10,800 related texts · Page 206 of 225
The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan does not describe a gentle Messiah. It describes a warrior king who ends the reign of tyrants. "How beauteous is the King, the Meshiha who will arise fro...
Jacob's blessing of Joseph reaches into cosmic language. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan preserves two divine titles worth pausing on. "From the Word of the Lord shall be thy help; and He w...
Benjamin was the youngest, and Jacob's last blessing might be the most exalted. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan reads the Hebrew "Benjamin is a ravenous wolf" (Genesis 49:27) as a declarati...
When Pharaoh granted Joseph's request, a procession formed that had no precedent in Hebrew history. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan records it plainly. "And Joseph went up to bury his fathe...
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan records a small, telling detail about the funeral caravan. "And all the men of Joseph's house, and his brethren, and his father's household: only their child...
When the Canaanite natives saw the Egyptian-Israelite procession mourning at the threshing floor of Atad, they did something startling. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan records it. "They loo...
"And I have revealed Myself to thee this day, that by My Memra they may be delivered from the hand of the Mizraee, to bring them up out of the unclean land, unto a good land, ...
"And now, behold, the cry of the sons of Israel cometh up before Me, and the bruising of the Mizraee wherewith they bruise them is also revealed before Me."The Targum Pse...
"And Moses said before the Lord, Behold, I will go to the sons of Israel, and say to them, The Lord God of your fathers hath sent me to you: and they will say to me, What is H...
After Moses grasps the serpent by the tail and it becomes a rod, the Holy One explains the purpose of the miracle. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan puts it plainly: In order that they may be...
Here is one of the most extraordinary expansions in all of Targum Pseudo-Jonathan. The biblical Hebrew says only that Moses took the rod of God in his hand. The Aramaic adds a cosm...
The confrontation finally arrives. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan preserves the opening line with ceremonial weight: Thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel: Release My people, that they ma...
The cruelty has a chain of command. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan preserves the structure: the exactors whom Pharoh set over them as officers beat the sons of Israel, saying, Why have not...
The foremen walk out of Pharaoh's court knowing they have lost. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan preserves the grim recognition: the foremen of the sons of Israel saw that they were in evil,...
When the foremen finally confront Moses and Aaron, their rage is spectacular. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan preserves the accusation: Our affliction is manifest before the Lord, but our p...
The fifth and deepest verb of redemption arrives in the next verse. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan preserves it with covenantal precision: I will bring you nigh before Me to be a people, a...
Moses returns to the slaves with the five expressions of redemption — and they do not hear him. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan preserves the heartbreak: Mosheh spake according to this to t...
After the slaves refuse to hear him, Moses turns to God with a new version of his old protest. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan preserves the logic: Behold, the sons of Israel do not hearken...
When the Torah sums up who stood before Pharaoh to demand Israel's release, it simply says these are they (Exodus 6:27). Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Exodus 6:27 supplies the titles: ...
When Moses delivers the demand at the Nile, the Hebrew has him speak in the name of the God of the Hebrews (Exodus 7:16). Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Exodus 7:16 updates the phrase w...
The second plague is announced with an almost comic precision. Frogs will not merely swarm; they will specify. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Exodus 7:28 lists the destinations: into th...
Aharon strikes the dust and every grain of it becomes a biting insect. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Exodus 8:13 is emphatic: all the dust of the earth was changed to become insects, i...
Pressure is working. Pharaoh concedes — partially. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Exodus 8:24 records the half-surrender: I will release you to sacrifice before the Lord your God in the...
Plague five begins with the same message that opened the demands at the Nile. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Exodus 9:1: Thus saith the Lord, the God of the Jehudaee, Emancipate My peop...
After the boils, the Lord does not relent. He sends Moses back to the palace, and the command has not changed. "Arise in the morning, and place thyself before Pharoh, and say to hi...
It is one of the hardest verses in Exodus. Why didn't the Lord simply strike Pharaoh dead and free the slaves? The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Exodus 9:16, the Aramaic paraphrase pre...
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...
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: the ...
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 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: ...
The final hour of the Egyptian captivity is captured in a sentence of panic. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Exodus 12:33 describes how Moses, Aaron, and the sons of Israel heard Pharaoh...
One of the most tender details in the Exodus is hidden in Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Exodus 12:34. As Israel fled Mizraim, the people carried their unleavened dough on their heads. ...
The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Exodus 13:14 imagines the future. A son, born long after Egypt, looks at his father performing the strange ritual of redeeming a firstborn donkey with...
The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Exodus 13:21 watches a miracle change its posture. By day the "glory of the Shekinah of the Lord" went before Israel in a column of cloud to lead them...
The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Exodus 14:13 breaks Israel into four factions at the edge of the sea. Not "the people" united, but four parties, each with its own plan. The first sai...
When Israel stood dripping on the far shore of the Yam Suph, the Sea of Reeds, they sang of a hand. Not a sword, not an army, not even an angel. A hand. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan (an ...
The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan fills in what the Hebrew leaves implicit: why Moses's hands grew heavy. "The hands of Moses were heavy, because the conflict was prolonged till the morro...
News travels, but rarely does it move a prince of Midian to action. The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan records the turning point: "And Jethro, prince of Midian, the father-in-law of Moses,...
The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan locates Jethro's arrival at Israel's camp with unusual precision: "Jethro the father-in-law of Moses, and the sons of Moses, and his wife came to Moses a...
The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan records the terrifying perimeter drawn around the mountain: "Thou shalt set limits for the people that they may stand round about the mountain, and shalt...
How did the Ten Words arrive? The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan describes it with cosmic theatre. "The first word, as it came forth from the mouth of the Holy One, whose Name be blessed, ...
The climax of the consecration chapter is not a ritual instruction. It is a declaration, and Targum Pseudo-Jonathan gives it a weight the plain Hebrew only hints at: the sons of Is...
The Sabbath command carries a severity that shocks modern readers. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan preserves it in its original sharpness: "Ye shall keep the Sabbath, because it is holy to ...
After the sword went through the camp, the Levites stood with blood on their hands. They had killed brothers, neighbors, friends. And Moses turned to them with a startling instruct...
After Moses' long intercession, God answered with a short sentence that closed the negotiation. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan, the Aramaic paraphrase of the Torah, renders it with the for...
The Sabbath is called menucha — rest — but Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on Exodus 35:2 makes clear it was never optional. The verse commands six days of work, then on the seventh day the...
Why five curtains on one side and six on the other? The Torah simply gives the numbers (Exodus 36:16). But Targum Pseudo-Jonathan offers a staggering interpretation: he joined five...
When Betzalel finished the choshen, the breastplate of judgment, he did not simply sew a garment. He built a map of the world the House of Israel carries on its heart. According to...
