The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan wants you to notice something the plain verse almost glosses over. This is not the first famine in Canaan. It is the second. "And there was a mighty famine in the land of Canaan, besides the former famine which had been in the days of Abraham" (Genesis 26:1).
The Targum is keeping count. In the days of Abraham, the ground had failed, and Abraham had gone down to Egypt. Now, a generation later, the ground fails again, and Isaac — his son — is about to make the same instinctive move. South. To the fertile Delta. To the granaries of Mizraim.
Instead, the Targum tells us, Isaac went to Abimelech, king of the Philistines, at Gerar.
Why does Pseudo-Jonathan emphasize "besides the former famine"?
Because the sages read history in spirals, not lines. The rabbis taught that ma'aseh avot siman l'banim — the deeds of the fathers are a sign for the children. What happened to Abraham is rehearsing itself in Isaac's life, and the Targum wants us to feel that rehearsal. A famine. A journey. A king. A wife who is beautiful. A lie about being a sister. The whole chord will strike again.
But there will be one difference. When Abraham faced famine, he went to Egypt. Isaac will be told, explicitly, do not go down to Egypt (Genesis 26:2). The son's path must bend where the father's did not.
The takeaway
Pseudo-Jonathan is teaching us that our lives are not blank pages. The struggles of those who came before us return in slightly altered forms, and our holiness is measured not by avoiding them but by how we answer them the second time around.