At the burning bush, the Holy One does not merely announce a rescue. He swears it. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan, the Aramaic paraphrase preserved alongside the Torah, renders the divine pledge with an extra weight of solemnity: God says that by His Memra — His Word — He will lift the sons of Israel out from the oppression of the Egyptians.
The verse names the nations they will displace: Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, Jebusites — six peoples in a single breath, the land already mapped in the Holy One's mind. And the destination is not abstract freedom. It is a land that yieldeth milk and honey, a phrase the Targum preserves because it is meant to be tasted, not analyzed.
Why the Memra Matters Here
Throughout Targum Pseudo-Jonathan, the Memra serves as the agent of divine action. God does not simply speak — His Word acts. When the Targum says I have said in My Word, it is locking the promise into the very fabric of reality. The Exodus is not a hope; it is already spoken, which in this theology means already begun.
The takeaway: redemption in the Jewish imagination is never vague. It names the oppressor, names the land, names the peoples to be displaced, and names the taste of the future. When Moses climbs down from Sinai to announce this to the slaves, he carries a promise shaped like a map.