final chapters of his life,...
This is one of the Targum's most humane glosses, tucked into a genealogy verse no one usually stops for. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Genesis 25:19) says: "These are the generations ...
The treaty is signed in the morning. The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan adds a detail the Hebrew only whispers. "He broke off from the bridle of his ass, and gave one part to them for a te...
The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan does not let Rebekah's instruction pass as a simple culinary request. She tells Jacob, "Go now to the house of the flock, and take me from thence two fat...
When Isaac draws Jacob close and breathes him in, the Targum Pseudo-Jonathan tells us what the patriarch actually smells. It is not the field. It is not the goats. It is the incens...
The cry Esau lets out when he realizes the blessing is gone is one of the most haunting sounds in the Torah. The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan preserves it in its raw Aramaic. "He cried w...
The Torah says Jacob came upon a place and lay down because the sun had set (Genesis 28:11). The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan cannot read that verse without shouting. It was not just any...
The promise to Jacob at Bethel scales. From a single man sleeping on stones, the Word of God opens outward: sons as many as the dust, spreading west, east, north, and south (Genesi...
The caravan forms at dawn. An old man. His sons. His grandchildren. His daughters-in-law. Seventy souls in all, according to the count the Torah gives us later (Genesis 46:27). "Ja...
Bereshit Rabbah turns to Jacob's Heavenly Vision. The Torah tells us (Gen. 28:10-19) that Jacob dreamt of a ladder set upon the earth, its top reaching to heaven, with angels ascen...
In the Book of Jubilees, we get a peek into just such a moment. We're eavesdropping on a conversation between Abraham and God, and it's all about Isaac's sons, Esau and Jacob. Abra...
Sometimes, the answers lie in unexpected places – like the Book of Jubilees. It’s an ancient Jewish text, considered by some to be part of the biblical canon, though it's not inclu...
Book of Jubilees turns to Jacob Disguised in Goatskins Fools Blind Isaac. Isaac is getting old, his eyesight’s failing. He knows his time is drawing near. So he calls for his eldes...
Book of Jubilees turns to Esau Cries With Bitter Anguish Over the Lost Blessing. The patriarch Isaac has just unknowingly blessed his younger son, Jacob, instead of Esau, the elder...
That feeling, that burning resentment, is at the heart of our story today, straight from the Book of Jubilees, a text that expands on the stories we find in the Torah itself. Remem...
The Book of Jubilees, a text that expands on the stories we find in Genesis (and considered scripture by some!), gives us a glimpse. Jacob, far from home, builds a life. And he doe...
Like they got all the breaks, all the blessings, and you're just. there? That feeling, that raw, exposed nerve of sibling rivalry, it's ancient. And it echoes through the ages, eve...
Sometimes, the little snippets, the moments in between the big events, can be just as fascinating. Take the story of Isaac, Esau, and Jacob. We know the highlights. But what about ...
Chapter 28 opens with a famine, a stark reminder of the challenges faced by our ancestors. Just as his father Abraham had done before him, Isaac considers going down to Egypt for r...
Book of Jasher turns to Isaac Dies at 180 and Esau Returns From Edom. The scene opens with Isaac, Abraham's son, nearing the end of his long life – a whopping 180 years! Esau, havi...
This is a tale you won't soon forget. In Legends of the Jews, Isaac, son of Abraham, was a chip off the old block. He mirrored his father in every way, beauty, wisdom, strength, we...
The story in Genesis leaves us with Esau heading off to Mount Seir, and it feels like maybe, just maybe, the brothers have finally found a way to coexist. But as readers often find...
