686 texts in Midrash Aggadah
A military march in (Genesis 14:7) becomes, in Targum Pseudo-Jonathan, a moment of temporal vertigo. The verse says the kings returned to En-Mishpat, meaning the spring of judgment...
The verse in (Genesis 14:8) simply lists who showed up for the battle. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan cannot let a list stay a list. It glosses Bela once more as the city which consumed it...
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Genesis 14:9) makes a small geographical translation that reframes the entire conflict. The Hebrew Bible names four kings: Kedarlaomer of Elam, Tidal, Am...
The plain verse in (Genesis 14:10) is a grim military note: the vale of Siddim was full of tar pits, and the fleeing kings of Sodom and Amorah fell into them. Targum Pseudo-Jonatha...
This is one of the most extraordinary passages in the entire Targum. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Genesis 14:13) takes a single Hebrew word — ha-palit, the fugitive who brought news ...
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Genesis 14:14) delivers one of the boldest numeric readings in the Aramaic tradition. The Hebrew Bible says Abram armed three hundred and eighteen traine...
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Genesis 14:15) turns Abram's night raid into a double operation with a prophetic shadow. The Aramaic says Abram divided his forces in the night: a part w...
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Genesis 14:17) translates a forgotten geographical name into a vivid picture. The Hebrew Bible calls the location the Valley of Shaveh, which is the King...
This is perhaps the single most important identification Targum Pseudo-Jonathan makes in the Abram cycle. On (Genesis 14:18) the Aramaic declares: Malka Zadika, who was Shem bar No...
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Genesis 14:20) preserves Shem-Malkizedek's blessing and the patriarch's response. Blessed be Eloha Ilaha, who hath made thine enemies as a shield which r...
After tithing to Shem-Malkizedek, Abram turns to the other king on the race-course — the king of Sodom — and refuses him. (Genesis 14:22) records the oath, and Targum Pseudo-Jonath...
After Abraham routed the four kings and rescued his nephew Lot, the king of Sedom came out to meet him with an offer that looked generous and was actually a trap. Take the spoil, t...
Having refused the king of Sedom's gift, Abraham was not done speaking. One refusal can become self-righteousness if you are not careful. So in the very next breath, according to T...
When God promised Abraham a great reward, Abraham's answer was not gratitude. It was an honest complaint. Gifts without children are not quite gifts. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Gen...
It is a small verb and it does a great deal of work. He brought him forth without. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Genesis 15:5) keeps the gesture literal: the Lord brings Abraham outsi...
Two Hebrew words make a whole theology: and he believed. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Genesis 15:6) unpacks them with Aramaic precision, and the unpacking is worth the effort. He bel...
When Abraham asked for confirmation of the promise, the Lord did not give him a speech. He gave him a butchery list. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Genesis 15:9) preserves it exactly. ...
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Genesis 15:10) gives Abraham the work of a careful butcher and a careful theologian at the same time. He brings the five animals. He divides them down th...
Once the pieces were laid out, something ugly came down. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Genesis 15:11) calls it plainly: idolatrous peoples, like unclean birds, descending on the sacri...
As the sun dipped low over the divided animals, a tardemah fell on Abraham — a deep, prophetic sleep. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Genesis 15:12) uses that sleep to show him the whol...
The Hebrew of (Genesis 15:13) is severe enough: know with certainty that your seed will be a stranger in a land not theirs, and they will afflict them four hundred years. Targum Ps...
The Hebrew of (Genesis 15:14) promises judgment on the nation whom they shall serve. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan gives the judgment a number that has startled readers for centuries. Two...
When the sun went down on the covenant between the pieces, Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Genesis 15:17) turns the Hebrew's smoking furnace and flaming torch into something far more vi...
Right after the terrifying vision of Gehinnom and the four kingdoms, the Lord sets a covenant. And Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Genesis 15:18) spells out the promise with an emphasis...
There is a detail in the Hebrew of (Genesis 16:2) that the Targum will not let pass quietly. Sarah sends her husband to her handmaid Hagar. The Hebrew says simply go in unto my mai...
The Hebrew of (Genesis 16:3) marks the moment with a small, precise number: after Abram had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan holds onto that ten and ad...
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Genesis 16:5) lets Sarah speak at length, and the speech is a small masterpiece of grief, accusation, and memory. It begins quietly — my affliction is fr...
The Hebrew of (Genesis 16:6) is terse, almost stenographic. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan keeps the brevity but sharpens one word: authority. Behold, thy handmaid is under thy authority, ...
In the wilderness, Hagar meets an angel. And the angel does what angels rarely do — he names a child. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Genesis 16:11) keeps the name-meaning the Hebrew en...
The angel does not just name Ishmael. He predicts him. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Genesis 16:12) lets the prophecy roll out in the open: he shall be like the wild ass among men, hi...
At the spring in the wilderness, Hagar does something that no one in Genesis has done before. She gives God a name. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Genesis 16:13) renders her declaratio...
Thirteen years pass between chapters. When the Lord returns to Abraham, He speaks a name He has not yet used in Genesis. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Genesis 17:1) keeps it in its or...
Old names do not drop off quietly. When the Lord tells Abraham that Abram will no longer be his name, He is rewriting a biography that has already lasted ninety-nine years. Targum ...
When the Lord frames the covenant in (Genesis 17:7), Targum Pseudo-Jonathan slips in one of its most telling technical terms. The covenant is established between My Word and thee. ...
Alongside the everlasting covenant comes an everlasting land. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Genesis 17:8) sets the promise out cleanly: the land of Abraham's habitation — all of Canaa...
When the Lord lays down the sign of the covenant, Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Genesis 17:10) catches a case the Hebrew leaves implicit. Every male among you shall be circumcised — t...
The eighth day is the answer to a careful question: how soon can a newborn be brought under the covenant? Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Genesis 17:12) settles the timing and then push...
(Genesis 17:13) in Targum Pseudo-Jonathan turns a one-way sacrament into a chain. He who is circumcised shall circumcise him — the one already inside the covenant brings the next o...
Verse 14 is the hardest word in this chapter, and Targum Pseudo-Jonathan does not round its edges. The uncircumcised male — unless he have someone to circumcise him — shall be cut ...
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Genesis 17:16) takes the blessing the Lord pronounces over Sarah and stretches it forward across centuries. I will bless in her body, and will also give ...
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Genesis 17:17) is the mirror image of Sarah's later laugh at the tent door. Abraham falls on his face. He does not argue out loud. He laughs — wondered, ...
Abraham had asked for Ishmael to be the heir of the promise (Genesis 17:18). Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Genesis 17:19) preserves the Lord's answer, and it is not what Abraham reque...
(Genesis 17:20) is the Lord's answer to the previous verse's quiet sadness. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan renders it with full warmth. Concerning Ishmael I have heard thy prayer. Behold, ...
(Genesis 17:23) is the verse in which Abraham stops listening and starts doing. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan renders it with the urgency the Hebrew encodes: Abraham took Ishmael his son,...
Chapter 18 of Genesis opens with one of the most intimate moments in the Torah, and Targum Pseudo-Jonathan gives it a medical detail the Hebrew leaves implicit. The glory of the Lo...
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Genesis 18:2) gives the three visitors at Abraham's tent their heavenly job descriptions. They are angels in the likeness of men, the Targum says, and th...
The Hebrew of (Genesis 18:3) is famously ambiguous. Is Abraham speaking to the angels, or to God? Targum Pseudo-Jonathan answers with a confident rearrangement. Abraham addresses t...
(Genesis 18:5) in Targum Pseudo-Jonathan turns a simple meal into a moment of blessing. Abraham will bring bread so that the travelers may strengthen their hearts — and, the Targum...
