3,894 related texts · 15 related myths · Page 5 of 82
The brothers returned to Canaan and retold the story to their father. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Genesis 42:33) preserves the terms as they remembered them: the lord of the land wi...
The famine grinds on. Grain runs thin. And Jacob, the aged patriarch, sits paralyzed at the thought of sending his youngest, Benjamin, down into Mizraim (Egypt). The viceroy there ...
Jacob blesses his sons with a breaking voice. "God the Almighty give you mercies before the man," he prays, "that he may release to you your other brother, and Benjamin" (Genesis 4...
Jacob compares Judah to a lion's cub, and Targum Pseudo-Jonathan explains exactly why. Two moments made Judah roar. "From the killing of Joseph my son thou didst uplift thy soul, a...
Take the story of Joseph and his brothers in Egypt. In (Genesis 47:2), we read, "From among his brothers he took five men, and he presented them before Pharaoh." Okay, But the rabb...
Picking up where we left off, Jacob’s sons, finally convinced to bring their youngest brother Benjamin, journey back to Egypt. Can you imagine the tension? They're carrying gifts, ...
And Jacob sat in the land (Gen. 37:1). Whenever Scripture uses the expression and he sat (also translated “and he dwelt”), it connotes misfortune: And Israel sat in the land of Egy...
Book of Jubilees turns to Joseph Interprets Dreams in Pharaoh's Dungeon. Jubilees 40, and its take on the Joseph story. You remember Joseph. Sold into slavery by his brothers, he r...
Pharaoh, the most powerful man in the land, is understandably worried. He needs a solution, and fast. The text says, "let Pharaoh appoint overseers in all the land of Egypt, and le...
Jubilees, in its 40th chapter, paints a picture of Joseph that goes beyond the familiar story of the coat of many colors and the dreams. It tells us, "for he walked in uprightness,...
Book of Jubilees turns to Judah and Joseph of Tamar. Remember Judah? One of Jacob’s sons, a key figure in the story of Joseph and his coat of many colors. Well, his story doesn't e...
The brothers of Joseph certainly did. Remember them? They who sold their own brother into slavery? Well, their story takes another twist in the Book of Jubilees, specifically chapt...
That’s kind of what happened after Joseph's incredible rise to power in Egypt. Remember Joseph? Sold into slavery by his brothers, then, through a series of unbelievable events, ri...
The Book of Jubilees, an ancient Jewish text that expands on the Torah, gives us a glimpse. It paints a vivid picture, almost like a scene from a movie. It says, simply, "And the p...
It’s a time of upheaval. The land of Israel is under the thumb of the Seleucid Empire. The Temple in Jerusalem, the very heart of Jewish life, is defiled. Tensions are high, and th...
It’s a longing, a hope so fervent it practically vibrates off the page. This ancient text, not included in the Tanakh but preserved in the Septuagint, gives us a glimpse into the h...
Remember Joseph, the dreamer? He's now in Egypt, and things are about to get really interesting. But not without some resistance. According to Ginzberg's retelling in Legends of th...
That feeling, that undercurrent of destiny, hums through the story of Joseph and his brothers. The famine wasn't just devastating Egypt. As Ginzberg recounts in Legends of the Jews...
The final testament of Benjamin, the youngest son of Jacob, as recounted in Ginzberg's Legends of the Jews. Benjamin, at the ripe old age of one hundred and twenty-five, gathers hi...
First, a misstep. Before we get to the wedding bells, understand: Judah was kind of a big deal. He was, according to some traditions, essentially the king among his brothers. But a...
That’s where we find Pharaoh in the Joseph story. For two long years, Pharaoh was plagued by recurring dreams. Night after night, they visited him, only to vanish with the morning ...
Take the story of Joseph, for example. You know, the one with the coat of many colors? readers often focus on the coat, the brothers' jealousy, but there's so much more depth to un...
He was absolutely floored by the sight of the Egyptian king. This teaching paints a vivid picture, doesn't it? It wasn't just the king himself, arrayed in princely garments with a ...
Ancient kings did too. And sometimes, they needed a little help deciphering them. Take Pharaoh, for example. He was troubled by dreams, unsettling visions that seemed to hold the f...
It led to one of the most dramatic moments in the Joseph story. Pharaoh, plagued by these intense dreams, had already consulted the wise men of Egypt. But their interpretations jus...
The familiar story is this: Joseph, sold into slavery by his jealous brothers, ends up in Egypt. He rises through the ranks, but then gets thrown in jail after being falsely accuse...
The familiar story is this: Joseph, sold into slavery in Egypt, faces incredible trials. But he also possesses unshakeable integrity. Perhaps the most famous test comes with Potiph...
It’s a story filled with twists, turns, and a whole lot of divine intervention. It's the story of Joseph. After Joseph correctly interprets Pharaoh's dreams, foretelling seven year...
A famine has gripped the land, and the Egyptians are desperate. Where do they turn? First, to their idols. But these "deceitful idols," as Joseph calls them, offer no help. So, the...
That’s where we find ourselves in the story of Joseph and his brothers. They'd sold him into slavery, a secret festering between them. Now, facing hardship, their first thought, th...
Legends of the Jews turns to Benjamin Leaves Egypt. The climax arrives with the discovery of Joseph's silver cup in Benjamin's sack. Joseph had ordered the cup to be placed there, ...
Legends of the Jews turns to Benjamin Pleaded for Mercy and Joseph Could Barely Hold Back. The story unfolds with Joseph, now a powerful figure in Egypt, testing his brothers who a...
Maybe it's because they tap into something deeply human, a shared understanding of fairness, justice, and even… reputation. to a fascinating little tidbit from the vast ocean of Je...
Just as he was gentle with them, he became a helper and counselor to the Egyptians. And when Pharaoh passed away, the old king had one final request: that Joseph be a father figure...
The story of Joseph, his coffin, and Moses is one such tale. It's a powerful reminder that even in the chaos of escape and liberation, honoring a pledge matters deeply. The scene: ...
Darkness, locusts, boils… you name it, they got it. And now, finally, Pharaoh is ready to let the Israelites go. But it wasn't exactly a gracious departure. In Ginzberg's, Legends ...
It wasn't just about getting cheap labor back, oh no. According to the ancient stories, it was something far more sinister. The Legends of the Jews tells us the Egyptians weren't a...
Abraham didn't just go to Egypt to escape famine. According to Josephus, he went to debate the priests. When drought struck Canaan, Abraham heard that Egypt was prosperous and deci...
Two years. That is how long Joseph sat in an Egyptian prison after correctly predicting the fate of Pharaoh's cupbearer, who had promised to remember him and then promptly forgot. ...
The confrontation between Judah and Joseph in Egypt was not simply a family dispute. Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev reads it as a cosmic collision between two forms of kingship....
One of the most remarkable claims in rabbinic tradition is that the Israelites preserved their identity throughout centuries of Egyptian bondage by refusing to change their names. ...
(Exodus 13:19) "For hashbea hishbia the children of Israel": He (Joseph) had made them (his brothers) swear ("hashbea") that they would beswear ("hishbia") their children. R. Natha...
The list is pretty surprising. The passage Now, these are three of the twelve tribes of Israel, the children of Jacob. But what does that have to do with things that have been arou...
The tradition turns to a text called Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer, a wonderful collection of stories and interpretations from around the 8th century CE. In Chapter 39, we find ourselves ...
Sifrei Devarim traces Zebulun's blessing backward into Joseph's presentation of his brothers before Pharaoh. What's so special about Zevulun in this context? The text points us bac...
Sifrei Devarim turns to Pharaoh — Joseph and the Lawgiver. We turn to the book of Devarim (Deuteronomy), specifically chapter 33, verse 20. It speaks of the tribe of Gad. But the t...
The standard Genesis account of Joseph's rise to power in Egypt is dramatic enough. But the ancient Aramaic translation known as Targum Jonathan layers in theological details that ...
The Torah says Jacob sent Joseph from the Valley of Hebron. The word valley, emek, also means depth. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Genesis 37:14) pounces on the double meaning. Jacob ...
